A Pub Fest in Maryborough?

It’s certainly one way to quench a thirst! 

The World's Greatest Pub Fest honours a quintessential Australian tradition and Maryborough has set the bar for the good old fashioned hotel hop.  The event honours the Australian hotel culture and the time honoured pub fest tradition.  Fancy dressed event-goers walk or bus between local venues (many including historic Queenslander Pubs) to join in the Guinness World Record for the Most Participants in a Pub Crawl.

The event celebrates the Aussie tradition of mateship and reunions, of catching up with friends and relatives and highlights Maryborough’s outstanding heritage architecture and welcoming hospitality.

The World Record Attempt

The original Guinness World Record for the greatest pub crawl was set in Maryborough (population 26,000) in June 2005 with 1,198 participants.  The Heritage City broke its own record in June 2006 with 2,237 people visiting 17 pubs in six hours. In October 2006, London (population 7.5 million) broke our record by just 41!

The event has seen huge developments since its inaugural year with increased participation year after year. Its appeal is timeless and crosses cultural and demographic boundaries. Young and old, friends and strangers, students and former teachers chat, laugh, dance and party away the afternoon as they work their way around the city’s pubs.  Some of the most enthusiastic revelers are groups of grandmothers and grandfathers who – like so many others – use the fest as an annual reunion.

The Heritage Stage

Pubs have been a vital way of life in Maryborough since the days of the first shanty inns back in 1847.  Now these heritage treasures have made it on to the world stage through the World's Greatest Pub Fest.   At its peak there were almost 40 pubs in the immediate Maryborough area – many of which remain today and are part of the history-making annual pub fest event. The event not only helps to celebrate the important social role of the city's pubs since its inception, but highlights Maryborough’s outstanding heritage architecture which is on show in its historic pubs and buildings.

Maybe it is fitting that the Pub Fest should happen in Maryborough because the man regarded as the city's founder was a publican.

Okay, he was a publican in Ipswich, but James Furber left his pub and made it overland to Maryborough where he set up base on the southern bank of the Mary River. That was 1847, a year before the other historical pioneering figures of Aldridge and Palmer set up on the other side of the river and established the first Maryborough township. The first thing both did was to open a public house.

Settled back in 1827, Maryborough is one of Queensland's oldest cities. In the days of the early colony, it was the second most important port after Sydney and the place where thousands of sea-tossed immigrants took their first shaky steps on Australian soil after months at sea.

It has a rich and fascinating history, but what really sets Maryborough apart is that much of that heritage remains - just waiting to be uncovered.

Here's your chance to be part of this living history - enjoy a drink or two at a century-old pub and meet our colourful locals.