Coffs Harbour, a thriving city on the NSW Mid-North Coast, was originally the home of the Gumbaynggirr tribe, which had settled in the area because of its excellent climate and abundant resources.

The Solitary Islands, which dot the ocean along the Coffs Coast, were named by none other than Captain James Cook as far back as 1770. Captain Cook noted and named the islands on 15 May of that year, when he sailed past what would later become known as Coffs Harbour.

The name Coffs Harbour is thought to be a misspelling of “Korffs Harbour”, the name given to the harbour area in 1847 by naval architect and shipbuilder Captain John Korff. Captain Korff took shelter from a storm in the bay and became impressed with the natural protection offered by the headlands. The town has been known as Coffs Harbour ever since a gazettal notice printed the town’s name as such in 1861.

During the 1870s and 1880s, more Europeans settled in the area, mostly coming from the Bellinger and Clarence River districts, to log cedar. Just after the opening of the first school in 1885, a town named Brelsford was proclaimed and laid out in 1886. The name changed back to Coffs Harbour in 1897. In addition to timber getting, the main economic mainstays in those days included agriculture and goldmining.

The timber industry thrived further after the completion of the Coffs Harbour Jetty in 1892 and the establishment of a number of timber mills. The Jetty was later modified with a crane and rail tracks. However, the arrival of the railway in Coffs Harbour in 1915 caused a decline in shipping.

The “Jetty Strip” along Harbour Drive has some of Coffs Harbour’s oldest buildings, which now house cosmopolitan cafés and restaurants. Large historic photographs adorn the walls of Scoffs Restaurant, one of the heritage buildings on the strip.

Construction of the northern breakwater linking Coffs Harbour andMuttonbird Island started in 1915, but wasn’t fully completed until 1935. The eastern breakwater, which reached its target length in 1939, provided even more shelter for ships in the harbour. In the 1970s, the harbour became the base of a large fishing fleet, which is still active today.

At the start of the 20th century, settlers discovered that bananas grew very well in the region’s climate, and they tasted sweeter than many varieties grown elsewhere. The banana industry soon became the backbone of Coffs Harbour’s economy, reaching its peak in the 1960s. The entire history of the local banana industry is on display at The Big Banana, one of Coffs Harbour’s main landmarks, which was established as a tourist attraction in 1964.

Bananas also brought to the area a substantial number of Indian migrants from Queensland who had originally come to Australia from the Punjab. These were the ancestors of the substantial Sikh community, which today makes up about a quarter of the population in Woolgoolga, a town just north of Coffs Harbour. Its striking Sikh Temple is a local landmark and visitors are welcome.

During World War II, Coffs Harbour was selected as the best town on the east coast to build a military operations base from which to defend Australia against invasion. A bunker was built in 1943 on a hill that later became known as City Hill. Many young Australians worked from there to protect the country, including Gough Whitlam, former Prime Minister of Australia. In the 1990s, the bunker was restored and converted into a gallery (Bunker Cartoon Gallery) housing the Coffs Cartoon Collection, the largest contemporary collection of original cartoons in Australia.

Coffs Harbour has been a shire since 1957, and was declared a city in 1987. In the last few decades, tourism has grown to become the city’s main industry, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars into the Coffs Coast region each year. Expansion of the Coffs Harbour Regional Airport in the 1990s has turned it into one of the largest regional airports in New South Wales. The city, with a population nearing 70,000, has become a regional hub for business, education, sports, shopping and socialising.

Some of the most exciting Coffs Harbour developments of the past decade include the opening of the North Coast Regional Botanic Garden and the construction of the acclaimed Coffs Coast International Stadium with its high-quality playing surface. The Wallabies, Australia’s national rugby union side, chose Coffs Harbour as their official training base in 1999, and the city has won major awards in recognition of its water and sewerage projects, waste services and environmental initiatives.

The Coffs Harbour Historical Museum on Harbour Drive collects, preserves, interprets and exhibits items of historical significance from the Coffs Harbour region. The museum has about 10,000 artefacts, including Aboriginal artefacts, cedar-getters’ implements, old photographs, mining and farming relics as well as a working lighthouse built around 1875, and a 1910 Star, the first motorised taxi in Coffs Harbour.

The museum is operating from a temporary facility at 17 Forge Drive, North Boambee, as a result of flood damage earlier this year. Visits are welcome by appointment. Phone the museum co-ordinator on (02) 6651 5239 to make an appointment.

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