poppins

Well, here's something I didn't know....

First, that Pamela Travers was an Aussie

and

I certainly didn't know she was born about 22 miles from where I presently live.

The Chronicle

(Hervey Bay)

Saturday, 24 July 1999

~ The Story ~

Mary Poppins: it began in Maryborough

~

Robyn Dowling with a copy of Mary Poppins.

THE CREATOR of Mary Poppins was born in Maryborough 100 years ago and the city is preparing to celebrate the centenary.

Helen Lyndon Goff, who wrote under the name of P.L. Travers, was born on August 9, 1899.

Her father was the manager of the Australian Joint Stock Bank on the cnr of Richmond & Kent Streets.

The building is now occupied by the Department of Family Industries.

The Goff Family lived above the bank until Helen was two. They moved elsewhere in Australia before Helen went to England when she was 20.

She wrote Mary Poppins while living in a thatched house in Sussex: it is no coincidence the father of the children in the book that Walt Disney made into a movie is also a bank manager.

Councillor Anne Miller and the Maryborough Family History Society are spearheading the Mary Poppins Birthday Celebration.

It will be marked by a literary competition for school children with $400 prize money sponsored by the Maryborough City Council and the Fraser Coast Chronicle.

Ann O'Loughlin from the Family History Society said some members were keen to make August 9 an annual Mary Poppins Festival to promote literary works

The Mary Poppins created by Pamela Travers was a no-nonsense nanny. She was given more than a spoonful of sugar and turned into an exuberant personality when the book was adapted for the Disney Film.