| Northern Rivers New South Wales | |||||||||||||||
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 View south from Byron Bay, the most easterly point on mainland Australia | |||||||||||||||
  Northern Rivers | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 29°09′S153°07′E / 29.150°S 153.117°E /-29.150; 153.117 | ||||||||||||||
| Population | 313,422 (2022)[1] | ||||||||||||||
| • Density | 15.11735/km2 (39.15376/sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| Area | 20,732.6 km2 (8,004.9 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| Time zone | AEST (UTC+10) | ||||||||||||||
| • Summer (DST) | AEDT (UTC+11) | ||||||||||||||
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| State electorate(s) | |||||||||||||||
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Northern Rivers is the most northeasterlyregion of the Australian state ofNew South Wales, located between 590 and 820 kilometres (370 and 510 mi) north of the state capital,Sydney, and encompasses the catchments and fertile valleys of theClarence,Richmond, andTweed rivers. It extends fromTweed Heads in the north (adjacent to theQueensland border) to the southern extent of the Clarence river catchment which lies betweenGrafton andCoffs Harbour, and includes the main towns ofTweed Heads,Byron Bay,Ballina,Kyogle,Lismore,Casino and Grafton. At its most northern point, the region is 102 kilometres (63 mi) south-southeast of the Queensland capital,Brisbane.
As with all regions of New South Wales, it has no official status, although state government department offices and local governments in the area work together for purposes such as tourism, education, water catchment management and waste management.[2][3] This area has a mild, sub-tropical climate. Major industries are agriculture, fisheries, public services (particularly health) and tourism; the region is also popular for niche crops, hobby farmers, and retirees from life in the larger cities.
The Northern Rivers region is bounded by theCoral Sea and theTasman Sea to the east and theNew England region to the west, where theGreat Dividing Range forms a mountainous boundary. To the north is the border between New South Wales and Queensland, where theDarling Downs are located to the north-west andSouth East Queensland directly to the north. The southern boundary is the Dorrigo ranges, which also mark the southern boundary for the Clarence River Basin.
The defining characteristic of the region are the fertile valleys of theClarence,Richmond andTweed rivers and their sources, hence the region's name; and the region's white sandy beaches.
The followinglocal government areas are contained within the region:
| Richmond Tweed rank | Local government area | Population 2022[1] | 10 year growth rate | Population density (people/km2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tweed Shire | 97,969 | 9.7 | 74.2 |
| 3 | Ballina Shire | 46,850 | 13.9 | 96.6 |
| 4 | City of Lismore | 44,276 | -0.3 | 34.3 |
| 5 | Byron Shire | 36,510 | 17.0 | 65.6 |
| 6 | Richmond Valley Council | 23,702 | 3.7 | 7.8 |
| 7 | Kyogle Council | 9,453 | 0.4 | 2.6 |
| Richmond Tweed | 258,760 | 8.6 | 25.1 | |
| 2 | Clarence Valley Council | 54,662 | 6.4 | 5.2 |
| Northern Rivers | 313,422 | 8.2 | 10.7 | |
The region is traversed by thePacific Highway,Bruxner Highway, Clarence Way,Summerland Way and theNorth Coast railway line which links Sydney to Brisbane.
The northernmost part of the region containsMount Warning and the surrounding remnants of the long-extinctTweed Volcano, portions of which extend into southernQueensland. Immediately to the south was formerly the "Big Scrub", an extensive area of subtropical rainforest that was largely cleared for timber-getting and subsequently dairy farming in the nineteenth century. The major towns of the area developed at the navigable heads of the local river systems (Murwillumbah on the Tweed, Lismore on theWilsons – a tributary of the Richmond – and Grafton on the Clarence) rather than on the coast, in order to be able to transport the valuable timber products (in particular the Australian red cedar,Toona ciliata) to markets interstate and overseas.[4] Dairy production in the region was extensive up until the 1970s and many towns in the area retain their dairy processing plants ("butter factories") from that era, now largely re-purposed for other uses; dairy cattle were then largely replaced with beef cattle for economic reasons, although some dairy production remains.[5] The north of the region is an importantsugarcane growing area with smaller contributions from coffee, bananas and assorted tropical fruit and vegetables. The hills with their red volcanic soils inland fromByron Bay provide Australia's main region for the cultivation ofmacadamia trees which are used for their production of both raw nuts and macadamia oil.[6]Ballina is a fishing port and was a centre for Australia's east coast offshoreprawn industry, although boat numbers have declined in recent years, while additional vessels operate out ofIluka andYamba.[7] Byron Bay was at one time a centre for commercialwhaling as well as mineral extraction via sand mining. Further south, the rural portions of the Clarence river catchment are predominantly used for forestry, agriculture and grazing.[8]
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The region as a whole includes a significant component of New South Wales' state forests and national parks, and tourism is important in the north of the region in particular, especially inTweed Heads, which is effectively a southern extension of theGold Coast, and Byron Bay, which has developed a reputation as both a centre for relaxation and "alternative" health practices such asyoga, and at certain times of the year, a convenient out-of-town recreation area for partygoers from the major urban centres of south-east Queensland. The village ofNimbin, in theLismore area, also attracts tourists interested in its reputation for environmental and alternative living initiatives such aspermaculture, sustainability, and self-sufficiency, as well as its often-cited counterculture which includes lobbying for the decriminalisation of recreational and medicinalcannabis, as evidenced by its annualMardiGrass celebration.[9] Following some decades of population decline with the reduction of certain primary industry (in particular dairying), the area is now seeing a population increase, in part because of the availability of ex-dairy land for newer niche crops and hobby farms along with an influx of "sea change" and "tree change" families, as well as retirees attracted by the region's subtropical climate and unique combination of lifestyle attributes.[10][11]
From the 1970s onwards, the northern portion of the region has also been the scene of successful environmental protests aimed at preventing the destruction of the area's significant natural assets, including the 1979 Terania Creek anti-logging protest in theNightcap National Park which led to the thenWran State Government gazetting remaining rainforest in New South Wales as National Parks, the 2014 Bentley blockade, which protested against exploratory drilling for gas at that location, and flow-on community reaction which eventually led to the New South Wales State Government buying back a coal seam gas exploration licence covering more than 500,000 hectares across the region in October 2015.[12][13][14][15]
Prior to European settlement in the nineteenth century, the region was home to theAboriginalBundjalung people (or Bandjalang) (including the Widjabul of the Lismore region, theArakwal of the Byron Bay area, and theKalibal andMinjungbal of the Tweed and Queensland border) and theGumbaynggirr andYaegl peoples to the south, which collectively still form a component of the local population,[16][17] and have been successful in somenative title land claims on behalf of local Bandjalang and Yaegl communities.[18]
The region contains theSouthern Cross University, which is headquartered atLismore and has campuses inTweed Heads andCoffs Harbour.[19] TheNorth Coast Institute of TAFE has campuses atLismore,Ballina,Casino,Grafton,Kingscliff,Maclean, Trenayr,Wollongbar andYamba.[20]
There are several local sporting competitions, including:
The region has also produced several famous sportspeople, including:
Some sporting venues on the Northern Rivers includes:
The Northern Rivers has its own orchestras, theNorthern Rivers Symphony Orchestra based inMurwillumbah and the Lismore Symphony Orchestra.[21] Murwillumbah, Lismore and Grafton all have regional art galleries; that at Murwillumbah (the Tweed Regional Gallery) includes the Margaret Olley Art Centre named after the prominent locally-born Australian artistMargaret Olley and includes examples of her work plus a recreation of areas of Olley's famous home studio, principally the Hat Factory and the Yellow Room.[22]
The region has a history of Italian settlement. The locality ofNew Italy was settled in 1882 by Italian pioneers who attempted to cultivate the area's difficult interior, while additional phases of migration followed in the 1920s and again with the post-World War II influx of European migrants anxious to escape their war-ravaged country.[23] They typically leased hilly land from local farmers on which they cultivated bananas, moving to other trades when the local banana industry declined when refrigeration and better transport links facilitated the supply of cheaper competition from Queensland.
The Northern Rivers was served for over a century by theMurwillumbah railway line, although, amidst some ongoing controversy, services were suspended in 2004.[24]
Northern Rivers travel guide from Wikivoyage
