a land use history snapshot
NORTH CREEK pre-1788 - 2020
a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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WITH THANKS Council would like to thank Dr Kate Gahan who researched and authored this article. First published March 2021 by Ballina Shire Council 40 Cherry Street, Ballina NSW 2478. © Ballina Shire Council 2021 DISCLAIMER Council agrees to the reproduction of extracts of original material that appears in this document for personal, in-house, non-commercial use or professional research or report prodcution purposes without formal permission or charge. All other rights reserved. When using this document, please cite the following: “Gahan, Kate. A landuse history snapshot North Creek pre 1788 to 2021. Ballina Shire Council, 2020”. If you wish to reproduce, alter, store or transmit material appearing in the document for any other purpose, a request for formal permission should be directed to Ballina Shire Council. Image Credit: Front cover by Nick Angeli Inside Cover: Map detailing North Creek, the mouth of the Richmond River and the layout of East and West Ballina in 1896. This map was prepared when planning the first extension to the breakwall. European settlers and colonial administrators pushed for the breakwall to make river transport safer. State Library of NSW, New South Wales. Department of Public Works. Richmond River Entrance [Cartographic Material]. The Dept., 1896.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Bundjalung custodianship of the North Creek catchment
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The European mindset and the local landscape
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The views of the first Europeans to explore the coast off Ballina
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The earliest European land use along North Creek
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Others follow the trail of the cedar cutters
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European farming established on North Creek
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The historic farming patterns first established along North Creek continued for some decades
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River transport and its impact on North Creek
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The emergence of scientific and mechanical farming
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Oyster farming in North Creek
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Contemporary sea-change migration to the Ballina Shire and North Creek catchment
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Bibliography
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a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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Bundjalung custodianship of the North Creek catchment Before Europeans arrived on the Richmond River, and took up the land located along and away from its banks, the entire district was inhabited and cared for by families that belonged to the Bundjalung peoples and Nation. The North Creek, and its surrounding environment, was of enormous importance to the historic Bundjalung families who cared for, and sustained a living from, this landscape. Today it is recorded that the Bundjalung people occupied the creek’s catchment from, at least, 4000BC – that is for over 6000 years.1 The environment of the North Creek, with its tidal and salty properties, has long been the breeding ground of numerous types of fish and other estuary species. For generations Bundjalung families have hunted and gathered animals and other wild food from within and near the Creek. The vast kitchen midden, which once stretched for hundreds of metres along the bank of the Creek and is predominantly made up of oyster shell, is testament to the routine use of the Creek by Bundjalung families over countless decades, and hundreds of years. 2 Only a remnant of this midden remains intact today. Today also the North Creek and its catchment is understood to be an ecosystem, wherein its various parts – the water that flows over its bed, the plants (or flora) that grow in, along and beside it, or the fauna (or animals) that are supported by it – work together to support its whole. The Bundjalung people viewed the creek, its surrounding environment, and their relationship to the landscape in this way; their interaction and relationship with the creek, and its environment, were an integral part of its cycle. To this
end the Bundjalung people were careful, in a planned and systematic way, of what they took from the environment – to ensure that the fauna on which they relied for food continued to breed and prosper; or the plants also used for food or making utility goods such as baskets and fish nets was harvested within the limits learned across the generations. These limits took into account other potential threats to the environment, and what it could provide, such as droughts and floods. Knowledge of the environment, its bounty and processes of seasonal and other changes that shaped it, were recorded and handed on through the oral traditions of storytelling and song, as well as through other daily routines and ceremonial practices. 3 The Bundjalung people read and responded to the environment in countless ways. ‘The seasons were known to them by and flowers …. they could tell by natural signs of flowers and fruits when the salmon and the mullet were due on the beaches and in the rivers [or creek], and when certain game [land dwelling animals] …was bound to be in evidence in particular localities.4 The environment of North Creek, shaped by the ebb and flow of the tide that altered the water level daily and, over longer time periods, formed and altered the natural sand shoals on its bed, gave rise to the formation of permanent traps and the use of the specialised tow-row to catch fish by the families that here. Used in shallow waters the tow-row was crafted from (lawyer) cane and twine made from the inner-bark of the Currajong tree, which grew within the confines of the creek. 5 Nets were also used to capture ground dwelling species such as paddy melons and bandicoots. This game was herded into a long fence-like net-trap
1 Keats, N.C. 1988, Wollumbin: The Creation and Early Habitation of the Tweed Brunswick and Richmond rivers of N.S.W., The Book Printer, Woy Woy, New South Wales 2 OYSTER SHELL MOUNDS AT NORTH CREEK (1925, September 16). Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876 - 1954), 7. Retrieved October 5, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article93606064 3 Isabel McBryde, Records of Times Past: Ethnohistorical essays on the culture and ecology of the New England tribes, (Canberra: AIATSIS 1978). 4 James Ainsworth & Thomas Russell, Reminiscences: Ballina in the early days 1847-1922, Ballina NSW, 1988, 45. 5 Ainsworth, 43
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by men of hunting age, loyally assisted by their dogs or dingos. The environment of North Creek also harboured flying fox that were nabbed from trees with the precise thrust of a boomerang. Yams were dug from its banks with long and solid digging sticks, all manner of fruits were gathered and carried in baskets or dilly bags, which were also crafted from fibres sourced from this environment. From along the beach, not far from the Creek, the pandanus fruit was harvested and processed to leach its harmful toxins and ground into flour from which a nutty bread was cooked, to supplement other foods prepared.6 And though the Bundjalung of this immediate environment routinely lived in small bands of extended family groups they also came together to have much larger gatherings, including when certain foods were in abundance. Early European settlers in the area witnessed and recorded such meetings at Chickiba Lake, when oysters were in abundance. 6 Ainsworth.
Plan of Richmond River Heads made in 1887. The image shows the junction of the main River and North Creek - a key landmark highlighted is the location of the Pioneer Cemetery. NSW Public Works Department. a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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The European mindset and the local landscape The first Europeans to explore east coast of Australia first saw, and then utilised, the landscape differently to the Bundjalung people. While like the Bundjalung people the Europeans viewed the land as giving and bountiful they also perceived its resources to be vast, almost limitless. Only in recent decades has this thinking altered. What separated the differing ways of the Europeans from the Bundjalung peoples’ use of the land was their long tradition of farming. At the heart of European farming were the practices of land-clearing, tilling the soil and the deliberate cultivation of food plants. The raising of domestic animals was undertaken in tandem with crop production.
Indeed the successful cultivation of the soil yearin-year-out was reliant on animals, to both turn and fertilise the soil. Ahead of the establishment of the first European farms along North Creek the region was visited by several navigators and explorers who, in addition to commenting on the believed fertility of the region, made a number of observations that are important facets – if only snippets – that contribute to the historic ‘picture’ of the North Creek catchment.
Historic engraving showing the European farming methods of clearing the land of natural vegetation, tilling the soil, farming with animals and planting seeds were transported to NSW in 1788. As settlement expanded throughout NSW in the nineteenth century, including to the Ballina region, these methods transformed the natural ancient landscape shaped by Aboriginal nations. Pictorial Press Ltd.
A ‘Survey of the Entrance of the Richmond River’ made by surveyor Frederick Peppercorne in 1855. Peppercorne’s map highlights areas of natural shoaling in the Creek at its junction with the main arm of the Richmond River. Surveyor General’s field books - Peppercorne, County Richmond, Rous, Survey of the Richmond River, SR Reel 2622, NSW State Records. a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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The views of the first Europeans to explore the coast off Ballina From before 1788, the year authorities claimed the Australian continent on behalf of the British Crown, European discoverers and explorers imagined it to be lush and fertile.7 Later, several European navigators made closer observations of the coast off Ballina (later named), from either directly off the coast or when exploring the Richmond River and North Creek. First, from on board the Endeavour when Captain James Cook navigated and mapped sections of the east coast in 1770 – he passed Ballina on Wednesday 16 May – amid a fresh gale and fine weather. Cook’s mission was to explore the entire east coast and so had no intention of scouting each of the many estuaries that spilled into the sea along it. When nearto the location of Ballina, however, Cook did observe the Bundjalung occupying their territory – between the Richmond River and Cape Byron he recorded ‘People and smook’ in various places.8 In 1799 and 1802, Matthew Flinders whose mission it was to circumnavigate the continent, also mapped the eastern coastline. Despite historians, to date, arguing that Flinders did not ‘discover’ the Richmond River he did record its location, as his map shows a gap where the mouth of the Richmond River lay; and he did the same at Evans Head in the case of the Evans River. He further noted that the land encompassing the Newrybar ridge was: ‘A woody rising country of pleasant appearance.’ Like Cook he also saw smoke rising from the fires of Bundjalung camps, south of the river mouth. While Flinders didn’t stop at the Richmond he anchored at Cape Byron and at Point Danger (Tweed Heads), where he made linear profile sketches of the landscape from the sea.9 The features that veiled the mouth of the Richmond did not attract Flinders’
attention in the same way other locations close by did. The nature of the scenery at Ballina, with its unassuming views of low hills (not mountain peaks), modest sea-facing rocky outcrops, and flat, sandy and alluvial floodplains, was of lesser interest. The European mindset of this time was drawn to noticing supposedly more remarkable landforms. Moreover, off Ballina the coastline was relatively straight and did not harbour sheltered bays in which to safely anchor, as was known of the coastline near-to Cape Byron and Point Danger from Cook’s records. From both of these secure vantage points also were pleasant or picturesque views of mountain peaks, of which Wollumbin, or Mount Warning as it was named by Cook, had, in the minds of Europeans, already gained the status of being among the colony’s most majestic natural features. In 1823 John Oxley also sailed past the Richmond River enroute his mission to explore Moreton Bay (Brisbane), along the way he ‘discovered’ and named the Tweed River. Though he travelled to the Moreton Bay region to assess its usefulness as a penal settlement he also recorded the characteristics of the landscapes he passed, noting their suitability for settlement, or farming – which was of great interest to European settlers. The original vision that NSW would be annexed and developed as a selfsufficient penal colony was fading and a new picture was emerging of it being the land of opportunity for willing migrants. Five years after Oxley, Henry John Rous sailed along the east coast in 1828. He has been widely celebrated as the first European to explore the Richmond River; he named both the river and the northern headland at its mouth (now part of the landscape referred to as Lighthouse Hill). Though Rous dubbed the northern headland ‘Lennox Head’ it was later
7 Richard White. Inventing Australia: images and identity 1688-1980, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1981. 8 Cook, James, and J. C. Beaglehole. The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery / Edited from the Original Manuscripts [by J. C. Beaglehole]. Volume 1, The Voyage of the Endeavour. Hakluyt Society, 317. 9 Flinders, Matthew, William Westall, and Robert Brown. A Voyage to Terra Australis: Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of That Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty’s Ship the Investigator ... / by Matthew Flinders. London: G. and W. Nicol, 1814.
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simply referred to as North Head, which fell out of use with the naming of the town of Ballina in the mid-1850s, after the town-site, as we know it today, was surveyed and laid out. And of course Lennox Head was adopted for the headland located just further north.10 Rous made the earliest sketch of the Richmond River and its junction with North Creek. He traversed the main river arm as far up as Broadwater and North Creek’s junction with Deadman’s Creek. Overall, the chart he made reflects his key concern to record and report on the navigability of the river and creek, and as a result the land’s suitability for settlement and farming. Aside from the soundings made, his sketch documents some of the vegetation that edged the river’s main arm and North Creek. On the western bank of North Creek, near its mouth, he described the vegetation to be ‘Low and woody with Mangroves close to the Banks’. Higher upstream on the same side of the creek he noted ‘low land covered with long grass having the appearance of being flooded sometimes’. Close to the water, mangroves also lined the creek’s eastern bank, but on this side as well the vegetation altered as the land became elevated away from the creek – or as Rous wrote on his map, ‘hills well wooded’.11
The mouth of both the river and the creek on Rous’ map also illustrate its natural form, differing significantly to how we see it today and which dates from after the construction of the first section of the breakwall in the late nineteenth century. In Rous’ words he wrote that at the river’s mouth: “… you steer in due west between two sandbanks on which there is a heavy surf, … the entrance is wide, 12 feet on the bar at half flood and then 14 to 20 feet deep at the river mouth, with a constant strong ebb tide from 3 to 5 miles per hour midchannel … a sand bank projects from the inner shore line, narrowing the channel to about 300 yards – it then opens suddenly to an expanse of two miles with two dry sand banks in the centre, the main body running W by N ½ N then striking to the south west is a fine arm 24 feet deep, nearly a mile wide ….”12 Aside from the escaped convicts from Moreton Bay who passed through the region after the Moreton Bay Penal settlement was established in 1824 Europeans did not intentionally return to the Richmond for another fourteen years – but when they did North Creek was one of the areas where they settled.
10 Daley, Louise Tiffany. Men and a River: Richmond River District 1828-1895, MUP, 1966. 11 Rous, Henry John. Richmond River Soundings, Lennox Head [cartographic Material]., 27th August 1828, 1828 12 Wilton, C. Pleydell N. The Australian Quarterly Journal of Theology, Literature & Science., 1828, 353-354.
Map made by Captain Henry Rous in 1828 of the Richmond River, from its mouth at Ballina to just past Wardell. Rous’ expedition oversaw journeys up North Creek and the River’s main arm, to make a record of the suitability of the land for European farming. State Library of NSW, Rous, Henry John. Richmond River Soundings, Lennox Head [Cartographic Material], 27 August 1828. a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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The earliest European land use along North Creek A permanent settlement at Ballina by Europeans dates from the early 1840s. Small groups of cedar cutters and their families are recorded to be the earliest to relocate here – this included on land at Prospect on North Creek, and at Shaw’s Bay where the Creek joined the main River. At this time Ballina was referred to as the Richmond River or Richmond River Heads and most cedar cutting families eked out a basic living by harvesting cedar trees from forested areas, first from along North Creek and then the main river and Emigrant Creek. In the 1920s James Ainsworth, who as a child came to river in 1847, recorded his recollections of the cedar settlement at Shaw’s Bay, which he referred to as the ‘east Ballina settlement’. His account gives important insights into why these cedar cutters were camped at Shaws Bay. ‘A small stream of water that emptied into the river at the pilot sheds [present day caravan park], supplied the necessary commodity.’ At this site also the loading of ships that took cedar from the Richmond to be sold in Sydney and Melbourne took place. In the earliest years large ships had difficulty traveling up the river due to its natural sand shoals, whereas at Shaw’s Bay they anchored in the deep water, found along the base of North Head and which formed the main channel navigated by the sail vessels that arrived.13
The cedar families who lived at Shaw’s Bay sheltered in rudimentary huts built with timber from the surrounding area – the nearby wooded hill Rous documented. Like the local Bundjalung families, they ate bush foods – including fish, oysters, kangaroo and wallaby, along with game, from in or near the Creek. The impact of their day-to-day activity on the environment was limited, especially compared with the European settlers that followed. The way they saw the environment was, however, in keeping with the European explorers who preceded them. They believed that this ‘new’ land and the habitat it contained was bountiful and exploitable – and could rightfully be occupied and used by them. Among these settlers were ex-convicts, as well as free-settlers, both were nonetheless motivated to realise the new opportunity colonial life and authorities had promised those who took this path by settling at Ballina.
13 Ainsworth, 9.
The Pioneer Cemetery located at the mouth of North Creek and what the earliest European settlers called Cemetery Point. Some of North Creek’s earliest farmers are buried in the cemetery. Image courtesy of Richmond River Historical Society, no date recorded. a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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Others follow the trail of the cedar cutters The path the cedar cutters made in getting to the Richmond River Heads marked the beginning of a great transformation of the landscape – from a natural self-sustaining ecosystem to a farming landscape that has was constantly, and rapidly, altered. This period also marked the beginning of the gradual dispossession of the Bundjalung families who lived from and cared for the Creek and its surrounding environment, along with their adjoining Country. It is nonetheless noted that in the first decade of settlement, the cedar cutters and other settlers living at the river mouth co-existed with the Bundjalung families who lived there. Back in Sydney colonial authorities were confident that the region boasted vast tracts of fertile territory suited to farming, and so in 1843 Charles Burnett was sent to survey the Richmond River it in its entirety. With convict assistants, Burnett came to the district via Moreton Bay (present day Brisbane). He made direct contact with the cedar cutters, along with the squatter William Wilson who in 1843 took out a conditional lease over much of the land in the vicinity of Ballina, including land along North Creek. When Burnett spoke with Bundjalung people whom, he’d noted on his survey plans, lived at the mouth of the river, they told him they called the location ‘Bul-loona’.14 Throughout the 1840s cedar cutters and traders were the river’s main European inhabitants. Bundjalung families continued to occupy their Country and live from it. In these decades also some Bundjalung men worked for the cedar cutters. Their knowledge of the ‘bush’ and wider landscape greatly assisted the cedar cutters. They worked across all facets of cedarwork, including as axemen, squaring and rafting logs, as well as bullock driving. This working relationship assisted in forging the co-existence that characterised relations between the European and Bundjalung people in 14 15 16 17
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the earliest years of European occupation at Ballina. 15 In 1846, former ship’s carpenter turned cedar-cutter, bullock-breeder and then again ship- builder, William Yabsley took over Wilson’s conditional lease and occupied land referred to as the ‘Big Plain’ that was located along the western bank of North Creek (now encompassed by Ballina Island). Wilson left Ballina to concentrate on his grazing operations further upstream at Lismore. Yabsley called his lease Devonport (after his native home Devon) and from here he constructed a ‘fifty-foot ketch’ he named the Pelican. Aside from residing and constructing his ketch at Ballina, Yabsley also grazed bullocks on North Creek. He eventually abandoned this lease in 1849, to settle at Coraki where he established a permanent ship-building enterprise.16 The 1850s brought more changes to life at the mouth of the river – though cedar cutting and shipping remained a dominant activity. As other settlements made upstream grew and expanded the river became busier and settlement at the river mouth also grew in numbers and area. So in this decade a further land survey was carried out at Ballina by AssistantSurveyor Frederick S. Peppercorne to locate the shops and services that the settlements all along the river were demanding. Peppercorne’s historic plans indicated the location of the ‘town of Woolwich’ at today’s Shaws Bay; it located ‘suburbs’ on the southeast portion of the present day Ballina Island, and edging the western bank of North Creek near its junction with the main river, which encompassed the land contained in William Wilson’s and William Yabsley’s conditional leases from the 1840s. Peppercorne’s completed survey also led to the first sale of land on Ballina Island in November 1857.17
Survey map of the Richmond River and notes of Charles Burnett , General – Sketch Books and Surveyor’s Field Books. Index to Sketch Books, 1828- 90, NSW State Records, microfilm 2778. Ainsworth. Clare Schofield., William Yabsley: Master of Coraki 1812-1880, Manilla, N.S.W., 1983. Ainsworth, 32-33.
The 1850s also marked a low point in relations between Europeans and the Bundjalung families living at the river mouth when the Native Police rode into Ballina and executed a dawn raid on Bundjalung families camped on the northern side of North Creek, many people were murdered or wounded.18 Both Bundjalung and European oral testimonies record this event and the dedication of the East Ballina Aboriginal Place recognises and memorialises its impact on Bundjalung families then, and today.
18 Ainsworth, 45-46.
Photograph taken by professional photographer Joseph Check, c.1895 showing men at work on the breakwall at the mouth of the River. Along with farming, the building of the breakwall permanently transformed the landscape at Ballina and along North Creek. Image courtesy of Richmond River Historical Society. a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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European farming is established on North Creek From the early 1860s new land legislation known as the Robertson Land Acts spurred a further wave of European migration to the Richmond River. This legislation aimed to encourage and resulted in ‘closer settlement’. Migration to the district in this decade was dominated by farming families, as this legislation enabled any colonist to select, or obtain, land providing it was occupied and improved – or farmed. In this decade, land situated along North Creek was among the first parcels of land farmed at Ballina. Selectors could claim grants of land of between 40 to 320 acres.19 The earliest farming activity to establish here included mixed-cropping, sugar cane production, cattle grazing and dairying. In contrast to the activities of the cedar-cutters, farming radically altered the environment, as land was systematically cleared of its natural vegetation to create ‘openings’ to grow crops and raise livestock. At this time the land was cleared by an axe, brush hooks and fire. After bringing down large trees and small shrubs with the axe and brush hook the vegetation was left to dry before they were burnt to expose the soil. In contrast, the cedar cutters had removed select trees and made their homes in existing clearances, or exposed only small plots to build their huts and keep a few livestock for their own consumption. The first settler-farmers that located along or near to North Creek typically grew corn, or maize as it was historically referred. Sugar cane, which at this time was an experimental crop, was also grown. To grow these crops in the late nineteenth century the cleared land was first worked or ploughed by bullock or horse drawn implements. Other food stuffs grown
to supplement cane and maize included fruits and vegetables – typically this included melons, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, beans, among others. Hand implements were used to work the ground – such as the hoe and adze. The ‘pioneering’ and experimental spirit of this era also saw some farmers trial other crops such as arrowroot.20 John Sharpe (Jnr) was among the first cohort of farmers to settle and farm land on North Creek. Arriving in 1864 from the south coast of NSW he selected land at Prospect, in partnership with two of his brothers. He was also part of the group of farmers who experimented with the cultivation, and processing, of cane on land along the creek. On his property, Sharpe also constructed a small sugar mill to process his and others’ cane. By the end of the decade the Sharpe brothers were joined by a number of other farming families, who settled along the creek and many of these settlers farmed sugar cane. A record from 1871 give some sense of the extent of cane farming established along the creek in the first decade of closer settlement. Sharpe had 10.5 acres; James Ainsworth had 4 acres and about to build a mill; Charles Brown had 4 acres; John Skennar had 3.5 acres (and a mill) and Charles Coleman had 3 acres. The year previous a vehicular ferry was installed across North Creek, along the North Creek road, to assist in transporting goods and people to and from the farms and families that established and lived along North Creek.21
19 Baker, D. W. A. ‘The Origin of Robertson’s Land Acts’, Historical Studies Australian and New Zealand, Select Articles, Melbourne University Press (1964). 20 Mullens, M., (ed). Town & Country Journal on the Richmond, Lismore, Richmond River Historical Society, 2001. 21 Mullens, 24.
Photograph taken by professional photographer Joseph Check, c.1895 of men quarrying columns of basalt rock at Shaws Bay to build the breakwall. Image courtesy of Richmond River Historical Society. a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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The historic farming patterns first established along North Creek continue for some decades The pattern of growing corn and cane in association with raising animals – principally cows, horses, pigs and chickens – established in the 1860s along North Creek continued for a number of decades. The identity of the many farming families that settled here in the late nineteenth century is evident in many, but dispersed records – from newspapers to family histories, and official government publications and records. Some of the earliest families to establish stayed for several decades, others lasted a few short years – and varied circumstances influenced such fluctuations. But fundamentally the way the Europeans occupied or relocated from the land along North Creek reflected their need to turn it to profit – so when this could not be managed some cut their losses and moved to other locations. Among the numerous factors that shaped fluctuations in farming along North Creek were: the creek itself enabled the (water) transport of goods to and from farms located along it, as well as the residents’ access to goods and services that developed and gradually expanded at Ballina. The soil was fertile and especially suited crop production; some Europeans were drawn to the North Creek locality to farm its rich ‘bottoms’ land – i.e. land that lies along the estuary bank or within its wide-riparian zone – which was sought after for its fertility. Land that was more elevated and away from the creek, was equally fertile – its volcanic soil originated from the ancient influence of Mount Wollumbin located further north in the Tweed. The capacity for farms and farmers to grow enough produce from the land they had and market it at a profit also saw farming fluctuate – as the historic record shows that a number of North Creek farmers became insolvent during the 1890s depression. But despite these variable influences on what was, and who, 22 23 24 25
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farmed at North Creek the practices European-origin settlers used to work the land remained stable for a number of decades. However, the key change that impacted land use in the 1870s, and for a couple of decades after, was population. Reflecting the growing population in the first decade of closer settlement, shipping advice from 1870 indicated that industry undertaken on the river resulted in the movement of 8.5 million feet of timber; 120 thousand bushels of maize (corn); 36 thousand staves and spokes and other farm and station produce from the Port of Ballina. 22 Between the years 1881-1884 the first census taken at Ballina indicated its immediate (European) population was 570 (Shaw’s Bay, West Ballina and North Head);23 and a decade later the (European) population was over recorded at 2760 people.24 As the population expanded more land was occupied, cleared and farmed; this included sections of ground characterised as low or swamp land. At the northern end of North Creek, the farmers occupying land in the vicinity of the Newrybar Swamp, and in accordance with farming practices brought from the United Kingdom, undertook to drain water from inundated land using a system of human-made channels. Such works were considered ‘improvements’ to the land. In 1906, the Newrybar Drainage Trust established – under the NSW Water and Drainage Act – ‘to drain off the flood waters, and so rendering the land fit for grazing and agriculture’. Water was drained from the swamp into North Creek.25 Historic Parish maps that record land allocations dating from the closing decades of the nineteenth century show that much of the land along the
BALLINA. (1870, June 28). Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser (Grafton, NSW: 1859 - 1889), p. 2. Retrieved October 14, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article61876386 Hall, Glen. The Port of Richmond River: Ballina 1840s to 1980s. Northern Star Print, Lismore (1983), 113-114. Population Returns. (1893, February 4). Northern Star (Lismore, NSW: 1876 - 1954), 2. Retrieved October 14, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72415628 A DRAINAGE TRUST. (1906, February 3). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW: 1883 - 1930), 8. Retrieved October 4, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article239450948
eastern side of North Creek was surveyed for farming and or was occupied.26 The following developments also reflect the growing density of settlement along North Creek and in this era: by the late 1870s families living along North Creek had sufficient numbers to petition the NSW Colonial government asking for the establishment of a school in the locality; in 1881 the Pioneer Cemetery was established at the mouth of North Creek (many early North Creek settlers are buried here); and in 1890 the North Creek Progress Association established to lobby for municipal services – including the sealing of roadways, which the shell-midden located at North Creek was mined for from this time.27 The occupation of land along North Creek in the closing decades of the nineteenth century increasingly restricted the use of this environment by Bundjalung families. Notwithstanding impacts from diseases previously unknown to Bundjalung families brought to the region by Europeans, expanding settlement also pushed Bundjalung families out, or to the margins, of the areas they routinely used. Bundjalung families responded in a number of ways to the restrictions the Europeans imposed, including; some continued to work for Europeans; some resisted contact for as long as they could, and continued to live in places they had always occupied; other families either voluntarily moved or were forcibly relocated to government established and monitored Aboriginal Reserves or Stations. 26 NSW LPI, Historic Parish maps for Town of Ballina, County of Rous. 27 Richmond River Historical Society Bulletin, From North Creek to Lennox Head, no. 162 (1999), 5-11; Lennox Head Public School Centenary Committee, Lennox Head Public School Centenary, Northern Star Print, Lismore (1982).
Vessel anchored at one of the wharves located along the main arm of the River c.1920s. European settlement saw the river become the main means of transporting goods to and from the district until the early twentieth century. Image courtesy of George Young/Ballina Shire Council. a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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River transport and its impact on North Creek From the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the centrality of water-based transport to the establishment and development of European settlement at Ballina saw the lower reaches of the River and North Creek engineered in a number of ways – including the introduction of training walls and the breakwall in the River and the Creek (from 1885); the dredging of the main river channel and the mouth of North Creek (from early 1880s); the creating of the Fishery Creek canal (1896); and the ‘filling’ sections of waterfront or tidally-impacted land so that it could be permanently occupied or used (from c. 1885). These human-driven interventions imposed substantial changes to the natural form of the River and North Creek. The introduction of the training walls and the breakwall in, and at the mouth of, the Richmond River and North Creek sought to address the shifting conditions on the Ballina bar, which frequently made crossings risky for settlers. In 1885 the NSW colonial government commissioned Sir John Coode to examine and make recommendations on improving the bar. Coode’s investigation recommended and resulted in the the construction of the north and south breakwater to ‘confine [the river’s] wide estuary into a comparatively narrow channel a few hundred yards in length, than the ebb current [would] scour out a channel’ deep enough for vessels to cross. A comparison of Henry Rous’ map of the Richmond River mouth and North Creek illustrates the manner in which both estuaries were altered by these walls. Ahead of building the breakwall dredging was also undertaken at the mouth of the Richmond River (1883) and North Creek (c. 1890s). Like with the breakwall, dredging was introduced to assist the passage of river craft along both estuaries, it involved removing sand shoals and indurated sand from the main estuary channel. The sand from dredging was in turn used
to fill waterfront areas along the river and North Creek. The developing and expanding settlement at Ballina in the latter half of the nineteenth century increased demand for shipping services, along with the number of vessels, that came into the river and North Creek. Until the 1930s water-transport was heavily relied on, despite the regular use of land transport locally from the 1910s. The increased economic activity across the decades at Ballina saw residents and traders who came to the river demand routine shipping services and more from the locality’s waterways, by way of efficiency. In turn, this meant users of the river expected it to be accessible around the clock. In years prior, when Ballina was smaller and less busy, residents lived in greater accord with the natural rhythms of the settlement’s estuarine environment – moving from place to place was timed with tidal changes and shaped by the seasonal fluctuations that saw the river naturally scoured at flood times. Further, steam-powered vessels, which increasingly came to the river after 1856, also saw more visiting craft enter the main arm of the river at Ballina. No longer reliant on the wind and sails steam navigation enabled settlers to further eschew the river’s natural rhythms and influence their eventual calls for dredging. Records uncovered to date show that lobbying for dredging at the Port of Ballina began from as early as 1877.28 Local residents (through the Ballina Progress Association) and others with local commercial interests knew to petition the government to fund dredging following its use at a number of other river ports along the east coast. Indeed, once firmly established as a routine practice in the colony, (or the state after 1901), government run dredges were shifted regularly from river-port to river-port along the coast. The Harbours and Rivers Authority, and then the Public Works Department,
28 The Richmond River. (1877, September 22). Northern Star (Lismore, NSW: 1876 - 1954), 4. Retrieved October 14, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71728055
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administered this service. The timing of demands made for dredging in North Creek followed its commencement in the main arm of the river. These demands also followed the establishment of the Broadwater Sugar Mill (1881), and the transport of cut cane from farms along North Creek to it. To the cane-farmers at North Creek this practice was substantially thwarted by both the tidal flow of the river and its natural processes of shoaling. Dredging was seen as the solution to this problem, as was the eventual building of the Fishery Creek Canal that linked North Creek to the main River to avoid navigating across the mouth of north creek to enter the main river.29 29 From North Creek to Lennox Head.
Behind the vessels anchored Bagots mill can be seen, which fronted the main arm of the River at its junction with Fishery Creek. It was one of many businesses that relied on river transport to the 1930’s. In turn, the need for vessels to navigate up the River to service businesses saw the breakwall built and the dredging at the mouth of the river. Image courtesy of George Young / Ballina Shire Council. a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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The emergence of scientific and mechanised farming and its impacts locally Throughout the nineteenth century many farmers throughout the NSW colony engaged with the idea of, and practiced, improved farming. Improved farming fostered evolving farming knowledge and in turn the techniques farmers used to grow crops and raise animals, so as to boost productivity and profits. This idea was brought to the colony of NSW, and in turn the northern rivers, from Europe by the settlers. Though improved farmed had been adopted by many European-origin farmers (especially farmers of greater means) for many decades, by the end of the nineteenth century it had gained greater influence – its practice in turn was more wide spread. In tandem with the influence of improved farming, the industrial revolution saw the transition from hand to machine methods in many areas of industry – including agriculture. Steam power and factory production systems emerged from these developments which had an influence on agriculture. Farming at North Creek from the mid-1860s onwards nineteenth century reflected these ideas and influences – for example the construction by settlers such as John Sharpe of small-scale sugar processing mills in the 1870s. However, by the early 1880s the large-scale sugar mill at Broadwater super-ceded and made Sharpe’s small-scale milling operations non-viable. By the end of the nineteenth century farmers everywhere were adopting more ‘advanced’ implements to prepare the soil, plant, harvest and process crops; new irrigation, pest and weed control systems were also emerging. These ideas were spread through newspaper features, specialist publications, professional farming or community-based associations, established typically by prominent men in the community. Through these avenues of peer exchange farmers were told that improved farming was Aerial view looking east toward the junction of North Creek and the Richmond River, c.1920s. Along with the Creek and the River, the images show the expanding Ballina township and the course of the breakwall. Private collection.
fundamental – not only to feed more people but to return profits to individual farmers and to advance the colony. Farmers at North Creek were engaging in these developments and with each other about them. Then the depression of the 1890s heightened calls for the adoption of improved farming methods as a means of avoiding future economic downturns. The colonial government had sought to play a more active role in fostering the take-up of improved farming practices by establishing the NSW Department of Agriculture in 1890. These changes continued to foster the idea of progressing farming practices and introduced the idea of ‘modern agriculture’. The fusion of farming and science gave authority to the modern agricultural knowledge. Into the twentieth century modern agriculture, or science-based farming, led to a gradual increase in the use of human-made fertilisers, chemical sprays, advanced irrigation systems and eventually everyday farm-machinery such as tractors. These developments enabled farmers to increase their productivity through cultivating more land and increasing yields from already productive land. Into the latter half of the twentieth century the application of science to agriculture also influenced the emergence of new crops grown in the region – this included the horticultural crops of macadamia nuts and avocados. This evolution has, in more recent decades, seen the introduction of macadamia nut farming in the north of the North Creek catchment. As science brought changes to agriculture that enabled farmers to achieve efficiencies and increase yields or production it has also created or assisted in identifying, and treating, environmental problems that result from agricultural practices. Such problems include soil erosion, and nutrient pollution that results from agricultural run-off – or water that drains off farms and is contaminated by fertilisers, manure or sprays. a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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Oyster farming in North Creek The large remnant shell midden that is located on North Creek is not only testament to the Bundjalung peoples’ long association with the area but also the prolific breeding ground the Creek was for its native oysters. From the time Europeans arrived at North Creek they sought out oysters for food. A little later on oysters were also in demand to process and use or sell as lime – a chief building product used to make mortar at this time. Given, in this era, many buildings in the district were of timber-construction the extent to which local oysters were used for building is unclear – but oysters could be readily exported south where demand was high and brick construction prominent. In 1868, due to the widespread use of live oysters for making lime (live oysters apparently resulted in superior lime), the colonial government legislated against this practice (i.e. from this time only oyster shell could be burnt to make lime).30 In these decades as well the demand for table oysters by settlers led to the regulation of the industry with the introduction of the Oyster Fisheries Act of 1884. This Act established a system capping the number of oyster leases that operated along estuaries throughout the state – this included in North Creek and the Richmond River. Oyster farming along North Creek was well established by the 1880s; just sixty years later oyster production in the Richmond River (including north Creek) peaked in 1940/41. Across the whole the state oyster production has been in decline since the 1970s.31 30 31 32 33
In association with the farming of oysters, ‘mangrove sticks’ were also harvested from the Creek, from at least the 1930s. The sticks, onto which oysters were grown, were cut for use by oyster farmers – locally and elsewhere. Mangrove sticks taken from North Creek were from the ‘black mangrove’ tree that naturally grew along it. Cut to a uniform length the sticks were bundled together and fixed upright, a section of the bundle was left exposed onto which the oyster embryo attached itself, and where it grew from the spat stage into a mature oyster. A newspaper report from October 1935 indicated that 65,000 black mangrove sticks left the Ballina Port in a single shipment; this shipment marked the start of the harvest season. It was further noted that up to six consignments of the same size were expected to be filled exclusively from North Creek during the season.32 North Creek-origin sticks were reportedly sought after given their greater durability than species obtained further south. The sticks that were sold on from Ballina and harvested from North Creek were used by commercial growers in the Hawkesbury, Port Stephens and Karuah River districts.33 From records uncovered to date, it is understood that the sticks were harvested from North Creek for up to two decades.
NSW Department of Primary Industries, NSW Oyster Industries Sustainable Aquaculture Strategy, (January 2014). NSW Department of Primary Industries, NSW Oyster Industries Sustainable Aquaculture Strategy, (January 2014), 7. OYSTER STICKS (1935, October 5). Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876 - 1954), 8. Retrieved December 15 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225508650 Oyster Sticks (1935) & OYSTER STICK DEMAND (1930, November 14). Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876 - 1954), 6. Retrieved December 15 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article94160383
Early twentieth century view of River Street, Ballina. European settlement along North Creek and the main arm of the River saw the establishment of Ballina township. Throughout the twentieth century Ballina and its surrounding localities have continued to expand, changing and placing new stresses on the North Creek catchment. Private collection. a land use history snapshot NORTH CREEK pre-1788 -2020
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Contemporary sea-change migration to the Ballina Shire and North Creek catchment In more recent decades the Ballina Shire experienced a new wave of significant population growth that reshaped it from a relatively small coastal town to a regional growth centre. Recent trends in population growth has predominantly stemmed from internal migration – that is the movement of people from within the country from one place to another, as opposed to an increased birth rate or international migration. The two decades from 1986 to 2006 marked a high point in the most recent increase in population at Ballina. This increase co-incided with a wider population pattern in Australia – the movement of people from cities to regional centres, as well as from inland areas to the coast. Ballina’s coastal environment influenced this change and saw it become one of several localities in the region to which ‘sea-changers’ have migrated in search of a more affordable lifestyle and to retire. Recent population growth in the shire has an interesting comparison with the late nineteenth century population changes that resulted from the legislative change made to encourage closer settlement on rural land. This reform pulled farming families to the district and saw the establishment and growth of the shire’s rural communities and villages. The impact of the shire’s expanding rural community on Ballina at this time was largely economic, as these communities demanded the specialist goods and services that had developed at the town of Ballina. In turn the development of goods and services in Ballina saw the town’s population increase. Into the twentieth century, the rural population continued to rise steadily throughout the shire. It was buoyed by the success of the local dairy industry that established from the 1880s and grew its production up until WWII. The stability of the shire’s rural population during this era bucked a downward population trend occurring in other parts of the state, which commenced at the beginning of the (twentieth) century and stemmed from
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the 1890s depression. Consequently, rural populations began moving to cities to find employment. From the immediate post-WWII decades, however, the rural population of the northern rivers was in decline as the dairy industry faced the problem of an oversupply of products and a consequent downturn in their value. The mechanisation of dairy production from the late 1960s also added somewhat to its reduced demand for labour. Throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s the industry faced further adjustments as it transitioned from a focus on producing dairy goods – notably butter – to the sale of bulk milk. These developments and increasing regulation of the industry became too onerous for many farmers and resulted in their abandonment of the industry. Many dairy farms, on the plateau especially, were turned over to horticulture – including avocado and macadamia nut production. Relative to the dairy industry, horticulture was highly mechanised and did not require the size of labour force the dairy industry once supported. The movement of people from the city in the 1960s and 1970s began the reversal of the effects of the declining rural population on regional centres; those moving from the city, however, were predominantly settling in urban areas. The 1960s and 1970s growth in tourism at Ballina led to an increased interest in the town. By the 1980s new settlers were arriving in significant numbers; this decade began a flow of people that, between 1986 and 2006, generated a 60 per cent increase in the population; with the largest proportionate growth occurring between 1986 and 1996. Increases in the population in the Ballina Shire since the 1980s has resulted in the subdivision of land for housing, and consequently significant urban expansion – as together housing developments and their ancillary infrastructure such as pathways, water, electricity etc. have grown the community’s urban footprint. A number of these subdivisions have occurred
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BIBLIOGRAPHY PRIMARY SOURCES
SECONDARY SOURCES
Flinders, Matthew, William Westall, and Robert Brown. A Voyage to Terra Australis: Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of That Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty’s Ship the Investigator. London: G. and W. Nicol, 1814. Print. SLNSW.
Bailey, G. N. ‘The Role of Molluscs in Coastal Economies: The results of Midden Analysis’. Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 2, nos. 45-62 (1975).
New South Wales. Department of Public Works. Richmond River Entrance [cartographic Material]. Sydney, N.S.W.: Dept., 1896. SLNSW. Northern Star NSW Aborigines Protection Board Annual Reports, 1883-1900, NSW Parliamentary Papers (UNE). NSW Government Gazette
Sharpe, M. ‘Bundjalung Settlement and Migration’. Aboriginal History, Vol. 9, no. 1, (1985), 106-108. NSW Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs. Aboriginal Reserves and Stations in NSW. Government Printer (1988). Steele, J. G. Aboriginal Pathways in Southeast Queensland and the Richmond River. University of Queensland Press (1984). Keats, N. C. Wollumbin: The Creation and Early Habitation of the Tweed, Brunswick and Richmond Rivers. Dunamis Press, Woy Woy (1988). Hall, Glen. The Port of Richmond River: Ballina 1840s to 1980s. Northern Star Print, Lismore (1983).
Richmond River Heads [cartographic Material]. 1887. SLNSW.
Mullens, M., (ed). Town & Country Journal on the Richmond, Lismore, Richmond River Historical Society (2001).
Rous, Henry John. Richmond River Soundings, Lennox Head [cartographic Material] / Captain Henry John Rous. 27 August 1828, 1828. SLNSW.
Olley, William J. Squatters on the Richmond: Runs, Owners and Boundaries from Settlement to Dissolution – 1840-1900. Lismore City Printery (1995).
Sketch Books, 1828-90, [Frederick Peppercorne, 1960], NSW State Records, microfilm 2781.
Daley, L. T. Men and a River: Richmond River District, 1828-1895. Melbourne University Press (1966).
Surveyor General – Sketch Books and Surveyor’s Field Books. Index to Sketch Books, 1828- 90, NSW State Records, microfilm 2778.
Murray, Cliff. Across Three Bridges, Northern Star Print (1983).
Wilton, C. Pleydell N. The Australian Quarterly Journal of Theology, Literature & Science 1828. Print. SLNSW.
Hall, Glen. The Port of Richmond River: Ballina 1840s to 1980s. Northern Star Print, Lismore (1983).
National Parks and Wildlife Service, Ballina Nature Reserve, Plan of Management, NPWS, (August 2003). NSW Department of Primary Industries, NSW Oyster Industries Sustainable Aquaculture Strategy, (January 2014). Trudgeon, T. Timber, Cedar and the Development of the Richmond. Northern Star Print, Lismore (n.d.). Graeme Hugo. ‘Geography and Population in Australia: A Historical Perspective’. Geographical Research, No. 49 (3) (August 2011), 242-260. Graeme Davison. ‘Rural sustainability in historical perspective’ in Sustainability and Change in Regional Australia. UNSW Press (2005), 21-38.
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Ballina Shire Council 40 Cherry Street Ballina NSW 2478 p: 1300 864 444 | e: council@ballina.nsw.gov.au
ballina.nsw.gov.au
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