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.

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. 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.