Mullumbimby, New South Wales
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Mullumbimby New South Wales |
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Burringbar Street—Mullumbimby's main street
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 Mullumbimby
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| Coordinates | 28°33′S 153°30′E / 28.550°S 153.500°ECoordinates: 28°33′S 153°30′E / 28.550°S 153.500°E |
| Population | 3,172 (2011 census) |
| Postcode(s) | 2482 |
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| LGA(s) | Byron Shire |
| State electorate(s) | Ballina |
| Federal Division(s) | Richmond |
Mullumbimby is a town in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia in Byron Shire. It promotes itself as The Biggest Little Town in Australia. The town lies at the foot of Mount Chincogan in the Brunswick Valley about 9 kilometres (5.5 miles) by road from the coast. At the 2011 census, Mullumbimby and the surrounding area had a population of 3,172 people. Locals refer to the town as "Mullum".
Originally occupied by the Bundjalung people, by the 1850s Europeans had established a camp site at the junction of two arms of the Brunswick River. This grew to become a village and later the township of Mullumbimby. Mullumbimby was originally a centre for the timber industry. Notably, red cedar was collected in great quantities from around the area, a part of the far northern New South Wales' "Big Scrub".
The town was a logical site for settlement by the timber hunters, as the Brunswick River is tidal in the town and navigable to that point, allowing logs to be floated down the river to its mouth at Brunswick Heads. The town's central location gave access to most of the catchment area, and it provided the best position for bullock teams to cross the river with their wagons loaded with timber. At low tide it is still possible to see the shallow region where the bullocks made the crossing of the Brunswick River, under the current "Federation Bridge" on Murwillumbah Road.
The name "Mullumbimby" meaning 'small round hill' was given to the district by Aboriginal people. The name is derived from the Bandjalung-Yugambeh dialect 'mulubinba' (possibly also pertaining to a native fern which grew in the vicinity). Although some sources claim this is because of the proximity of Mount Chincogan, Chincogan is probably too prominent in the landscape to fit the name. An alternative theory is that it refers to another, smaller and rounder hill. Suggestions include a medium hill to the north of Left Bank road, on which the towns water tower is located, or a smaller hill on Coolamon Scenic Drive, situated on the Daly Family Farm, near the current golf course. This latter hill is possibly supported by the abundant grass flats which surrounded it, known as Mullumbimby Grass. These naturally open grass flats, presumably hunting grounds for the local Bundjalung tribes, where later used by early European timber hunters to graze their bullock teams. The significance of this area lay not only in the feed it provided, but that some grasses in the naturally cleared area aided bullocks which had swallowed salt water when dragging timber into the surf for collection by nearby ships.
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Wikipedia