Ballina
Ballina is a coastal township set in the heart of the lush green rural countryside of sub-tropical Northern New South Wales.
Ballina is located on the Pacific Highway, and was established on the northern shore of the Richmond River (near Cape Byron, Australia's most easterly point), in the 1840s. Ballina boasts some of the most beautiful surfing beaches and picturesque headlands on the east coast of Australia. It is approximately 750 km north of Sydney and 200 km south of Brisbane.
The Richmond River and its estuaries abound with marine wildlife and for many years have remained a favourite of fishermen and water sports enthusiasts alike.
History
Ballina has a number of famous "landfalls" associated with it. The first, in 1928, was Charles Kingsford Smith. His plane, the "Southern Cross", crossed the coast over Ballina after its epic journey across the Pacific. Ballina had a festival associated with the event during the 1970s and 1980s, and a school in East Ballina bears the name "Southern Cross".
The second landfall associated with Ballina was in 1973 when the Las Balsas rafts were towed into Ballina by fishing trawlers after their journey from Ecuador. They originally had planned to arrive in Mooloolaba in Queensland, but currents had forced them off their destination. Their journey was almost twice as long as the Kon-Tiki expeditions of 1947 and proved that people could have travelled across the Pacific in ancient times.
Name
Some discussion exists as to how Ballina got its name. Some believe it was named after the Irish town of Ballina, but this is unlikely. The more plausible explanation is that the name is derived from an Indigenous Australian word meaning "place of many oysters". The names "Bullinah" and "Boolinah" have been mooted. But perhaps, also, the Aboriginal name reminded the settlers of Ballina in Ireland so the name's origination could have been a combination of both sources. Ballina has a sister city agreement with its Irish namesake.
The Richmond River
The Richmond River is one of the three major rivers in the north-eastern corner of New South Wales, Australia, the other two being the Clarence River to the south and the Tweed River to the north. It runs for approximately 170 km from the foothills of the Border Ranges past the towns of Kyogle, Casino, Coraki, Woodburn, where it turns northward and empties into the Pacific Ocean at Ballina. Hence Northern Rivers being the name for the region.
Captain James Cook didn't notice the river when he sailed up the east coast of the Australian mainland in 1770 and it wasn't until Captain Henry John Rous identified the mouth of the river in 1828 that it was discovered by Europeans. Rous entered the river and sailed about 32 km up river. He subsequently named the river Richmond after the fifth Duke of Richmond. Later that year the explorer Allan Cunningham reached the river by land.
The river was a major port from the 1840s - mid 20th century. Soon after the first white settlers arrived they discovered the abundant supply of Australian Red Cedar in the Richmond Valley and immediately began logging. The river was vital in the transportation of this resource.
At the time of its discovery in 1828 and until the late 1890s the river had a treacherous mouth of shifting sand bars, and many ships and lives were lost on it. Understandably, a decision was made to construct two breakwaters to channel the river's flow and these were completed in the early 1900s.
The construction of the breakwaters also led to the formation of Shaw's Bay (after sand built up behind what is now called Lighthouse or Main Beach).With the decline of shipping as a transport mode, owing to better roads and rail, and the closing of the North Coast Steam Navigation Company (the major shipping firm of the area) in 1954, the river became less important as a port.
More recently, however, there has been greater appreciation of the river and its place in Ballina (and NSW North Coast) history. For boats the river is only navigable for a short way up its length, possibly as far as Coraki, but a major tributary of the Richmond River is the Wilson River, which flows through the city of Lismore and is navigable at least as far as Lismore.
