Queen's Park is a heritage-listed botanic garden at Sussex Street, Maryborough, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia.

In 1852, the first sales of land at the present site of Maryborough were sold, and the settlement on the north side of the river became deserted, as larger vessels could not access these wharves.

[1] The 1850s and 1860s were a time of growth and expansion in Maryborough, the first hospital was underway by 1859, a courthouse and lock-up was constructed in 1857; the School of Arts was established in 1861; also that year Messrs Gladwell and Greathead began the first sawmill.

[1] During the mid-1840s, amateur botanist, explorer and sometimes businessman, John Carne Bidwill collected specimens of trees from the Moreton Bay region.

The remainder, about 12 acres (4.9 ha), which was known as the Botanic Gardens, "..is that to which the Trustees devoted most attention, as it is situated immediately within the most populous part of town, and to some extent stretching along the river bank, renders it the favourite resort of the inhabitants, as evidenced by the great numbers who frequent the place..." The Botanic Gardens were planted with '...useful and ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers.

It was also reported in 1876 that:[1]"the establishment of a Botanic Garden in the town, in addition to the pleasure it gives the local inhabitants, by affording them a place of healthful recreation and instruction, has spread a taste for floriculture throughout the entire district.

In addition to supplying many person with ornamental plants and seeds, the Trustees have had the pleasure of being able to distribute amongst several sugar planters, sugar cane cuttings raised from a number of choice varieties kindly supplied by Mr Walter Hill from the Brisbane Botanic Garden last year; besides they are forming a nursery for new and useful fruit trees and vegetables, from which they hope in time to supply plants and seeds to all who may require them...The Trustees acknowledge, with thanks, having received donations of plants and seeds from the undermentioned gentlemen - Mr Walter Hill, Botanic Gardens, Brisbane; the Acclimatisation Society; Mr Armitage, Mackay; Mr Woodhouse, Rockhampton; and from Messrs Byerly, Barton, Brown, Byers, Denman, Byrne and Jones".Early photographs of the area dated c. 1862 show the crows ash (Flindersia australis).

The fountain was a gift to the city from Miss Janet Melville who gave large sums of money to various Maryborough institutions including the hospital.

From the centre of a large basin rises a column with griffin heads around the cap, which will spout water form their mouths.

On the top of the column are three cranes in various attitudes and from the centre rises a funnel shaped tier out of which springs another of a similar design but smaller and in the centre of this is a golden cherub clasping a horn of plenty from which a jet of water is thrown upwards...[2]In the 19th century, Walter MacFarlane's Saracen foundry was the largest in the world of its day covering ten acres with its own railway station and satellite suburb of Possilpark.

It was designed by Philip Oliver Ellard Hawkes and produced by local monumental masonry firm Frederick William Webb.

The foundation stone was laid on 22 May 1921 by Lieutenant Colonel James Murdoch Archer Durrant, however, fund raising efforts were slow and Maryborough citizens were reminded that suburbs and outlying districts had already erected memorials.

[1] As well as designing the monument, Hawkes selected the site, arranged importation of the statues through Anselm and Odling of Sydney and supervised the work.

[1] Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time, not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste.

[1] Many of the First World War monuments have been updated to record local involvement in later conflicts, and some have fallen victim to unsympathetic re-location and repair.

[6] The large memorial features a range of artwork, audio-visual displays, plantings and information panels about World War I.

At the rear of the memorial is a set of large swing gates of wrought iron painted white and bearing commemorative lettering and the Australian Imperial Force badge.

On either side of the memorial is a laurel wreath with dedication tablets with the following words:[8]Maryborough's Grateful Tribute to HER GALLANT SONS, Who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918.

They comprise a set of large swing gates of painted, wrought iron (British gun metal) bearing commemorative lettering and the AIF badge.

[1] The Bandstand is an ornamental pavilion in Queen's Park, Maryborough which was originally constructed as shade over the Melville Memorial Fountain.

The single story, double-domed fernery was constructed of besser block and concrete with green shade covers placed over a framework of metal mesh.

[1] Queen's Park has larger, mature plantings including the Cocos Palm Avenue (Queen palms - Syagrus romanzoffiana) running north-south through the park and other trees, including banyan figs (Ficus benghalensis), poinciana trees (Delonix regia), celtis (Celtis sinensis) and weeping figs (Chinese elms or Hackberry trees - Ficus benjamina), running north-west to south-east through the park and, especially, the banyan fig, crows ash (Flindersia australis), sausage tree (Kigelia pinnata) and bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii), all of which are located in the south-east corner of Queen's Park close to the entrance gates.

The Queensland botanic gardens network is important in demonstrating the introduction of multi-purpose scientific centres for the development of economic and ornamental botany for the benefit of the colony as a whole.

[1] Founded on consistent ideological principles the Queensland botanic gardens demonstrate a clear and identifiable type of place.

In terms of design, congruous hard and soft landscape features generate a sense of place that transfers to each a specific location.

[1] War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state.

Queen's Park, Maryborough, demonstrates the principal characteristics of a provincial botanic reserve, with a greater emphasis placed on the creating of a mixed collection of living exotic and native plants.

Unveiled in 1922, the memorial at Maryborough demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event.

[1] A major regional war memorial, it is also of aesthetic significance, as one of the most elaborately and unusually designed monuments in Queensland still surviving in its intact surrounds.

The park and garden feature a number of memorials and elements, commemorating well known local citizens, including Richard Bingham Sheridan.