Ballina

In 1836 cedar-cutters Steve King & Joe Maguire had reached the Clarence River. The Aborigines called the cedars “wudgie – wudgie” trees and told the newcomers of the trees further north. In 1842 a whale-boat was loaded onto a dray pulled by bullocks. They travelled overland north to Pelican Creek & then rowed down to the river entrance. Cedar tops were evident in the “Big Scrub” and the news travelled fast. Before the end of the year white settlement in Ballina began. Steve King returned with his family & other cutters on the tiny schooner “Sally”. They sailed up the coast from the Clarence and some set up camp at “Prospect”, where there was a freshwater stream & high ground for camping. Others continued upstream to Gundarimba.

The Settlement of Ballina

In order to legally cut cedar, cutters were required to obtain a cedar cutter’s license, for 4 pounds, from Grafton (& later Casino). The license did not provide ownership to land, but did allow the cedar-getter to build a hut & cut cedar on unsettled land. Little shanties appeared around the shore – plain slab structures with bark roofs and mud floors. The only lighting was by tallow-dip lamps. A huge open fireplace was a popular feature in every hut, and although firewood was plentiful, matches were scarce.

Word rapidly spread about the wonderful cedar timber which made small fortunes for the men of the Richmond River. Cedar-getters crossed the bar in tiny vessels to make their fortunes with the valuable timber. Beside a small stream of water and underneath a big fig tree, was dug the saw pit, at which the first Richmond River cedar was cut.

The first cedar was cut at Prospect & floated down North Creek to the East Ballina saw pit. Here it was cut into filtches (logs). Other cedar camps were established at Emigrant Creek (named after the emigrants Tom Brandon & Henry Williams), Duck Creek (Uralba), Teven, Tintenbar & further up the river. As round logs did not pack well in ships’ holds, the timber was squared with axes for easier transport.

Whilst a lot of the cedar getters had been mere opportunists, several of the early arrivals possessed the true pioneering spirit, and their families formed the nucleus of the new town. Some of the first sawyers were Tommy Chilcott, Sandy Golding, Tom Woods, W Jarvis, and Joe White. The number of saw pits rapidly increased to six, and the camp became a scene of much activity.

Food supplies were uncertain, so the diet was often monotonous — damper, corn beef and tea. Some beef was later transported down the river from the large cattle stations, birds such as brush turkey and pigeon were hunted for food, and fish was a popular change. It was the small ships, however, on their irregular visits to the River that were the main source of supply of grain and merchandise, and these were often bar bound for weeks, or lost in the crossing.

Thomas Mobbs’ Federal Store mid 1860s

William Yabsley arrived overland on a dray from the Clarence River with his family and built a rough-sawn hut and yards for his bullocks. William Wilson arrived by ship with his young family, but departed not long afterwards to take up their selection on the North Arm naming it Lismore. Apart from small cedar camps, there were no other white settlements anywhere on the river between Ballina and the squatter’s run at Casino. William Yabsley built the first boat on the river, a ketch Pelican, which he began trading to Sydney with the lucrative cedar cargo. A few years later he used the Pelican to move his growing family 50 miles up river to the North & South Arm junction to establish the town of Coraki.

West Ballina, undeveloped for many years, remained an extensive brush-covered swamp, with some heavily timbered ridges of gum and box trees.

More early pioneers began to arrive, some with their families in tow: Thomas Ainsworth; William Clement; John Sharpe; Charles Jarrett; James Ross; John Skennar; Joseph Eyles; James Shaw and Thomas Mobbs with landmarks, creeks and bays being named where they settled. They built houses and businesses, sawmills and sugar mills and expanded inland, developing a burgeoning and vibrant township. Thomas Ainsworth built the ‘Sailor’s Home’ Hotel at East Ballina in 1853 and resided at North Creek.

The sailing ships destined to transport cedar away from the Richmond, brought rock as ballast from Sydney which was used along the waterfront at Ballina. At West Ballina Mr. Joe Eyles built a small hotel, the “Sawyer’s Arms” alongside the first post office and Snow and Essery’s sawmill and wharf. The first policeman, Constable Jack Macleod, arrived in Ballina in the mid-fifties. More businesses began to occupy the northern shoreline and West Ballina became the centre of the growing town. The first land was offered for sale at Ballina in 1856, at the Casino Lands Office.

Many ships were wrecked on the treacherous, ever-changing bar with no lighthouse. In 1855, Captain George Easton became the first pilot officer. He ruled the comings & goings of all ships for eight years, saving many lives.

As the cedar was cut out, farming pioneers further bought, settled & cleared the Big Scrub to allow for cattle grazing & the growing of crops. By 1860, dairying & general farming had become the way of life for settlers. The Robertson Land Act of 1861 allowed these cedar cutters and other settlers to purchase land for one pound an acre on an instalment basis. By a first payment of five shillings per acre they could buy as few as 40 acres or as many as 320. Hundreds of men swarmed to take up land, many hoping to become prosperous by growing the newly introduced sugar cane.

Through the 60s and 70s the town thrived. Shaws Bay was still the centre of shipping trade but when the public school was moved to the western side of North Creek, many more businesses followed suit. Captain George Easton, from the pilot station on the eastern side, supplied a boat to convey his five children and other students to the school until a ferry was established between East and West Ballina. Charles Jarrett also sent five of his children to the school and paid the fees of ten more.

Tom Fenwick arrived in the mid 70s with his tug-boat Alchymist and established a shipyard and wharf on the eastern waterfront alongside the sawmill. Cedar trading was still brisk although more and more steamers were replacing the sailing ships. The bar was still treacherous requiring most boats to be towed in and out and up the river to their destinations. The competition for this lucrative trade was stiff, causing the “Battle of the Bar”. Although a lighthouse was built at North Head in 1880, the construction of a breakwall was still being discussed in parliament, while more ships, lives and cargo were being sacrificed at the Heads.

In 1883, Ballina was gazetted a local government area and the first Municipal Council was elected. The first mayor was William Clement who led a council comprised of Aldermen Wigmore, Winton, Jarrett, Ryan and Holden. Among the first businesses conducted by the council were requests to the Postmaster-General for a bi-weekly mail service to Lismore and for the inclusion of a tower with a four faced clock in the plans for the new post office then under construction.

Ballina
Pilot station and Fenwick House

The sugar cane industry had practically disappeared after the tariff on imported sugar had been abolished – until the Colonial Sugar Refinery (CSR) built a large mill at Broadwater and consolidated the farmers crops. The dairy industry was gaining strength with different breeds of cattle being introduced. The first district butter factory was established in 1885 with the founding of the Norco butter factory at Byron Bay. In 1886 or 1887, Mr. George Pynchon drove from Inverell with a buggy and pair to examine the possibilities of starting a newspaper either at Lismore or at Ballina. He decided on Ballina believing that it would be a larger and more important city in the future. He founded the “Ballina Pilot”.

Business was good for Thomas Fenwick who built a grand house at Shaws Bay at a cost of £9000. The proposed construction of the breakwall would cut off Shaws Bay but the house boasted a verandah which had a commanding ocean view out through the heads to spot all the approaching ships.

At the turn of the century Ballina was fifty eight years old. It had become the major settlement of the lower Richmond. About 300 local children were being educated at the public school with some students being conveyed on the daily river boat service from up-river villages. Three separate river boat companies were competing for local cargo trade including mail and passengers. Work had finally begun on the breakwater and the canal which offered employment to hundreds of men both in Ballina and Rileys Hill. Mr. Tom Borton had begun a road coach service between Ballina and Lismore and Mr. Don Wells one between Ballina and Bangalow. Local news was gathered by the “Richmond River Times” and the “North Coast Beacon”. For water, the town depended on a municipal spear point water service and household tanks. A town electricity supply was put on in 1911. Some of the main roads had been macadamised, though the land bounded by the Australian Hotel, the Post Office, River and Tamar Streets was still a marshy waste. Bagot’s mill and Fenwick’s Engineering Works (now the “Slipway”) were among the major commercial enterprises.

Ballina Fenwick Shipyard
Fenwick Shipyard

In the early 1920’s Ballina’s population had reached 3,000 mainly due to the influx of older people, retiring to Ballina. The port was the third busiest in N.S.W. after Sydney and Newcastle. The Coop. Refrigerating and Produce Company had been started. The town boasted of four banks, six hotels, two picture theatres, a School of Arts and the Owassa Private Hospital in addition to the public hospital. Its chief primary products were dairy products, cane, maize, fish, bananas, pears, beans, tomatoes and melons. New life was promised for Ballina with the turning of the first sod in the Ballina-Booyong railway project in 1923, but the train arrived much too late to develop the hinterland. It was not opened until 1930 and eventually closed in 1949 through lack of patronage. By being terminated out near the canal, some distance from the wharves, it was rendered futile.

Motor traffic was taking over from the river and railways were being developed to other centres. With the disappearance of the red cedar, other timber like pine was now being transported by rail and the river trade was all but dead in the 1950s. Ballina became a popular tourist destination and other industries evolved to support this new direction.


River Towns