“I’ve lived in Bangalow my whole life and love being part of the community. I really enjoy being active, helping people and being involved in community activities,” says Charlotte.

People tend to moan and groan a fair bit about the local council. What motivated you to apply for a spot on the Byron Youth Council?

To be honest, given this is a new initiative, I didn’t really know what to expect when I applied. I wanted to apply because I think

young people should have a say in decisions that affect our community and I thought it would be a great way to meet new people across the Shire. It can feel like young people’s opinions are heard well in some areas, like schools or sports clubs, but there don’t seem to be many opportunities outside of these spaces. The Youth Council is a really good opportunity for people my age to share ideas and help make positive changes in our community.

Council wants to give young people a platform to voice their views and advocate for action on issues that affect them. What issues do you think are important to young people in Bangalow and 2479?

Bangalow is a great place to live, and I think it’s really important that young people feel included and supported here. I think some of the important issues for young people in our area include having safe places to hang out, especially since the Bangalow Bowlo shut down. It would be great to have more spaces where teenagers can spend time with friends in a safe and welcoming environment. Good sports and recreational facilities are also really important, because a lot of young people here are very active. And living in such a beautiful area, it’s also important to make sure our beaches and natural environment are protected for the future.

Being part of the Youth Council is a chance for us to actually have a say about things that affect teenagers in our area. I also love volunteering, and I think the Youth Council could be a great way to help more young people get involved in the community and feel like they’re part of making a difference.

How will you connect to, and consult with, young people in order to stay in touch with issues?

I think it’s really important to listen to lots of different young people. Given the restrictions around social media, in-person discussions will be the way to go. I’m lucky to have a younger brother at Bangalow Public School, and we have quite a few community events, e.g. the Billy Cart Derby and the Bangalow Show, that could provide opportunities to speak with local teens. I love chatting with my teammates through netball and many different sports about their concerns, and I connect with kids involved in community groups like Surf Life Saving. The local media could also help us achieve our goals. I want to make sure I’m listening to different perspectives so I can represent as many young people as possible.

What skills are you hoping to build on or develop during the 12 months you will be on the Youth Council?

It’s a great chance to develop leadership skills and learn more about how local government works. However, for me, it’s about building confidence in speaking up on issues I believe in. I’d also like to work on projects that can make a real difference to my friends and community.

Being part of the Youth Council will be a great opportunity to learn how to represent people and make a difference in the community.

Are you interested in a career in politics?

I am not totally sure about what I want to do when I grow up, but I am certain that the skills I learn throughout these 12 months will help me with whatever I choose to do.

What was the first Byron Youth Council meeting like?

The first meeting was a chance to meet everyone in the Council and the councillors. We got a chance to look over the opportunities that we will have over the 12 months. There is a wide age range and teens from all parts of Byron Shire. What I discovered was that we are there for the same reason, but all bring a variety of different perspectives and skills. Everyone was so welcoming and excited to kick off the next 12 months of action!

Keep your eye out for Charlotte in The Bangalow Herald over the next 12 months. She will be reporting in on the Byron Youth Council, and The Herald will support Charlotte in her efforts to connect to young people in the 2479 postcode.

   Booyong Nature Reserve

Up until just 250 years ago, our whole district was covered with dense rainforest and huge trees. To get a feel for what became known as the Big Scrub, take a short drive west of Bangalow to the Booyong Flora and Nature Reserve on Booyong Road on Widjabul-Wiabal country. There you will find remnants on both sides of the road of the original rainforest through which Bundjalung people walked for millennia. Take the path down to the Wilsons River and look at the trees and the tangle of vines. Stop and listen to the whip birds. Just 100 metres from the gate nearest the bridge over the river is the giant 30m tall water gum tree. This awesome tree is on the National Big Tree Register.

Songlines Map at Coorabell Hall

Take a 10-minute drive from Bangalow along Coolamon Scenic Drive to Coorabell Hall, perched on the edge of the escarpment with sweeping views of the coast. On the outside wall is a fabulous mural painted by Bundjalung man Uncle Lewis Walker. Using mainly Bundjalung place names, it offers an aerial view of the coastal plains from Minjungbal country north of the Brunswick River, across Arakwal country, and down to Ballina across Nyanbul country south of Broken Head.

Broken Head Nature Reserve

Broken Head is a significant place to Arakwal people. Not only does the headland reserve contain many mythical sacred sites, it was the home of Arakwal Harry Bray and his family, the ancestors of many Arakwal people today. It was a place full of food, medicines, and materials to make tools, string, and fishing nets. Walk down the track to the headland, look out at the rocks, and learn about the Three Sisters dreaming story.

Currenba (The Pass)

Currenba means ‘gully’ and describes the area at The Pass in Byron Bay. There is a beautiful shady walk behind the carpark with signs full of information about Arakwal history. Arakwal and other Bundjalung people camped beside the beach, eating pipis collected from the wet sand, other shellfish, and fish. There you will find a midden, reminding us that Bundjalung people have sat and enjoyed their seafood (and the view) at this spot for over 1500 years.

Dorrobbee Grass Reserve

High on a hill on Frasers Road, just five minutes from the Dunoon General Store, is one of the last remaining managed native grass ‘islands’ in the Big Scrub. It sits right in the middle of Widjabul-Wiabal country and offers huge 360-degree views. It was a camping ground for Widjabul-Wiabal, a strategic place from which to see distant fires and approaching visitors. You can see the original Kangaroo Grass, which is still managed with a combination of traditional ‘fire stick burning’ and other land management practices.

Explore Byron Bay Tours

Bundjalung woman Delta Kay runs a Bush Tucker Tour right in town. Walk with Delta on a rainforest walk that ends in Piccabeen Park with a beautiful bush tucker spread. For information and bookings, go to explorebyronbay.com

Local Libraries

If you like to read, local libraries have collections of books and historical material about Bundjalung culture and history. Libraries include the Byron Bay Library, Southern Cross University Library in Lismore, and Ballina Library. You may have to ask the librarians for access to some local history material.

One of our granddaughters likes to play ‘guess which car that is’. The other day she said “Nan, there’s a Porsche parked out the front of your house. And the one next to it – with four rings in a row – what’s that called?” ‘That’s an Audi,” I replied. “An Aldi?” she asked, a bit confused. “No darling not an Aldi, an Audi,” I replied, a bit amused.

She’s not the only one to have noticed a change in the ‘signifiers of wealth’ in Bangalow and the hinterland during and since COVID.

The exodus from the cities to regional areas was well underway by the time the last Census was taken in August 2021. For many people opportunities for regional remote working made the move to lifestyle destinations like Bangalow irresistible. The Census tells us that in Bangalow in 2021 a whopping 30.9% of the workforce worked from home – nearly double the figure (15.9%) from 2016. But you had to be able to afford the move. The property market went into overdrive, peaking around June 2022 at a median price of close to $2 million for a house in Bangalow.

Household income

There are various ways that the Census reports on wealth. One is the data it collects on different types of income, both individual and household: wages and salaries; government pensions/benefits/ allowances; superannuation and investment income; and profit/loss from unincorporated businesses and rental properties. Many households have multiple income streams – one person works full time, another works part-time, someone might be running a business, there might be rent or short term rental accommodation (STRA) income from a secondary dwelling, a grandparent might live in with a pension or superannuation income. Between 2016 and 2021 the weekly median household income for the Bangalow village grew by 49.5%. The hinterland showed a similar figure (49.2%). I showed the figures to a Census-nerd colleague who said, without hesitating, “that represents a significant demographic change”. It is a figure worthy of closer investigation. The first question we might ask is: was that level of growth typical elsewhere or was Bangalow/2479 unusual? The figures below show that our income grew more than double the rates for both NSW and Australia. The Byron Shire figures also showed growth greater than for NSW and Australia as a whole, but Bangalow’s household incomes grew even higher.

Median weekly household income

The second question we might ask is: has it always been the case that Bangalow’s median household income is high? No. It’s a fairly recent phenomenon. Back in 2016 Bangalow’s median household weekly income was slightly below state and national medians (but higher than for Byron Shire).

Looking at other Census data all of the following can be eliminated as explanations for the large growth in median household income. It’s not that the employment rate increased. It’s not that more people worked full time compared to part-time. It’s not that more people are living in each household and therefore bringing in more income streams. It’s not that more baby boomers moved here with big superannuation incomes (Bangalow’s median age fell from 42 to 39). It’s not wages growth (which averaged only 3.07% from 1998 to 2023). And ask any Centrelink recipient, there was certainly not a 50% increase in government benefits.

Could it be that people are doing different jobs and/or jobs that pay more? Whilst the top five occupations did not change between 2016 to 2021, there was an increase in the proportion of both ‘professionals’ and to a lesser degree ‘managers’ in Bangalow’s workforce. The proportion of ‘professionals’ is above state and national figures. However, the increases are not sufficient alone to explain a 49.5% growth in median household income.

What we are left with to explain the 49.5% increase in median household income are the remaining income types: investment income/dividends, profit/loss from unincorporated businesses and rental properties. To do so we need to move outside the Census to other reports, and we can only hypothesise about their possible contribution.

It’s possible, for example, that people with investment portfolios have enjoyed increases in investment income. Corporate profits in mining, banks, healthcare companies, retailers and fast food firms saw shareholder wealth soar during the pandemic. Many analysts reported on the ‘fault lines’ that COVID exposed as ‘tragic for the many but good for a privileged few.’

A 2022 ‘economic health check’ report by .id for Byron Shire Council found that COVID had a significant impact on the economy of Byron Shire, with the tourism sector hit particularly hard. The post-COVID recovery has been slower in Byron Shire than in regional NSW. With this in mind it is hard to see how local business profits drove the increase in our income. However, some businesses were advantaged by COVID, and these businesses – owned by locals but located outside the Shire – may have played a part in the increase in Bangalow’s median household income.

It is also possible that rental income played a part in the 49.5% increase. Residents may have more investment properties, here or elsewhere that provide an income stream. Incomes from short term rental accommodation may have increased. In the Bangalow village there are about 113 entire homes/apartments identified on an Inside Airbnb map of Byron Shire. Bangalow and hinterland residents have been very active building and renovating what Council call ‘infill’ – secondary dwellings like studios and granny flats. Many households use secondary dwellings as STRA, adding a passive income stream to other household incomes, sometimes to help pay for large mortgages. Airbnb tells us that the average income from an Airbnb dwelling in Byron Shire is $20,917. Some STRA houses in Bangalow report incomes of $70,000 – $90,000 per annum.

Socio-economic advantage

Each Census the Australian Bureau of Statistics combines data on income, education, employment, occupation, housing and family structure to establish an index (the SEIFA index) of relative socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage. The higher the score the higher the socioeconomic advantage.

In 2021 Bangalow scored 1082, placing it in the top 10% of socioeconomically advantaged suburbs/localities in Australia. The 2479 postcode overall scored 1080 which put it in the second top 10%, where Byron Shire as a whole also sits.

Just to put that in perspective, the Woollahra LGA in Sydney is the most socially advantaged LGA in Australia with a score of 1176. Woorabinda, a small Aboriginal community in Central Queensland, is the most socially disadvantaged LGA in Australia with a score of 659.

We are by any measure an advantaged community. We live at the top of Australia’s socioeconomic ladder.

The Census confirms what most residents already know – the population of both the Bangalow village and the 2479 postcode has grown. As of 2021 there were 2,260 people living in the village of Bangalow, and 5,780 in the whole 2479 postcode. The increase in population for the Bangalow village between 2016 and 2021 was 32.5%. This growth spurt was nearly three times the 12.2% increase in the previous Census period 2011-2016. In fact if we look at the 10 year period 2011-2021 the population of the village has grown by 48.7%.

For the whole 2479 postcode, the population growth between 2001 and 2016 was not quite as high – 22.2%, but significantly higher than the 4.2% growth of the previous Census period. When Council complete their analysis of the whole Shire we can compare these growth rates with both the Shire overall and other towns and villages. It was, by any account, a substantial increase in population and confirms a busier village in every way.

All these people need houses to live in and private dwellings of all types in the village increased by 25.7% between 2016 and 2021 – nearly twice the rate for the previous Census period. There was a smaller increase of 14.8% for the 2479 postcode as a whole.

Whilst state and Byron Shire Council housing policy directions aim to diversify housing stock to account for changing demographics such as an ageing population, more people living alone and the housing needs of young people, Bangalow and 2479 data did not show any significant changes in the types and sizes of private dwellings. Overwhelmingly we are living in separate dwellings (93.4% in the village and 96% in the 2479 postcode), the majority of which remain 3-4 bedrooms in size (82.2% and 78.3% respectively). These figures are well above state and national figures.

The converse is also evident in the Census data. When it comes to semi-detached, terraces, townhouses, flats or apartments the village sits at 5% compared to NSW at 33.4% and Australia at 26.8%. The 2479 postcode has even less at 2.7%. There was little change in this type of housing between the 2016 and the 2021 Census. We are also underrepresented when it comes to smaller dwellings (0-2 bedrooms) of any type. Our figures of 16.6% and 20.2% were lower than NSW at 30% and Australia at 24.9%. Again there was little change between 2016 and 2021. Note that the ABS does not have a distinct category for secondary dwellings.

Council analyses other data sets to make best estimates of infill development. At the last Census the Herald reported that social housing in Bangalow was pretty much out of the question due to the price of land and property, and that has not changed. We also reported at the last Census that many residents, as they got older, had no choice but to leave Bangalow in order to downsize and/or enter retirement and aged care facilities.

In 2021 26.4% of the population of Bangalow village was 55 years or over, and we are still not providing housing choices for this part of our population. Nor is there any evidence of improvements in affordable housing. The median weekly rent jumped from $515 in 2016 to $680 in 2021, well above both NSW and Australian figures (the Australian median is $375). The proportion of residents in the village who rent did not change much from 2016 to 2021, now sitting at 24.5%.

According to onthehouse.com the median house price in 2021 in Bangalow was $1,280,127, a 61.2% increase on 2016, when the figure was $794,221. The median monthly mortgage repayment rose from $1,733 in 2016 to $2,167 in 2021. Given that interest rates were stable and low during 2016-2021, the hike in mortgage repayments can be explained by the rise in house prices across that period.

The median household weekly income in the village jumped from $1,401 in 2016 (only slightly above the NSW and Australian figures) to $2,095 in 2021 (well above both NSW and Australian medians). This is a whopping 49.5% increase that cannot be accounted for by wages growth and suggests changes in the social demographics of our community. The Herald will explore this further in a subsequent article in this series.

These figures point to significant population growth spurt between 2016 and 2021 and changes in the social demographics of our community. The figures do not point to any improvement in affordable housing, social housing or housing options for young and ageing populations in either the village or the 2479 postcode.

Jenny Bird

100 years on from the death of Bangalow town founding father, Thomas Robinson, Jenny Bird takes a look at the early sub-division of the former Big Scrub, and checks in with the new owners of the original Robinson homestead.  

When Aaron and Louise Grofski bought an old timber house in Charlotte Street Bangalow in 2005 they did not know that they had bought a significant piece of Bangalow history.

“When we discovered that the house had been the retirement home of Tom and Charlotte Robinson we realised that we had a responsibility to restore it properly” says Aaron. “We read the Robinson family history and gathered photographs and information from the Bangalow Historical Society. We’re using photos of the old house as reference points to guide our restoration work. There’s lots of transported Queenslanders in Bangalow now, but there aren’t that many original Bangalow houses left.”

The 6^th of May 2022 will be the 100^th anniversary of the death of Tom Robinson.

Tom was the first white settler to buy land at what was then called Byron Creek, later to become Bangalow.  He arrived in Ballina in 1881 by boat from Sydney. With his brother John and friend William Barby, Tom cut a road from Charlie Jarrett’s farm at Newrybar to Byron Creek.

Tom lodged a claim for 488 acres of uncleared Big Scrub at the Lismore Lands Office. Under what is known as the Robertson Land Acts of 1861 unsurveyed Crown land across NSW became available to selectors under the ‘Free Selection before Survey’ scheme. Selectors could choose small parcels of Crown land anywhere in NSW at £1 per acre. They were required to pay a deposit, live on the land for three years, make improvements, and pay it off over time. Tom paid off his debt and was granted title in 1904.

In passing these Acts the NSW Government, without treaty, extinguished the rights to land (under the British legal system) of indigenous people across NSW.

75,000 hectares of Big Scrub – subtropical rainforest so dense that you could not see the sun – was cleared between the 1880s and 1900.  An estimated 100 million trees were felled, leaving only one percent of remnant forest.

Living in a tent, the three men took six months to clear 20 acres of rainforest. They then built a slab hut from felled sassafras trees. There was no grass, and they had no horses, so they walked to the nearest store at Tintenbar to get provisions from Sydney – beef in brine, butter, tea, flour and sugar. Once the hut was finished Tom went to Dungog and reunited with his wife and the first four of their children. They travelled to Sydney, then by steamer to Ballina, then by rowing boat up Teven Creek to Tintenbar. Jarrett met the family with his horses, and they rode to Byron Creek to their new home, the hut made of sassafras. They planted corn and bought the first cow in Bangalow. Tom had a bullock team and hauled logs, ploughed a section of the new railway line, bought a small herd of dairy cattle and made butter, eventually building a butter factory on his farm.

Charlotte, the first white woman to live at Byron Creek, became the midwife of the area. Untrained, she travelled all over the district delivering babies – attending more than 60 births over 19 years. She never lost a baby or a mother and never charged for her services. Her fifth child Mabel was the first white child to be born here, in 1883.

In 1886 the Robinsons built a larger five bedroom farmhouse near the Lismore Road and called it ‘Sunnyside’. By now they had seven children, with two more yet to come. A baby had died earlier at Glenthorne near Taree. ‘Sunnyside’ still sits proudly on a knoll just out of Bangalow on the way to Lismore.

If you live anywhere in what used to be known as ‘West Bangalow’ – west of Granuaille Road or up behind the Catholic Church or in the new Meadows Estate then you live on the original Robinson selection. Over time Tom and Charlotte subdivided off parcels of the land – to George Reading where Readings now stands and into three smaller farms on the northern side of the railway line. On 29 July 1903 Robinson’s first residential subdivision in the village of Bangalow went to auction.  Tom and Charlotte built their retirement home ‘Byron’ in Charlotte Street, which is the house that Aaron and Louise Grofski bought and are restoring. 

Robinson family member Mike Fahey says of the Grofski’s “my cousin has told me about the wonderful work you have done in the restoration of Grandpa Thomas’ homestead. I think Thomas would be so happy to see your awesome work. Thank you.”

Jenny Bird