*** Welcome to piglix ***

Byron Bay, New South Wales

Byron Bay
New South Wales
Bryon Bay NSW.jpg
Byron Bay from Cape Byron State Conservation Area
Byron Bay is located in New South Wales
Byron Bay
Byron Bay
Coordinates 28°38′35″S 153°36′54″E / 28.64306°S 153.61500°E / -28.64306; 153.61500Coordinates: 28°38′35″S 153°36′54″E / 28.64306°S 153.61500°E / -28.64306; 153.61500
Population 4,959 (2011 census)
Postcode(s) 2481
Elevation 3 m (10 ft)
LGA(s) Byron Shire
County Rous
State electorate(s) Ballina
Federal Division(s) Richmond
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall
23.5 °C
74 °F
16.9 °C
62 °F
1,509.2 mm
59.4 in

Byron Bay is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 772 kilometres (480 mi) north of Sydney and 165 kilometres (103 mi) south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a headland adjacent to the town, is the easternmost point of mainland Australia. At the 2011 census, the town had a permanent population of 4,959. The town is in turn the nucleus of Byron Shire, which had 29,209 residents.

The local Arakwal Aboriginal people's name for the area is Cavvanbah, meaning "meeting place". Lieutenant James Cook named Cape Byron after Naval officer John Byron, circumnavigator of the world and grandfather of the poet Lord Byron.

The history of Europeans in Byron Bay began in 1770, when Lieutenant James Cook found a safe anchorage and named Cape Byron after a fellow sailor John Byron.

The first industry in Byron was cedar logging from the Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata). The timber industry is the origin of the word "shoot" in many local names – Possum Shoot, Coopers Shoot and Skinners Shoot – where the timber-cutters would "shoot" the logs down the hills to be dragged to waiting ships.

Gold mining of the beaches was the next industry to occur. Up to 20 mining leases set up on Tallow Beach to extract gold from the black sands around the 1870s.

Byron Bay has a history of primary industrial production (dairy factory,abattoirs, fishing, and whaling until 1963) and was a significant, but hazardous, sea port. The poet Brunton Stephens spoke of cattle grazing on the "mossy plains" of Cape Byron in a poem he penned in 1876.


...
Wikipedia

...