The exhibition takes visitors on a colourful journey into our past, featuring original artworks and woodworks depicting our pioneering heritage from 1840-1935.

The exhibition is currently on display and will run until Wednesday, September 1.

Both artists are descendants of pioneering families within the area, which has been invaluable to the quality and success of the exhibition.

Bill Mason has been a member of the local historical society for over 40 years, with extensive knowledge of the history of our pioneers.

Riki Mason is extremely passionate about sharing this time in history with the community and preserving the many memories, stories and the lifestyles that our pioneers endured.

With local history, landmarks and tales of discovery, this exhibition is a great way for the Ballina Shire community to celebrate our local history.

It is also a unique opportunity to educate locals, school children and visitors about our local pioneering history.

The community is invited to attend the exhibition. Entry is free.

The Ballina Visitor Information Centre is located on the corner of River Street and Las Balsas Plaza. It is open seven days, 9am to 5pm. Phone 6686 3484.

One of our Ballina.Info readers, Rose from Alstonville, has sent us a few photos of the dust storm over Alstonville.

Thank you for the photos, Rose!

A recently published book on the East Ballina Waterfront Dance Hall and Skating Rink is sure to bring the memories flooding back for long-time Ballina locals.

The book traces the history of the dance hall, built originally as an open-air dance floor on Byron Creek at Bangalow in the 1920s, its removal to the waterfront at East Ballina in the 1930s, its demolition in the 1960s and the skating rink in the 1950s and 1960s.

The book covers the owners, bands, dances, special events, dress codes and transport connected with the dance hall.

For any inquiries about the book please contact Marlene Lester on 6681 5816.

PICTURE: The ‘All Stars’, the last band to play at the Waterfront. From left, Ken McBurney, Roger Munsie, Bruce Nicholas, Bert Plenkovich and Vin Maguire. Picture courtesy of Vin Maguire.

The workshop is being hosted by the Aquarian Archive Inc in conjunction with the Richmond River Historical Society, Southern Cross University library and the Office of Regional Engagement.

The workshop, in the library’s Manning Clark Room, will be led by Geoff Foley, Richmond River Historical Society secretary and trained archivist.

The workshop is the result of a group meeting, hosted by the University’s Office of Regional Engagement, which found that many community members held uncatalogued collections and that the development of archival skills was necessary to ensure the conservation of the region’s cultural resources.

Mr Graham Irvine, president of the Aquarian Archive Inc, said the workshop would provide people with the necessary skills to create an archive by learning how to assess and uniformly catalogue their own collections.

The workshop starts at 9am on Saturday and places are limited. For more information contact Graham Irvine on 6620 3378, Geoff Foley 6621 9993 or Craig Littler 6626 9491.

Mr Kyle is one of the many Northern Rivers locals who are being invited to share their stories about life on the river, from the early days of settlement right up to the new millennium.

The ambitious project, Conversations by the River, is being managed by Southern Cross University under the auspices of Lismore City Council and is a key part of the Wilsons River Experience Walk Project.

Southern Cross University said that the Richmond River Historical Society, local Indigenous Elders, Land Care groups and other interested community groups are also involved in the project.

The project team has dedicated Friday, March 2, between 3pm and 5.30pm, near the boat ramp at Riverside Park, Lismore, as a time and place to call together everyone with a yarn to tell about our river.

The public consultation will be held in an informal social atmosphere and aims to celebrate, share and record stories about the river and its upstream tributaries and to stimulate interest and knowledge in the social history of Lismore and its environs.

It will be a time to share stories and rekindle memories, to bring along old photos or memorabilia to show the Richmond River Historical Society research team, who will scan or photograph the items and try to identify any mysteries, and to have your story – old or new – taped and recorded for future generations.

Mr Kyle, 77, said he was delighted to be taking part in the project and urged others to come along on March 2 to ‘sit and have a cuppa and a yak’.

“I came to the area as an 11-year-old and my first memory of the river is jumping in for a swim,” Mr Kyle said.

“The water wasn’t as clean as you might imagine – it was filled with butterfat as the milk factory discharged all its buttermilk directly into the river. You felt greasy after a swim.

“I was a member of the Lismore Ballina Surf Lifesaving Club and we did our training on the river. We had to wash down the boats each time we put them in the river for training as they were covered in a creamy wax.”

Over the years My Kyle has skippered many boats on the river – sand dredges, timber and steel barges and tugs.

“There were huge boats – some up to 200 feet long – that crossed the Ballina bar and came upriver with freight,” he said.

“Absolutely everything came by boat in the early days and the river was alive and busy all of the time. There was everything from cement, steel and timber for building, to fabric, cosmetics, food, furniture and liquor.

“I remember being told there used to be about 10 hotels along the riverbank between Lismore and Woodburn, where the maritime traffic would stop for a drink or a meal. It was a very lively scene. I remember it cost 10 bob (one dollar) a week for full board.

“Some of my fondest memories are of my old wooden tugboat the Leo that I owned and skippered for many years, using it to take cedar logs downstream the 95 miles to Ballina.

“When I stopped that business I wanted to sell her locally but I couldn’t get a buyer. She went to an artist in South Australia who restored her to her former glory.

“It would be fantastic if she could be acquired as a history museum by the local community and I invite interested groups to get involved in bringing her back – she certainly would be a drawcard for tourists.

“The river is still navigable to large vessels along its entire length from Ballina to Lismore and it is a great shame we have no river trade or tourist trips on offer at the moment.”

PICTURE: Tom Kyle with the wheel of the paddle steamer Laurieton, which he used as a sand dredge on the Wilsons River until the late 1980s.

The book has been compiled by the Alstonville Plateau Historical Society and will be launched by Ballina Shire Mayor Phillip Silver on Friday, March 16, in the RSL hall, Bugden Avenue, Alstonville.

 The Historical Society says the book is a collection of recollections from the past and present residents of the Alstonville district and was originally inspired by Foreman Crawford’s well-known book, Duck Creek Mountain Now Alstonville.

“In it, he asked that someone should take over the task of recording the growth of the district and this we, the Alstonville Plateau Historical Society – with the invaluable assistance of our many contributors – have attempted to do,” the society said.

Featured are stories and photographs of the people, places and events from Andrew Freeborn’s 1865 Big Scrub selection to today.

To reserve a copy of the book send $35 plus $8.50 forpostage and handling with your name, address and contact number/email address to APHS Inc. PO Box 65 Alstonville 2477, or send $35 to pick up a copy at Crawford House Museum, 10 Wardell Road, Alstonville, after the book launch. Ring 66 283925 for more information.

This illustration, while not being able to show the no doubt pristine beauty of the river, gives you a bit of an idea what Captain Henry Rous found when he sailed into the Richmond in August 1828.

The map was made by Captain Rous and can be found in the book, Across Three Bridges, written by Cliff Murray for the Ballina Council centenary in 1983.

Cliff was a long-time editor of the local daily, The Northern Star, and was a Ballina resident.

The entrance channel to the Richmond now lies between the walls. But back in 1828, it was further north, just before the Lighthouse Hill headland. Captain Rous has marked his entrance course on the map.

Another local historian, the late Glen Hall, wrote in Port of Richmond River that Captain Rous reported: “The entrance is wide, 12 feet (almost 4m) deep on the bar at half flood, and 14 to 20 feet deep at the mouth, with a constant strong ebb tide from 3 to 5 miles per hour in mid-channel, although there is a regular rise of 6 feet by an under flood.

“A sandbank projects from the inner south shore, narrowing the channel to about 300 yards. It then opens suddenly to an expanse of two miles with two dry sandbanks in the centre; the main body running west by north-west, then to the south-west in a fine arm, 24 feet deep, nearly a mile wide.”

Did Rous mistake North Creek for the main arm of the river? He gives this impression.

One can only imagine how dangerous it would have been entering the Richmond during a big sea back then. It’s no wonder that many a ship was lost. Even today there are reminders — a small remainder of the wreck of the Tomki can be seen just north of North Wall when conditions allow.

As Glen Hall points out, those early ships were sail-powered, so the captains and their crews who undertook the bar crossing would have been first-class sailors.

And it must be remembered that access to Ballina in the mid-1800s came only by sea — there was no Pacific Highway and no rail service back then. (I can forgive any readers of this who might now be thinking that we still don’t have an adequate road access — and the trains are long gone!).

* Cliff Murray and Glen Hall acknowledge the contributions of the Richmond River Historical Society in providing historical data.

Had it not been for the early settlers to this region, Ballina may still be known by the name Deptford.

According to Glen Hall’s book, Port of Richmond River, Captain Henry Rous was probably the first white man to sail into the Richmond River (in August 1828). Then in 1843, surveyor James Burnett named the new settlement Deptford.

Hall wrote in his 1983 publication that Deptford became Ballina probably because of the Aboriginal name, Balloonah, which Irish settlers adapted to Ballina, which is a town in County Mayo in Ireland.

Former Northern Star editor Cliff Murray, in his book Across Three Bridges, wrote that the town’s name was gazetted as West Ballina in 1856.

But it was not until 1967 that the Geographic Names Board accepted that West Ballina should actually be Ballina. And Murray writes that East Ballina, which was previously known simply as Ballina, was accepted by the Geographic Names Board as actually being East Ballina.

Murray also gives a variation on ‘Balloonah’, spelling the Aboriginal place name as ‘Bullenah’, which some people suggested meant ‘Blood running from the wounded’ (a possible reference to the massacre of Aboriginal people in the 1850s), or ‘place of the oysters’.

So where does ‘Woolwich’ come into this? Well, Murray writes that in 1855, a surveyor was sent north to lay out the proposed town of ‘Woolwich’ at the mouth of the Richmond River.

Thankfully, the locals had the last say. ‘Woolwich by the sea’? ‘Deptford by the sea’?

No, Ballina by the sea is just fine by me.

The council says the study, to be held this year and next, aims to identify and document buildings, places and moveable heritage items (relics and objects or records) in the shire considered to be significant to our community.

“A heritage study investigates the historical context of a local government area and identifies, assesses and makes a record of items and places of heritage significance associated with this context. The study also explains why the items and places are significant and recommends ways of managing and conserving that significance,” the council said.

“Items and places of heritage significance are broad-ranging, including components of the living and non–living environment.

“These items and places are further referred to as natural and cultural heritage items. Cultural heritage items and places include items and places of significance to Aboriginal, European and ethnic Australians.

“Natural heritage items include natural ecosystems, geological sites, water systems (eg, rivers), modified landscapes and parks, gardens and significant trees.

“Cultural heritage items and places include buildings, industrial items, monuments landscapes, parks gardens and moveable heritage items (such as machinery, objects and records).

“More specifically, Aboriginal heritage includes places which show evidence of Aboriginal occupation (called Aboriginal sites) as well as places which are of contemporary, spiritual or mythological importance according to Aboriginal culture or custom, but which contain no physical remains (called Aboriginal places).”

Under the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Act (1974), the Heritage Act (1977) and the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (1979), Ballina Shire Council has a legislative responsibility to manage items and places of natural, and cultural, heritage significance important to Aboriginal, European and ethnic Australians.

The heritage study process involves a number of key steps. The first step is the formation of a Heritage Study Committee to assist the heritage study process. The Heritage Study Committee is made up of representatives from history and heritage groups and a number of Aboriginal organisations in the shire.

The second step is the call for nominations of heritage items and places from community members. On June 15, from 6pm until 7.30 pm, at the Country Women’s Association (CWA) hall in River Street, Ballina, a public meeting calling for nominations will be held.

The council says residents can further the SWCBHS process by urging others to participate in the nomination process. “You can also assist by contacting council’s Heritage Officer, Kate Gahan, with the stories and histories you have associated with the shire, on telephone 66861 284. Any historic documentary material you may like to donate to, or share with, council would also be appreciated. Council can arrange to have this material copied or scanned and returned to you,” the council said.

To make nominations of heritage items and places in the shire download a nomination form and post it to The General Manager, Ballina Shire Council, PO Box 450, Ballina, NSW, 2478, or drop it at the council’s administration centre on the Corner of Tamar and Cherry Streets Ballina, Monday to Friday, 8.15am–4.30pm.

Ballina Info comment: This is great news. Here at Ballina Info, we love delving into our local history. We’ve read a couple of good local history books — Glen Hall’s Port of Richmond River and former Northern Star editor Cliff Murray’s Across Three Bridges are two good examples. This move by the council will only add to our local historical records by identifying places and buildings of historical value. This also helps with the preservation of local ‘icons’ such as the Pioneer Cemetery at East Ballina, plus places of natural significance. And the fact that the study is community-based means it could have a real ‘grassroots’ feel to it. This area is also rich in Aboriginal culture, and it’s a proven fact that the majority of international tourists can’t get enough of the world’s oldest living culture. We’ve added a category to our website — Local History — so feel free to contribute. Tell us your memories of Ballina.