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.