Written by April Spadina
In the dappled light, high on the banks of the Mary River, a solitary figure sits, watching the birds as they fly high above the ebb and flow of the tranquil river below. This moment in time belongs to writer and historian Ian Brown and it is here that he feels most at home in country he has a deep connection to. Maryborough is Ian’s birthplace and it’s where his heart is at it’s fullest.
With it’s grand old buildings and olde-worlde charm, Maryborough in the Fraser Coast is a town steeped in history and heritage. Monolithic pillars tower above the street, flanking grand government buildings and state bank entrances. Old city warehouses and customs buildings, remnants of shipping wharves and industry still line the river’s edge, a reminder of the town’s rich manufacturing and shipping history. The Portside Precinct, Maryborough’s centrepiece of heritage offers museums and art galleries, picturesque and unique to the region as one of Australia’s busiest immigration ports, rich in commerce and wealth. Wandering through the streets of the residential areas of Maryborough you will find one of the largest displays of beautiful Queenslander homes in the state with their grand wrap-around verandas and elevated loftiness.
Ian Brown knows these old streets and buildings intimately. As the Maryborough Storyteller, the town’s history has been his days and nights as he has spent the years absorbing the stories of days gone by. It is in the basements and back-room archives he has spent his time uncovering a wealth of chronicles as he pores through pages of historical records and wipes dust from stored artefacts. He has enjoyed time spent listening to locals as they recount their stories, recalling how their lives created part of the history of the town. Ian’s rummaging pastimes has been to fully understand what lies behind the bricks and mortar of the old buildings. As a true historian, Ian leaves no stone unturned and his knowledge of the town and it’s people, past and present is extensive and colourful. With this treasured information at hand, Ian has entertained and enraptured audiences with his spoken delivery of historical tales in a gentle and soothing style he has cultivated from years spent as a performance artist.
To Ian, heritage isn’t about the old buildings and bridges or the streets and carriageways – it’s the stories of people that form the heritage of a place and these stories awaken Ian’s soul, captivating him and beckoning him to delve deeper into the past and share with others.
Maryborough is where it all began for Ian as a young child coming in to the world. He remembers fondly walking hand-in-hand with his beloved mother through Queens Park, through the winding pathways under the giant figs to the town centre. He remembers days frolicking in the long grass by Ululah Lagoon and exploring the muddy banks of the Mary riverside, and it was in these natural spaces that he began his lifelong connection to old rivers and waterways that course through the land, and through his veins.
When Ian’s family moved from Maryborough and swept him away from his beloved countryside, his heart yearned his home and for many years he longed to reconnect to his place of nativity.
Eventually he returned, taking up a role in the local arts and cultural scene by conducting historical tales as the Maryborough Storyteller, conducting Walking Tours, basement stories under the old Bond Store and many character performances for the Story Bank and Story Trail.
But it was when he walked through the parklands and reacquainted himself with the old trees and the river below, he knew he was home. It’s this overwhelming connection to the natural environment that Ian feels a kindred linkage to the Indigenous Butchella people and he has strong empathy for their injustices. This love of country he has in his bones is deeper than admiring a picturesque view, Ian feels the country within himself, it’s part of him to the very core and he feels the ancient landscape like it’s part of his anatomy.
With his love of Maryborough and his passion for history and storytelling, Ian took pen to paper and documented his own life as a child, writing his memoir “Golden Child”, part one of a three-part journey through the timeline of his life. He reflects on the beginnings of his acting career with his first performance as an eight-year-old boy on the stage of Maryborough’s City Hall, a place he still visits to pay his respects to his great uncle William James Melksham, whose name appears on the Honor Board. This site being a site of civic gathering and commerce, welcoming freedom of speech and community – everything that Ian respects and admires as part of his life as a gatherer of stories. He has a duty of fidelity of the truth and he is proud of his role as a voice to celebrate history which may at times include grief and mourning, answering questions and unearthing meanings.
His heart still calls him back to the river and the land that nestles it’s banks. This year, after months of rain and a particularly savage storm, an old Bunya tree that grew in a valley of the undulating land of Queens Park could no longer hold steady and in a devastating moment of natures fury, she came crashing to the ground, ending her long and quiet life. Ian’s heart was shattered and he wept for the loss of this old giant, he felt sadness akin to losing an old friend, a companion since childhood. Comforted in knowing the giant Kauri Nunmulu tree survived the storm, he has a special place in his heart for this tree too, like Ian, a native to the area.
So, it is high on the banks of Moonaboola, Mary River that Ian Brown sits in the dappled light, watching the water as it flows on past. Ian reflects on the comings and goings of years gone by, from the hustle and bustle of the early settlers, the industry and immigrants, the plight of the First Nations people and the community he loves so dearly. For Ian, the river, the land and the old trees are the beginning of all stories that make history and heritage to this very day, and his connection to country is where his heart first sparked a passion to become Maryborough’s very own storyteller. Like the giant old Kauri tree, Ian watches over his beloved homeland, from “the point of the bend in the river where I can see from whence it comes, and where it goes”, a gatherer of stories and an observer of life.