Bellingen

History

The Bellinger Valley was first settled by the Gumbaynggir people. The first European to come across the Bellinger Valley was the stockman William Myles who arrived in 1840 looking for new valleys north of Kempsey and the Macleay River. The following year, Myles returned accompanied by government surveyor Clement Hodgkinson. Hodgkinson decided to name the area after the word that the Gumbaynggir people in the area used for the river, "Billingen", pronounced like "Billing-en". When it came time to write the word, the Aboriginal voice and the European ear combined to give the spelling of "Bellingen", and over time usage has altered the pronunciation to the current "Bell-in-jen". At some point, a draughtsman who was compiling the Colony map from original documents misread Hodgkinson's final handwritten "n" as an "r"; meaning that the Bellingen River officially became, and is still the "Bellinger", while the town retained the name of "Bellingen". Hodgkinson had spoken up about how the area contained a great deal of fine cedar and rosewood, and by 1842 there were cedar cutters at the mouth of the Bellinger River and sheep grazing in the valley. The growth of cedar cutting throughout the 1840s was dramatic, with 20 pit sawers operating along the river by 1843. By 1849, the first timber vessel, the 'Minerva', being built by a shipwright named William Darbyshire. So rich was the area in cedar that it was estimated that over 2 million feet of cedar were being extracted each year. The Bellinger Valley was progressively settled throughout the 1850s. In 1864, a site was set apart and reserved for the village of Bellingen. In 1869, the Police Station and Court House were built in Bellingen, and the town allotments were surveyed in 1869 and were sold by public auction at West…

Most-observed species

• Lewin's Honeyeater

  Meliphaga lewinii (Swainson, 1837) · Aves
  4,591
• koala

  Phascolarctos cinereus (Goldfuss, 1817) · Mammalia
  4,082
• Rainbow Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus haematodus (Linnaeus, 1771) · Aves
  4,054
• Laughing Kookaburra

  Dacelo novaeguineae (Hermann, 1783) · Aves
  3,371
• Eastern Yellow Robin

  Eopsaltria australis (Shaw, 1790) · Aves
  3,206
• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  3,202
• Gray Fantail

  Rhipidura albiscapa Gould, 1840 · Aves
  3,010
• Eastern Whipbird

  Psophodes olivaceus (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  2,987