[1] The Original Maryborough Town Site was occupied between 1848 and 1855, and is located about four kilometres northwest of the current city centre, on the southbank of the Mary River.

The explorers travelled about 50 miles (80 km) upstream, and it was concluded that the area would prove suitable for sheep rearing as the river would allow wool to be transported by boat.

Although this venture failed, due to a combination of disease, attacks by the traditional owners, and financial problems, other pastoralists soon took up runs in the area.

In July 1847 the government surveyor James Charles Burnett gave encouraging reports of the suitability of what was then known as the Wide Bay River as a location for a port to service the area.

[1] Ipswich publican George Furber arrived in the Wide Bay district in September 1847 to set up a wool store, shanty and wharf on the site of an abandoned outstation of Tiaro, named Girkum, in the midst of open forest on the southern bank of the Mary River.

The presence of so much alcohol soon led to the establishment of a Court of Petty Sessions, in January 1850, with William McAdam being appointed Chief Constable.

There were also sawpits between the inns and the river, which were used to square-off timber, including Hoop Pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) and South Queensland Kauri (Agathis robusta), for ship transport.

Chinese vegetable gardens were in place along the banks of Muddy Creek, just east of the settlement, and grew potatoes, turnips, leeks and cabbages.

Hugh Roland Labatt arrived in July 1850, with instructions to select a suitable site for a township, with regard to providing good conditions for a port.

He came to the conclusion that the existing settlement was not the best location, and he preferred the site of Uhr's boiling down plant (now Queen's Park), where the river was deeper and would accommodate larger vessels.

Although many were purchased, and the buyers included Henry Palmer, Aldridge, McAdam, Uhr, and Labatt, relocation did not take place immediately, as many people were naturally reluctant to move when they had established homes and businesses at the old site.

In 1855 John G. Walker launched the 75-ton schooner Blue Jacket near the mouth of Muddy (or Baddow) Creek, it being the first boat built on the Mary River.

In April 1861 land for agricultural purposes on the Mary River was sold, which accelerated the closer settlement process, and by the end of the 1860s thousands of free immigrants had entered Queensland through the Port of Maryborough.

The original settlement areas of Brisbane (including at Redcliffe), Dalby, Drayton, Gayndah, Gladstone, Ipswich, Rockhampton, Toowoomba and Warwick have all been developed and are currently occupied.

Sugar cane was grown over part of the site in the early twentieth century and fossickers have also combed the area for souvenirs.

[1] In 1919 a farmhouse was moved onto the northwest end of the site (outside the Queensland heritage register boundary), near where Palmer's inn stood, but it has been since removed, along with its outbuildings.

Cane farming on the pasture that lies to the northwest of the current parkland has resulted in a long mound running parallel to, and to the east of, Queen Street.

The stone and concrete jetty near the mouth of Muddy Creek is close to the alignment of Furber's wharf, but was built for the STP outfall pipe.

[1] In 2007 an archaeological investigation conducted within this area revealed artefacts and features dating to the historical occupation period, including deposits of bottle glass, moulded tobacco pipes, porcelain and stoneware fragments, as well as personal items such as a brass button and a copper half penny.

Indications of the early site include: gravesites; sawpits; stone building foundations; bridge remnants; and archaeological material.

The site stretches over a series of creek-lined gullies and is currently occupied by a mixture of open parkland, pasture and heavy vegetation.

[1] The extent of the cemetery is not known but the grass-covered park on the northwest side of Aldridge Street contains the marked graves of George Furber and Joseph Wilmshurst.

[1] Muddy Creek runs through the southeast side of the site, and joins the Mary River southwest of the end of Aldridge Street.

The Original Maryborough Town Site demonstrates the evolution of early settlements in Queensland's history, in particular the movement of pastoralists and timber-getters into the Wide Bay district in the 1840s, and their need for a safe port to ship their products and to bring in supplies.

[1] Established in 1848 and largely abandoned by 1856, the town site provides relatively undisturbed evidence of early European occupation in the Wide Bay Region.