Howard is a Queensland town between Maryborough and Childers in the Fraser Coast region, west of Hervey Bay.
There are historical buildings in Howard, including the home of a former early Prime Minister. There is also Brooklyn House, a colonial mansion build in 1890, and the Grand Hotel built in 1899, an early watering hole for Burrum miners.
The Burrum District Museum has more to see and discover, including some railway pieces. The theme of the railway collection follows the mining heritage of Howard with a railway coal car and a depiction of underground mining rail carts.
The Tom & Minnie Young Memorial Hall is named after Tom and Wilhelmina (commonly known as Minnie). Tim was born in the Burrum railway gatehouse in 1895 and served in WW1 and was with the first contingent to land at Gallipoli.
Minnie originally worked at the library building that was repurposed as a School of Arts Building and grew vegetables and raised fowls to be raffled for the building of the School of Arts. It was named the Tom Young Memorial Hall, then renamed by request of the citizens to include Minnie in the name.
Do you know how hard it is to find who was a Prime Minister of Australia and lived in “Howard”? And doesn’t have the first name of John? It was Andrew Fisher 
, our fifth Prime Minister who served three terms from 1908 to 1915, thanks to the information boards at the park. Originally born in Scotland, his heritage fits the mining history of Howard as he worked in the coal mines before immigrating to Australia.
The park is named after several generations of Bellert family, each generation sharing the same name. Johann Bellert (1st) arrived by ship in 1862 from Germany and settled in the Maryborough district. His son Johann Carl Bellert (2nd) grew up in Maryborough and pioneered development in the Toogoom area, towards the coast from Howard.
Johann Carl Bellert (3rd) grew up in Toogoom, where he and his wife ran the Toogoom telephone exchanged. Their son Johann Carl Bellert (4th) married a Howard girl, Ellen Slattery. He operated a sawmill supplying sleepers for Queensland Rail and pit props to the local coal mines. They eventually moved to Howard and served as local government councillor in the area and was involved in the founding of the Burrum District Historical Society.
The next two generations live in Howard, both are also named Johann Carl Bellert (5th and 6th), however, they are known as John and Carl.
The park has a lot of open space as well as a playground that children will be happy to release some energy on, including a skate park. There are toilets there as well as sheltered picnic tables and BBQ facilities.
Have you brought your furry friend with you? The park also has an off-leash dog park. The dog park is across an open field area with the entrance near the library.
Opposite Bellert Park is an RV stopping area. It is rather basic but the facilities of Bellert Park is handily close by. A permit is required to stay there, available from Hervey Bay Visitor Information Centre 
, Howard Information Centre, or Maryborough Visitor Information Centre .
It is only available to self-contained RVs and vans only and there is a maximum of 20 hours allowed, so really only suitable for an overnight stay. Camping in tents is not allowed.
Another brown sign leads you a short distance away to Brooklyn House . Built by Howard carpenter Stephen Ward in 1890, the historic homestead was for William Rankin who came from Scotland in 1884 as a manager of Queensland Colliers Limited coal mine.
To get there
Heading north on the Bruce Hwy from Maryborough, follow the highway for around 25km. You will see a brown sign 600m before turning right (then immediately right again) into William St. Follow William St for 1km to reach the town centre of Howard. Turn right into Steley St to get to the RV stop and Bellert Park.
Heading south on the Bruce Hwy from Childers, follow the highway for around 28km. You will see a brown sign 600m before turning left into William St. Follow William St for 1km to reach the town centre of Howard. Turn right into Steley St to get to the RV stop and Bellert Park.
