Granville is an eastern suburb of Maryborough, separated from the city by the Mary River.
The parts near the river are low-lying and flood prone, but were suitably sited for a sawmill (1860s). A track led from Granville to the pine forests on Tin Can Bay. A showpiece enterprise was Steindl's Bavarian brewery (1878), with gardens and an aviary. By then there were several sugar plantations, two with processing facilities for sugar or rum, all making use of the fertile river flats. The plantations and the timber mill sustained a township of cottages and houses, along with two hotels. Access across the river was by a ferry which continued until the bridge at Tinana was opened in 1876.
In 1880 the Granville local government division was formed, with an area of 585 sq km. Granville's prosperity was cut short by the flooding of the Mary River in 1893 when the hotels and 40 houses were swept away. Rebuilding took place on higher ground. In 1926 a bridge to Granville from near the sugar mill at the Pocket was opened. By then the Granville Shire had been part of Burrum Shire since 1917, and in 1947 Granville was severed and added to Maryborough city. It is a residential area shading into sugar farms and grazing areas.
Granville has a local shopping area, a hotel-motel, hockey, bowls and soccer facilities and a primary school (1875). Its census populations have been:
Census Date | Population |
---|---|
1891 | 540 |
1911 | 513 |
1933 | 601 |
1947 | 767 |
2006 | 2611 |
2011 | 2689 |
Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society Inc, A history of Maryborough Queensland 1847-1997, Maryborough, The Society, 1998