Maryborough railway station is a heritage-listed railway station at Lennox Street, Maryborough, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It is on the North Coast line serving the city of Maryborough. It was designed by Chief Engineer of the Queensland Railways Department and built from 1878 to 1890 by John Roddam & John Walker. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

The station forecourt is served by Greyhound Australia coach services to Brisbane, Hervey Bay, Agnes Water and Cairns,Timetables Greyhound Australia and Premier Motor Services services to Brisbane and CairnsTimetables Premier Motor Service Queensland Rail operates services between Hervey Bay and Maryborough West railway station via Maryborough station.

Maryborough railway station opened in 1878, when an eight kilometre branch into Maryborough was built as part of the North Coast line. It was built as a terminal station. Beyond the station, the line continued to service the Walkers Limited (now Downer Rail) railway workshops and Mary River wharf. An air raid shelter was built into the station during World War II for protection of the staff in case an air raid occurred.Maryborough Railway Station Tourism Queensland

In 1924, a new station was built on the North Coast line at Baddow, that was used by through services. Terminating services continued to use Maryborough station. In 1989, a new seven kilometre alignment of the North Coast line was built as part of the electrification of the line. This included a new Maryborough West station, replacing both Maryborough and Baddow stations.Hansard Queensland Parliament 27 February 1986"The Maryborough Shunt" Railway Digest November 2013 pages 40-43

As at 2013, Maryborough railway station consists of one island platform and an extensive yard. Although the station and yard have been decommissioned, the branch line remains in use to service the Downer Rail workshops. The building fell into a state of disrepair, but was restored in the early 2000s. Queensland Rail maintains a presence on part of the station site in relation to rail freight and as a booking office, while other parts are being developed into a shopping centre.

The station complex is home to the Maryborough Whistle Stop Museum which focuses on the city's rail history.

History

The railway complex on Lennox Street in Maryborough consists of a number of timber buildings constructed between 1878 and the 1930s, as well as a brick and concrete platform and a concrete air raid shelter built in 1942. The Maryborough railway station was built as the terminus of a railway network that radiated from Maryborough, transporting timber, coal, sugar and other agricultural products to the wharves on the Mary River. Maryborough was also a busy rail terminal for passenger traffic. Although the Maryborough railway station is no longer used, the station buildings are a picturesque reminder of significant past economic activity and transport arrangements within the region.

Settlement at Maryborough commenced in September 1847 when George Furber established a wool-store on the south bank of the Mary River at the head of navigation. He was followed in June 1848 by Edgar Thomas Aldridge, and brothers Henry and Richard E. Palmer, who established their own wharves on the opposite riverbank, at a location now known as the original Maryborough town site at Baddow. In 1850 a new town site was surveyed to the east, at a downstream position which provided better access for shipping. Maryborough was gazetted a Port of Entry in 1859 and was proclaimed a municipality (the Borough of Maryborough) in 1861. Items shipped from Maryborough included wool, tallow, and timber and these were later followed by coal and sugar.

Maryborough grew quickly as the port for Gympie, where gold was discovered in October 1867, as it provided a route by ship to the Port of Maryborough, then overland south to Gympie, an alternative to the rough road running north from Brisbane. The long-term viability of the Gympie goldfield ensured the continued growth of Maryborough and the need for sawmills, foundries and construction firms. Coal mining on the Burrum River also needed Maryborough's construction industries and shipping. However, the Urangan Jetty in Hervey Bay, which opened in 1917, replaced Maryborough as the port for the coal mining and sugar industries. The closure of Walker's shipbuilding yards in 1974 spelled the end of Maryborough as a port.

Maryborough's rise as a railway centre also resulted from the discovery of gold at Gympie. In August 1877 the Queensland Government approved three railways to connect mining towns to their principal ports: Townsville to Charters Towers; Bundaberg to Mount Perry; and Maryborough to Gympie. The railway to Gympie opened in August 1881, and in 1883 a branch line north to the coalfields at Burrum was started at Croydon Junction (Baddow), several kilometres northwest of Maryborough. When the line was extended north to Bundaberg in 1888 it followed this branch line, which meant that the North Coast line later bypassed Maryborough railway station and left it at the end of a dead-end spur.

Maryborough railway station became the centre of a busy network of branch lines. A short branch line was built through the Queen's Park Botanic Gardens to the wharf area in 1880, and in 1883 this was extended eastwards alongside the river north of Kent Street to the Walkers Limited foundry and shipyards. It was later extended to the Maryborough Sugar Factory (established 1894). A branch line connecting to Maryborough was also opened from Theebine, south of Tiaro, to Kilkivan in 1886, and was later extended to Murgon, Proston, Windera, Kingaroy, Tarong and Nanango (the latter by 1911). A branch line from Mungar, south of Maryborough, to Broweena opened in 1889, and this line eventually extended to Gayndah, Mundubbera and Monto (1929). Coal from the Burrum fields eventually required better port facilities and a branch line was built to Pialba in 1896, from Colton railway station (just north of Aldershot), between Maryborough and Burrum. This branch was extended to Urangan in 1913.

Engine and carriage maintenance workshops were built and expanded in Maryborough from 1880. Henry Taylor (junior) won the contract for a machine shop in January 1880, and this was extended in 1881 and 1884. The workshops, which were located to the south-west of the station, became less important after the Maryborough system was linked to the rest of Queensland in 1891. They are no longer extant, having been demolished for a shopping centre in the late 1990s.

After the line to Gympie was approved in 1877, drawings for buildings at the Maryborough station were prepared by the Engineering Branch of the Department of Railways. The site chosen for the Maryborough railway station was centrally located on a municipal park reserve. In 1878 construction at the site included a station master's residence, engineer's office (non-extant), store and blacksmith's workshop. A large programme of works in the years 1879 and 1880 saw the construction of a goods' shed, passenger station, closets and urinals, turntable, loading banks, station gates and fences and a semaphore signal. The timber station building was handsome, yet modest in scale. A foreman's cottage was constructed in 1881 and a locomotive shed was built in 1882. In 1884 a gatehouse was built at the Ferry Street entrance, and new offices for the traffic manager and engineers were built the same year. In 1885 and 1886 a coal depot and a forkline were built, and the turntable was taken up. A new locomotive shed was built in 1900.

1878 station master's residence (192 Lennox Street) Drawings for the residence were approved by Chief Engineer Henry Charles Stanley on 16 April 1878. The builders were John Roddam and John Walker. In 1894 a verandah and an additional room were added on the south-west side. After 1896 alterations were made to the rear of the house, linking the formerly detached kitchen and service wing to the house. The building was later used as the district traffic manager's residence, then as the district superintendent's residence by 1935 until about 1975, before being used by Queensland Rail as quarters for staff. Conservation work was undertaken to this building in 2012.

Administration complex

In 1884 drawings were made for new offices to replace the original (1878) traffic manager and engineers office. In plan the new building was a rectangle containing four offices with verandahs to three sides. Additions were made to the south-west side later in 1884, and in 1911 a small rear addition was made for the traffic manager and Telegraph Office (later the pay office and ladies toilet). Soon after the wagon and traffic offices were added to the rear, and in 1920 the loco office, with four open verandahs, was relocated to its present position behind the wagon and traffic offices. By 1920, there were more offices at the northern end of the traffic manager and Engineer's Office, and it was linked to the wagon and traffic offices in 1920. The complex was used by Queensland Rail as office space until 2008.

12 ton weighbridge This was extant by 1937.

Railway station building

Although the architect is unknown, drawings for the first stage of the station building were approved by Henry Charles Stanley on 24 October 1879, and the contract was awarded to Henry Taylor (junior) on 8 Jan 1880, for £1325. A head station building and a short platform were built. On 24 December 1892 chief draughtsman Henrick Hansen approved alterations to the station and the main platform verandah, the demolition of the buildings extending to the north-west of the head station, and the enlargement of the lamp room. This contract was awarded to John Kyle on 24 January 1893, for £1176. The Station Master's office was enlarged in 1912.

Guards' room and porters' store The guards' room was built in 1917, and the porters' store existed by 1937 as an extension on the north-west end.

Goods shed The design for the goods shed was approved by HC Stanley on 8 July 1879, and the contract was awarded to G and E Negus in September 1879, for £698. The shed was , and included an office, warehouse crane, and docks. It had a raised timber floor and a single rail track running through the shed against the south-west wall. Four individual loading dock entrances penetrated the north-east wall, and a outside loading platform was located at the north end. An extension was approved by Stanley on 4 October 1881, and Charles Whiting won the contract for £629. The extension to the south-west side of the goods shed was long, with two docks and a warehouse crane. In 1908 a new office was built at the south-east end of building, and this was later extended. The office had an open verandah by 1920.

Main platform

In 1880 the platform configuration included a covered verandah platform at the rear of the station building, plus a short uncovered platform extending to the north-west. In 1892 Hansen approved a platform verandah extension of seven bays by three bays wide, between the station building and a lamp room (which later became refreshment rooms), the carriage shed at the end of the platform was moved, and a fourth siding was built on the south-west side of the platform. Between 1893 and 1925 the island platform was extended several times to the north-west, to a total of 45 bays. In 1925 drawings for extending the main platform verandah included the last 24 bays of the current platform.

Former refreshment rooms

The first (south-east) portion of the original refreshment room was built in the 1890s, and may have been a lamp room beforehand. It was doubled in size in 1909, and was closed in 1968. It has since been used for storage. A new refreshment booth was built to the south-east in the 1990s, under the main platform verandah.

Air raid shelter