A former bank that was the birthplace of Mary Poppins creator P.L. Travers has been converted into a multimedia museum in the heritage city of Maryborough in Queensland.

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In 1899, a baby girl was born in an upstairs room of the Australian Joint Stock Bank in the bustling port town of Maryborough on the banks of the Mary River.

The baby girl was named Helen Lyndon Goff but she would go on to change her name to P.L. Travers and create one of the world's most celebrated literary figures — the fictional nanny Mary Poppins.

Mary Poppins pedestrian traffic lights feature in the Maryborough CBD. ( ABC Wide Bay: Brad Marsellos )

The community of Maryborough has embraced Travers and her well-loved character, and for the last 12 years hosted an annual week-long arts and cultural event, the Mary Poppins Festival.

Murals of Poppins are everywhere in Maryborough and even the pedestrian traffic signal lights no longer feature the red and green stickman, but an umbrella-wielding figure in a dress.

The city also has a group called the Proud Marys. To be a member you must have Mary as part of your name.

Maryborough has embraced the character in an attempt to revitalise the once prosperous region as it suffers from the problems faced by many regional towns and cities.

The museum was once the Australian Joint Stock Bank and author P.L. Travers' birthplace. ( ABC Wide Bay: Brad Marsellos )

Some of the issues are high unemployment, loss of a younger demographic to major centres and a correctional centre located nearby with little assistance for former inmates once they have completed their sentences.

It is hoped the opening of the Story Bank Maryborough could change the city's fortunes.

Fraser Coast Council purchased the building and has spent the last few years making it a two-storey interactive museum on the art of storytelling and Mary Poppins.

Mary Poppins, pictured with the council's Lisa Stephenson, appears throughout the museum. ( ABC Wide Bay: Brad Marsellos )

Mayor for the Fraser Coast George Seymour takes a lot of pride in how the Story Bank will be "not just a museum" but a way of encouraging education, literacy and reinvigorating Maryborough.

"We see arts and culture as central to Maryborough," he said.

"Maryborough is a beautiful historic city with amazing architecture and so many talented artists, and they have all contributed to our street art, sculptures and Story Bank.

"This is a project we wanted to get right and it took awhile but I'm very proud of it."

The restoration has been an all-in effort with locals heavily involved in creating a space that collects stories and will continue to grow.

Local artists have added murals, sculptures, furnishing and written works to tell the story of Travers, Mary Poppins and the city of Maryborough.

The work of local artists features throughout the museum including this St. Pauls Cathedral painting by Willy Paes. ( ABC Wide Bay: Brad Marsellos )

The attention to detail is remarkable, down to Cherry Tree Lane and all the doors painted candy-pink like Travers' front door in her former Chelsea London home.

One of the Story Bank's driving forces was local storyteller Ian Brown.

As Mr Brown stands in the room Travers was born in, he seems extremely honoured by what he has helped create and what it could mean for his home city.

"It's quite a remarkable thing to think someone of such stature, who had such a long creative life, started that life in these very walls," Mr Brown said.

"I feel a very strong affinity with Travers. I was also born here and I think the storytelling gene runs strong in this community and I think the community itself tells a big story.

"It's a wonderful thing to have that international mark of Mary Poppins but Mary Poppins is the way into the story of Maryborough."

Memorabilia such as posters and dolls featuring Mary Poppins have been donated to the Story Bank by the Maryborough community. ( ABC Wide Bay: Brad Marsellos )

First Australian Aboriginal children's book celebrated

There does seem to be something creative about the region of Maryborough and it has an ancient connection with the craft including stories that go back thousands of years told by the Butchulla mob.

The Story Bank has a large room called the Yarning Circle, which is dedicated to the Indigenous stories and themed around the first Australian Aboriginal children's book The Legends of Moonie Jarl published in 1964 by Butchulla people Olga Miller and Wilf Reeves.

"That book presages this storytelling tradition here that was then taken on by Europeans," Mr Brown said.

"The prime part of which I'm proudest is the Yarning Circle, where the Butchulla stories of Moonie Jarl are melded together with the story of Mary Poppins and Maryborough's heritage.

"That's really where we are going with the story trials and Story Bank."

Ian Brown is a storyteller at the museum. ( ABC Wide Bay: Brad Marsellos )

The Story Bank will hopefully encourage tourists to spend more time and maybe some money in the region.

Many of the aspects of the space allow for interaction and will grow and continue to be added to.

"This is a first class installation, I really don't know of another of its type, it's unique," Mr Brown said.

"I get an immense pride and feel very grounded here, since I've been working on this project I feel gobsmacked at the amount of stories here.

"Collecting these stories in Story Bank on the main street, it's a no-brainer."

The museum has small models of community members who have played roles in the Mary Poppins Festival, including Carmel Murdoch. ( ABC Wide Bay: Brad Marsellos )

Mary Poppins Festival brings spoonful of culture to regional Queensland

The Story Bank opened just in time for the annual Mary Poppins Festival, which focuses on culture and the art of storytelling in the Maryborough region.

The Grand Parade at the Maryborough Mary Poppins Festival. ( ABC Wide Bay: Brad Marsellos )

The week-long festival converts the historic CBD into a Disneyesque backdrop with costumed characters roaming the street, parades, music and fine art activities.

The festival attracts Mary Poppins fans from around Australia, who make the trek to stroll the streets where the icon's creator was born.

Mary Poppins fans from around Australia have already started to descend on Maryborough to see the Story Bank. ( ABC Wide Bay: Brad Marsellos )

It is also an important event for young people in the region who often feel like they are missing out on artist activities to major centres.

For the last five years Taylor Dunn from Hervey Bay has dressed up as Mary Poppins and posed for photos with children and those who visit the festival. She has started to learn Auslan to better communicate with hearing-impaired children who want to converse with the nanny.

Hervey Bay's Taylor Dunn, dressed as Mary Poppins, brings magic to the festival. ( ABC Wide Bay: Brad Marsellos )

Ms Dunn feels arts and culture is starting to make a difference in the Fraser Coast but more opportunities should be created.

"We have a surplus of wonderfully talented young people, and older people too, we just need more to engage and challenge and just invest in our arts more because it's so important," Ms Dunn said.

"You hear music on the radio, you thank an artist; you watch a movie, you thank an artist. It gives people an outlet, we are storytellers, that's what humans have been since the dawn of time.

"It makes it worth staying if there is a lot here."