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| Sunset over the Clarence
River at Iluka |
Iluka
Small fishing and holiday village on the northern side of
the mouth of Clarence River
Located 694 km north of Sydney and 21 km east of the Pacific
Highway, Iluka is a sleepy little fishing village which has
become a popular 'get away from it all' holiday destination
for people wanting to avoid the more commercialised
destinations further to the north. It is a town whose
economy is driven by oysters, prawning, fishing and holiday
makers.
The name 'Iluka' is reputedly a local Aboriginal word
meaning 'near the sea'. It is thought that the Yaygir or
Banjalang Aborigines occupied the area at the time of
European colonisation. These people lived within a fairly
small, well-defined area as the plenitude of resources
negated the need for lengthy migrations. It also appears to
have rendered them healthier and taller than inland groups
while their semi-sedentary lifestyle fostered a material
culture of greater perfection (i.e., superior domiciles,
utensils, baskets and fishing nets etc). European observers
spoke highly of their crafts, skills, mores, material
culture and intelligence. While they coexisted peacefully
with the timbergetters and pastoralists, the advent of
agriculture with the free selectors of the 1860s destroyed
the hunting grounds and decimated the culture of the
original inhabitants.
Matthew Flinders investigated the river mouth in 1799. He
landed on the northern headland, near present-day Iluka, and
on the southern headland (on what is now
Yamba) and wrote about the lifestyle of the Aborigines
he came in contact with. However, he found the waters
shallow and dismissed the whole area as 'deserving of no
more than a superficial examination'. In fact, Flinders
mistook the inlet for a coastal bay and did not imagine
there was a major river nearby.
It is thought that convict escapees from Moreton Bay
passed through the area in the late 1820s and early 1830s.
One of their number, Richard Craig, reported a big river and
a plenitude of valuable timber when he arrived at Port
Macquarie in 1832. He was later employed by a Thomas Small
of Sydney who, inspired by Craig's reports, sent off his
brother and two dozen sawyers on board the schooner, the
Susan, to the 'Big River' as it was initially known to
whites. It was the first European vessel to enter the river.
Other cedar-cutters followed in their wake. Small took up a
large parcel of land on Woodford Island, opening the way for
other landholders. Governor Gipps named the river the
Clarence in 1839.
By 1862 the present site of Iluka was 'a large sandy flat
covered with ferns, bloodwood, brush box, gum trees and
brush with patches of brushwood on the land behind, low
stunted scrub with wild vines towards Iluka Bluff and salt
water marshes flooded at high tide to the south on the inner
shore of the North Spit. The water on the shore of the town
site was deep but further south, out from the North Spit it
was shallow with sandbanks, covered at high tide,
surrounding Rabbit and Pelican islands.'
Settlement began with the start of harbour work at the
river mouth in 1862. A government wharf had been built here
by 1875 and a tramway was constructed out to Iluka Bluff to
obtain stone for the breakwater.
A post office opened in 1876 and, by 1878, there were
about 100 or 150 people living there - all except two
hoteliers and a storekeeper were employed on the harbour
works. This number allegedly increased to over 400 but the
employment was only temporary so few permanent dwellings
were erected and, by 1890, numbers were well down. However,
some stayed on and took up fishing as a livelihood. Supplies
were shipped to Sydney from 1887 and a cannery opened in
1899. From this point, the town established itself as an
important fishing port. Today it remains an interesting
combination of fishing port and holiday destination.
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Iluka
