The NSW sugar industry was based on smallholdings rather than the plantations that predominated in Queensland. The pioneer cane farmers had great ingenuity in developing cane-crushing devices but their attempts to produce sugar for sale were small scale and the end product too variable to be profitable or edible. There were over fifty small, grower-owned…
Read moreCane fields have been part of the landscape in Northern NSW for more than 100 years. Back in the 1860s, a glut of maize combined with high sugar prices led many farmers to replace maize with sugar cane. The “sugar rivers” (Clarence, Richmond and Tweed Rivers) came to be looked upon as the most prosperous…
Read moreBefore 1957 fire fighting services in Yamba were limited by the landscape. The area between the Harwood ferry crossing and Yamba encompassed cane fields and large expanses of bush and swamp, criss-crossed by channels and narrow dirt tracks, all of which impeded any rapid response to fires. Frequent bushfires in the Yamba township area over…
Read moreWhile many people have visited the Yamba Museum over the years, not everyone knows that the very buildings have their own story to tell. The main building that now houses the Museum was originally the Bowling clubhouse, built in 1937 on Wooli Street. That building was cut in half and finally moved in November 1960…
Read moreAustralian horseracing has its roots dating back to the first colony. It cut across all levels of colonial society and race meetings were important social occasions, in Yamba as elsewhere. The very first meeting was no thoroughbred race, rather just a few locals matching their own horses on Pippi Beach in 1866. The New Years…
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