Byron Bay

History

Byron Bay and surrounds are located on traditional lands of the Bundjalung Nation of the Arakwal, Minjungbal and the Widjabul people who have lived by the coast for at least 22,000 years. Traditional custodians of the region believe that the land and people were created by Nguthungulli, who rests at what is now called Julian Rocks. The traditional name of the township area was Cavvanbah, meaning "meeting place". Significant totems for the area include Wajung and Kabul. In 1770 Lieutenant James Cook found safe anchorage and named Cape Byron after a fellow sailor Vice Admiral 'Foul-Weather Jack' John Byron, circumnavigator of the world and grandfather of the poet Lord Byron. European settlement in the area took place in the 1830s. A massacre took place in the 1850s, south of Suffolk Park where the quarry is today. Timber getting became insignificant after World War I. As a result, many former timber workers became farmers. Gold mining of the beaches was the next industry to occur. Gold was discovered in Byron Bay in 1870. Up to 20 mining leases set up on Tallow Beach to extract gold from the black sands around the 1870s. Byron Bay has a history of primary industrial production (dairy factory, abattoirs, fishing, and whaling until 1963) and was a significant, but hazardous, sea port. The poet Brunton Stephens spoke of cattle grazing on the "mossy plains" of Cape Byron in a poem he penned in 1876. The first jetty was built in 1886, and the railway was connected in 1894, and Cavvanbah became Byron Bay in 1894. The introduction of paspalum grass improved production, and Byron Bay exported butter from its depots at Murwillumbah and Lismore to the world. The Cape Byron Lighthouse was built in 1901 at the most easterly point on the Australian mainland. The smell from the…

Most-observed species

• Lewin's Honeyeater

  Meliphaga lewinii (Swainson, 1837) · Aves
  3,217
• Rainbow Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus haematodus (Linnaeus, 1771) · Aves
  2,977
• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  2,838
• Welcome Swallow

  Hirundo neoxena Gould, 1842 · Aves
  2,741
• Australasian Figbird

  Sphecotheres vieilloti Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 · Aves
  2,675
• Torresian Crow

  Corvus orru Bonaparte, 1850 · Aves
  2,650
• Willie-wagtail

  Rhipidura leucophrys (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  2,316
• Pied Currawong

  Strepera graculina (Shaw, 1790) · Aves
  2,284