Pamela Tavers - Mary Poppins Creator
Maryborough, Queensland has a unique link to the world's most famous nanny that no other place in the world can claim.
It all started in a bedroom in the manager’s residence above a bank building in Maryborough in 1899, when the bank manager's wife gave birth to a baby girl named Helen Lyndon Goff. |
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After spending the first few years of her life here, her family moved to Brisbane then Ipswich, Allora, Bowral and then Sydney.
As a young woman in the 1920s she moved to London and took the name Pamela Travers for her writing. It was under that name that she wrote the successful Mary Poppins books that lead to fortune and fame - and one of the most successful movies of all times.
The first ‘Mary Poppins’ novel about the magical and exceedingly efficient nanny was an immediate success and the Mary Poppins series - there were eight books in total - went on to be translated into more than 20 languages.
However it is really the Disney Movie (1964) by the same name which made Mary Poppins – and Travers – famous. She initially didn’t want the movie made but Walt Disney has his heart set on turning her book into film.
He first approached Travers for the movie rights in the late 1940’s – she finally relented in 1961. The movie starred Julie Andrews, won five Oscars, and became one of the most successful movies of all times.
Travers died in London in 1996 aged 96. If she could fly by umbrella (as her magic nanny of her stories does) and revisit her birthplace of Maryborough, she would be most likely be very surprised at the attention she’s gained since her death.
Mary Poppins Inspiration
So where did the idea of Mary Poppins come from? Is it possible that Travers may have drawn some inspiration for her famous novels from some of her early experiences in Maryborough?
Some reference material suggests that Travers got the idea for Mary Poppins come from a lady author she saw walking in Maryborough, dressed in an old-fashioned style and carrying an umbrella with a bird's head carved into the handle – but this is pure supposition.
Unfortunately, Travers rarely spoke about her childhood and would rather talk about her writing than her personal life. She was a bit like Mary Poppins, who cheerfully informs her employee Mr Banks, “I never explain anything”.
However there are some interesting associations.
In the novels, the father is a bank manager – called naturally enough “Mr Banks”. Her father was a bank manager in Maryborough.
This building where she lived (for the first couple of years of her life) is just a short stroll from Maryborough’s majestic Queens Park. And is very likely she was a regular visitor to the park with her mother.
Heritage listed Queens Park is one of Australia’s earlier botanic gardens, and with its heritage listed features it shares many similarities with the park of the novels near the Bank’s home, which the children and Mary Poppins frequented.
The first book includes in a party at the zoo among the animals, and in the years of Travers youth and after, Queens Park also hosted a zoo and aviary. It was also a common social practice for people to dress in their finery and promenade through the park along the river.
There is also Admiral Boom, the former naval officer who lives next door and fires his cannon to mark the time. In Maryborough, it was once practice to fire a canon every day at 1pm to mark the hour, and let the workers in the cane fields know it was time for lunch.