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Richmond River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Richmond River is a river in the north-eastern corner of New South Wales, Australia. It runs for approximately 170 km from the foothills of the Border Ranges past the towns of Kyogle, Casino, Coraki, Woodburn, where it turns northward and empties into the Pacific Ocean at Ballina. It has a catchment area of 6,850 km², which makes it the sixth largest catchment in the state. Its floodplain has an area of over 1,000 km².[1]
It is one of the three rivers that are generally considered to constitute the Northern Rivers District of New South Wales, the other two being the Clarence River to the south and the Tweed River to the north.
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Missed by Captain James Cook when he sailed up the east coast of the Australian mainland in 1770, it wasn't until Captain Henry John Rous identified the mouth of the river in 1828 that it was discovered by Europeans. Rous entered the river and sailed about 20 miles (32 km) up river. He subsequently named the river Richmond after the fifth Duke of Richmond. Later that year the explorer Allan Cunningham reached the river by land.[2]
The river was a major port from the 1840s until well into the 20th century. Soon after the first white settlers arrived they discovered the abundant supply of Australian Red Cedar in the Richmond Valley and immediately began logging. The river was vital in the transportation of this resource.
At the time of its discovery in 1828 and until the late 1890s the river had a treacherous mouth of shifting sand bars, and many ships and lives were lost on it. Understandably, a decision was made to construct two breakwaters to channel the river's flow and these were completed in the early 1900s. The construction of the breakwaters also led to the formation of Shaw's Bay (after sand built up behind what is now called Lighthouse or Main Beach).
In 1846, a conflict between white settlers and local Aborigines in the river valley (the Richmond River massacre) caused the deaths of around 100 of the latter.
With the decline of shipping as a transport mode, owing to better roads and rail, and the closing of the North Coast Steam Navigation Company (the major shipping firm of the area) in 1954, the river became less important as a port.
More recently, however, there has been greater appreciation of the river and its place in Ballina (and NSW North Coast) history. For boats the river is only navigable for a short way up its length, possibly as far as Coraki, but a major tributary of the Richmond River is the Wilson River, which flows through the city of Lismore and is navigable at least as far as Lismore.
The Richmond River is heavily used for irrigation along its length. Several weirs have been constructed in order to mitigate the effects of flooding, most notably at Casino.
The freshwater reaches of the Richmond River once supported the endemic Richmond River Cod, similar to Murray Cod and possibly a subspecies of Eastern Freshwater Cod. Unfortunately this unique native fish became extinct between the 1930s and 1950s due to habitat degradation and gross overfishing, including with dynamite during the building of the local railway line. The Endangered Oxleyan Pygmy Perch has been recorded from the river.