Byron Bay
A 15-minute drive beyond Mullumbimby is Byron Bay, which, with a dramatic sweeping coastline and rocky cape, has yielded food, provided shelter, and offered a lookout for humans for centuries. Aboriginal inhabitants called it 'cavvanbah', or 'meeting place'.
Where once the countryside was known for its outstanding dairying industry and the town for its sand mining, whaling and meat works, in the past 30 years it has become a tourist destination, a place to relax, wind down and take time out.
In the 1970s, the shape and colour of the town started changing when the surfers in kombi vans discovered the Bay, the Pass, the Cape and Julian Rocks, now the centre of a marine park.
Since the 1980s, Byron Bay has developed as an international tourist hot spot, loved by both Australian tourists and international visitors. Its cosmic essence is a potent attraction for many. In the past decade, diverse and quality accommodation venues and restaurants have been developed.
Byron Bay is the only Australian beach to make it on 'Forbes Traveller' the US travel website's list of the world's 25 sexiest beaches. The local beach was lauded for its 'chalky-white sands, deliciously temperate weather and occasional visits from dolphins and migrating whales'. Byron Bay's cosmopolitan population, local festivals and nudist beach were also given the thumbs up.
The annual Byron Bay Blues and Roots music festival each Easter has a global reputation, while over 10 years, the Northern Rivers Writers' Festival has established a name as a gathering of the best Australian writers. The weekly markets held in towns around the shire colourfully represent shades of Byron life.
Byron Bay
Byron Bay, the largest tourist town in the Shire, provides a casual counterpoint to Mullumbimby, the Shire's service and administrative centre.