The Story Bank

Once upon a time, a baby girl was born in the upstairs bedroom at the Australian Joint Stock Bank, Kent Street in Maryborough, Queensland. Her name was Helen Lyndon Goff, but she became known to the world as P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins stories.

Transformed, The Story Bank – a bank that trades in stories. As you cross the threshold, you enter a world where fantasy and fact intertwine. Tales and yarns, myths and legends, memories and stories – share in their retelling and their creation.

Discover Maryborough’s unique connection with P.L. Travers – the story of her life, her family, the influences on her writings and the retelling of her stories.

Inside there are stories from our earliest storytellers, the Butchulla people, in the Yarning Circle.

‘The Legends of Moonie Jarl’ was first published in 1964 and is the first Australian children’s book of Aboriginal stories to be written and illustrated by Aboriginal people: Butchulla siblings Moonie Jarl (Wilf Reeves) and Wandi (Olga Miller).