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| The Bowraville Hotel in
the main street of Bowraville |
Bowraville
Small timber town with an alternative lifestyle ambience.
Located 524 km north of Sydney via Pacific Highway and 12 km
west of Macksville, Bowraville is situated in the heart of
the Nambucca Valley. It is approximately half way between
Sydney and Brisbane. The town promotes itself as 'the
verandah post heritage town' because most of the older
buildings in town are characterised by old-style verandahs
which reach out and provide shade on the footpaths.
Before the arrival of Europeans the Bowraville district
was inhabited by the Ngaku and the Gumbayngirr Aborigines.
Today there are still substantial numbers of their
descendants living in the area. The first Europeans to
arrive in the area came in the 1840s. Like most of the
coastal areas of New South Wales the first settlers were
cedar cutters.
In March 1841 Clement Hodgkinson explored the upper
reaches of the Nambucca and Bellinger Rivers. He was the
first European to make contact with the local Aboriginal
community. The township, originally named Bowra, grew up in
the 1850s and 1860s. It was renamed Bowraville in the 1870s
because confusion was occurring with the Southern Highlands
township of Bowral. No one knows with any certainty what the
word 'Bowra' means. Various sources claim it is a local
Aboriginal word meaning either 'cabbage palm', 'bullrout
fish', 'scrub turkey' or 'bald head'. There is also a
suggestion that the town's name comes from a European,
Captain Bowra, who was sent up the river to search for
cedar.
In the early years of its existence Bowraville was
primarily a timber town. It grew to meet the needs of the
local timber cutters and so by the 1870s it boasted two
hotels a number of general stores, a blacksmiths shop, a
tailor, local post office, a school and a number of
churches. By the 1880s, while timber was still dominant, the
district was also an important dairy and pig raising area.
However it is still true that timber remains the predominant
industry. People who are interested need only to take a
short walk down the hill from the Bowra Hotel to see the
size and scale of the local timber mills.
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| The town clock in the
main street of Bowraville |
The town has remained relatively static throughout the
20th century but by the 1960s this area of the New South
Wales coast was attracting people interested in alternative
life styles. Today this alternative lifestyle is apparent in
the rather sophisticated, alternative movie house in the
main street and the window advertisements for drug
rehabilitation, masseurs and alternative type activities.
The area has seen the development of such activities as
macadamia farms, avocado growing and even deer and ostrich
farming. The towns main street has been carefully recreated
(much of it had been destroyed by a series of bush fires) so
that it maintains a certain old world charm.
Things to see:
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| St James Anglican Church
|
St James Anglican Church
Located at the northern end of the main street this striking
wooden building was completed in 1899. It is a symbol of the
town's total commitment to the use of timber.
Walking Around Town
There is no substitute to simply getting out of your car and
walking up and down the main street of Bowraville. There are
number of attractive buildings including the Bowra Hotel
with its wide verandah, the Bowraville Folk Museum and
particularly the attractive wooden churches at the northern
end of town. The Old Bank Gallery in the main street is also
worth visiting as it has fine displays of paintings and
craft made within the local area.
Bowraville Folk Museum
The Bowraville Folk Museum has a range historic items which
recreate the history of the local district. These include a
boarding house, Ryan's cottage, a unique collection of naval
tallies and some farm machinery. In the area of the Folk
Museum is the local Presbyterian Church which dates from
1885.
The Handmade House Tour
Each year, usually in October, the Tallowood Community
School organises for a range of handmade houses in the
Bellingen/Bowraville area to be opened to the public. For a
modest fee ($30 per car for two days) visitors can inspect
houses made from mud brick, rammed earth, wattle and daub,
mud and sawdust packing and stone and wood construction.
There is also an opportunity to inspect permaculture and
solar energy uses. For more information contact the school
on (02) 6564 7619 or email tallow@nor.com.au.
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| The countryside between
Bowraville and Bellingen |
Drives in the Local Area
Virtually any road leading out of Bowraville takes the
visitor through spectacular forest countryside where it is
possible to see giant tree ferns, cedar trees, fig trees,
stag horns, kangaroo ferns, and a variety of eucalypts.
Particularly attractive are the roads from Bowraville to
Bellingen and from Bowraville to Taylors Arm, the home of
the famous 'Pub With No Beer'.
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Bowraville
