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Big River History
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
​​As I am working from various locations in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land — the Yaegl, Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr, Arakwal, and Githabul Nations — and their continuing connection to land, waters and community.​
The traditional custodians
The "Big River" is where three major First Nations territories meet, although the boundaries aren't clearly defined and likely shifted over time.
The coastal zone from Black Rock near Evans Head and southwest to the Ashby broadwater down to Ulmarra, looping back to coastal Wooli, is generally considered Yaegl Country. It covers present-day Iluka, Yamba, and Maclean among many other places.
Bundjalung Country runs just west of this, from the northern banks of the Clarence River at Southgate (Grafton) to the Richmond River and beyond Evans Head, extending northwest to Tabulam and Baryulgil.
The Clarence Valley local government area (LGA) also includes the Gumbaynggirr people of the Mid North Coast. South of the Wooli River until the Nambucca River is Gumbaynggirr Country and to the southwest it stretches as far as Bellinger and Ebor. It takes in the Nymboida River, the Orara River and the southern banks of the Clarence River (known as 'Bulgarr Ngaru') at Swan Creek near South Grafton.
Up to the Tweed River, which marks the current Queensland border, are the territories of the Arakwal and Githabul Nations of Northern NSW and this also takes in the Richmond and Wilsons Rivers.
The Traditional Owners and Custodians of these lands and waters have lived around this river since time immemorial, as oral history, genomic studies and archeological findings show. Experts dated the shell middens at Woombah to around 1500 BC, but we have since learnt that Aboriginal Australians are the oldest known civilisation on Earth, with ancestries stretching back up to 80,000 years. European settlement came relatively late. Here is why:
Missed by early European explorers
More than 160 years after the Australian continent was first spotted by the Dutch, the British came to map the coastline. When the Endeavour first sailed by the northern rivers in 1770, the famous explorer Captain James Cook reported seeing “people and smook in several places.” but he sailed past the Clarence Peak at night time and failed to spot any of the northern rivers.
The navigator Matthew Flinders and his crew from the H.M.S. Norfolk used Cook's journal as a guide and reported landing in “Shoal Bay” (Yamba) for repairs in July 1799.
They found three large round huts with tea-tree paperbark cladding, but also failed to spot the Big River. About Yamba Flinders wrote:
"At half-past three, a peaked hill standing four or five miles inland and more conspicuous than usual bore true west. Before five, we stood in for what appeared to be an opening, and about dusk were in the entrance of a wide shoal bay."
[..]
"The meridian altitude of the Sun gave the latitude of the entrance into the bay, 29º 26’28” South."
[..]
"I can give no particular mark that will point out the situation of Shoal Bay, but its latitude and the somewhat remarkably peaked hill that lays about four leagues to the southward of it."
(later renamed Clarence Peak, pictured here)
Found by wandering convicts
The Sydney Gazette” reported on December 1, 1825:
“Advices from Port Macquarie state that four prisoners, runaways from Moreton Bay, had arrived at the settlement after a journey of five weeks. “As far as their capacities extend, and allowing them credit for speaking the truth, they give a most pleasing account of the country over which they have passed.
[..]
“They report that they crossed not less than 60 rivers or streams, and that about 30 miles northward of Trial Bay they fell in with a river as large as the Hastings. Plains of boundless extent are described as lying between Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay and the country is said to be equal, if not superior, to any other part of the continent.”
More escaped convicts first reported the river valley's existence to the British colonisers in the years to come.
For example, a Richard Craig arrived at Port Macquarie in 1831, and reported that about 40 miles up the river he had come across delightful plains, and that throughout the area there were immense growths of valuable timber.
A convict named Sheik, alias Jack Brown, a 'Mussulman' [from Bombai, India], declared in 1832 that he had been on the run for over three years, having spent most of the time at a large river, called 'Brimbo' by "the natives", or 'Berin' by some.
He said the river was very wide at the mouth and he spotted a vessel called Rainbow anchored in the Big River.
Found by wandering convicts
The Sydney Gazette” reported on December 1, 1825:
“Advices from Port Macquarie state that four prisoners, runaways from Moreton Bay, had arrived at the settlement after a journey of five weeks. “As far as their capacities extend, and allowing them credit for speaking the truth, they give a most pleasing account of the country over which they have passed.
[..]
“They report that they crossed not less than 60 rivers or streams, and that about 30 miles northward of Trial Bay they fell in with a river as large as the Hastings. Plains of boundless extent are described as lying between Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay and the country is said to be equal, if not superior, to any other part of the continent.”
More escaped convicts first reported the river valley's existence to the British colonisers in the years to come.
For example, a Richard Craig arrived at Port Macquarie in 1831, and reported that about 40 miles up the river he had come across delightful plains, and that throughout the area there were immense growths of valuable timber.
A convict named Sheik, alias Jack Brown, a 'Mussulman' [from Bombai, India], declared in 1832 that he had been on the run for over three years, having spent most of the time at a large river, called 'Brimbo' by "the natives", or 'Berin' by some.
He said the river was very wide at the mouth and he spotted a vessel called Rainbow anchored in the Big River. This prompted further investigations
Prospectors arrive
Soon the first prospectors came to collect cedar and farmers followed. Suddenly, the Clarence River was in business. Indigenous locals told the newcomers that the Bundjalung word for the Clarence River was 'Breimba', meaning “Big River”, the Gumbaynggirr word was "Bulgarr Ngaru" (Big Water) and the Yaygirr word was 'Biirrinba'.
The schooners Susan and Elizabeth explored the river in 1838 and two river islands near Grafton were named after those vessels. In November 1839, the Big River was officially renamed the Clarence River by the then Governor of New South Wales. This was in honour of William IV, the Duke of Clarence, who was the King of England from 1830 to 1837.
Grafton was founded 1851 when the first sales of town allotments took place. Besides the squatters and cedar getters, the Gold Rush of the 1850’s led to a major population increase. Numerous other towns, some with over 4,000 prospectors, sprang up in the Upper Clarence: Drake, Tooloom. Solferino. Lionsville, Dalmorton etc.
​By 1854, the Clarence Valley was pretty much a settled society with most services present. To solve the sudden huge surplus unemployed, thousands were given between 30 and 100 acres to farm. This had a massive impacts on the Indigenous population and the ecology of the region.
The remnants of rainforest along the rivers were cleared for cropping and draining of the once ecologically productive swamps. This further eliminated Aboriginal food sources and resulted in further dislocation.
When the First Nations tribes defended their country, the Northern Rivers region got caught up in the Frontier Wars, with devastating results.
Special thanks to Des Schroder for the fact check. More early European history is documented on the Australian Frontline Conflicts website and on the Clarence History Society website.