One of The White Bluff Project’s science collaborators is historian Dr Lisa Milner, from the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Southern Cross University. Dr Milner gave a presentation to White Bluff artists at our first ever workshop, detailing the post-invasion, non-indigenous history of White Bluff and its surrounding areas.
Thanks to the resources of the Coffs Harbour Regional Museum she put together a slide show that was both incredibly informative and nostalgically entertaining. Who remembers the tourism campaign ‘Pacific Beautizone’ or the old Campbell house with its sapphire blue roof? Well, read on. And learn all about this beautizone we now call White Bluff.
Clement Hodgkinson, a colonial surveyor of renown, was likely the first white man to visit White Bluff. He had been hired by the New South Wales colonial government to survey and explore the northeastern areas of New South Wales as far as Moreton Bay. In March 1841 he explored the upper reaches of the Nambucca and Bellinger rivers, becoming the first European to make contact with Aborigines there. He then followed the Macleay, Clarence, Hastings, Richmond and Tweed river valleys. After returning to England, he published an account of his explorations.
Dr Milner explained: “He was probably the first, non-indigenous person to have walked on White Bluff Headland. He was the first government surveyor of this area. It is from his original explorations of the area that this whole region was brought into the records of white Australia.”
Then 40 years later, following cedar getters who had quickly infiltrated the area after Hodgkinson’s reports, along came Herman Rieck and his wife Fanny. They came to this area and selected 80 acres for a farm, first of all in the Korora Pine Ridge area, which is now Sapphire. Rieck came from Prussia and from the Prussian wars. He came for a new start, and experimented with sugar cane and tobacco, and then bananas.
This was at the same time as the Red Rock massacre took place, just 30km north along the coast. It was a time of much violence between indigenous and white Australians; a period we now know as Australia’s frontier wars. It is also the time when shipping concerns led to the building of the Solitary Island lighthouse, which began operation in 1880. At the time, this area was considered the most isolated on the NSW coast. But it didn’t stop some, with another pioneering family, the Dammerel family, arriving to start dairy farming in the area, settling at what is now Emerald Beach.
“Maps of the time began showing crown land parceling, the parish of Coffs was declared in 1860 and the first parcels of land were released. You can see Herman Rieck had many different properties in the area. He settled a whole lot of land here,” Dr Milner explained. “You can see the names of owners on the land, many of them Bank names, which shows that mortgages were going out to land in this area.
“Now in 1886 we’ve got the first mention of White Bluff Headland as the name of it. In the shipping records there are records of shipwrecks in the area and a lot of families moving into the area start to talk about White Bluff Headland, so the name is coming into common usage by non-indigenous peoples.”
As the region continued to be settled and modern advances reached the once isolated coast, White Bluff began to be affected by the world-wide post-war boom. In the 1950s, increased car ownership meant a burgeoning domestic tourism market. In 1956, Coffs Harbour Shire Council was established and there was an effort to start branding the area - the shire council and the business community recognising the benefits of the income derived from visitors.
“So in 1955 we have this amazing ‘Beautizone’ tourist promotion that began. And we actually have the establishment of the Mid North Coast Tourist Authority,” Dr Milner explained. “They would put out maps that included how to get to interesting parts of the coast. You can see also the headlands, we have Bare Bluff and Green Bluff. More and more naming of these areas was going on. The Pacific Beautizone, however, died a terrible death in 1964. It wasn’t popular.
“But through the 1950s with this growing population, development meant a lot of land-clearing going on. Aerial photos from the time show the actual land clearing at White Bluff - clearing for sheep and cattle and more clearing of land for residential development. It’s a huge thing. And in 1956 the start of sand mining happens on this part of the coast. This is along the whole eastern coast of Australia, mainly in the dune region. We’ve got companies being set up, mining for rutile, zircon and in the White Bluff area the mining partially eradicated the extensive Aboriginal maddens. Also in the area behind Moonee Beach and going up to White Bluff Headland was what has been termed as an ‘axe factory’. Indigenous people used the area and sand-mining devastated and partially eradicated those really important indigenous historical areas.
“Those of you who have actually been up to White Bluff Headland will be aware of the old Campbell house, still up there. The Campbell’s have been part of the area since 1926. In 1958 that house got sold to the Williamson’s. And the Williamson’s subdivided that area for residential development. They were the ones that named the area Sapphire after the colour of the sea in mid-winter. Cliff Williams had the original homestead roof painted that beautiful colour. It seems there was some sort of artistic connection going on even then.”
By 1960 big changes began coming to the Coffs Harbour area. The population surged ahead, surfers arrived, the newest caravan parks opened, and Coffs Harbour homes got connected to sewerage. There was also a rise in environmental awareness and an ongoing campaign to get a national marine park around the Solitary Islands.
“There have been some really bitter clashes around this,” explained Dr Milner. “Meanwhile, Sapphire was getting cleared and cleared and cleared and sand mining was increasing and finally Robert Askin, NSW Premier at the time, launched an investigation into sand mining. What happened around the Sapphire, White Bluff area was really emblematic of what was happening across the state. The inquiry investigated the conflicts between sand mining, conservation, marine and scientific research. This is where we start to see a change in the human consciousness of what White Bluff Headland means to people.
“At this time Coffs Harbour Shire was the fastest growing area on the north coast. The beginnings of the conservation movement meant that even local papers reported stories of residents becoming cynical about the kind of development that was going on and they are becoming really interested in the “rape of the beaches” as an environmental issues. This continued into the 1970s. It shows a real change in human understanding what it means to live in such an amazing place as this. In 1975 the South Solitary Island Lighthouse was automated - and again that is was another change to our relationship with this area.”
However, it was not until 1991 that a marine reserve was declared. This became a Marine Park in 1998 and in 2003 the Coffs Coast Regional Park was established. The Regional Park contains 365 acres of costal land that varies from 1km wide in some locations to just 10m in others. It is an incredibly unique regional park - it protects 9 threatened plant species, 4 endangered ecological communities and many important historical sites.
At the end of her presentation to The White Bluff Project artists, Dr Milner commented on the many details she had also left out.
“I wish I had a lot more time to tell you about things because there are some really Interesting little stories about interactions between the residents and the area. I hope that some of the information here gives you an idea that whilst we have our own stories here, the post-invasion history of White Bluff Headland is quite typical of a lot of the east coast history - we’ve got takeover, we’ve got agriculture, we’ve got development and then we’ve got ideas of protection coming into it. We can see this replicated all the way up and down the east coast of Australia. But for such a beautiful area we have got some really beautiful stories coming out of it.”
Dr Milner is an academic and historian. Originally a filmmaker, she teaches mainly into the Media Program. Her research interests are interdisciplinary and wide ranging. Current research projects include radical theatre, labour history, local Coffs history, community organisations and management, union movements and film, and community media and its discontents. Dr Milner is a Senior Lecture and Course Co-ordinator of the Bachelor of Digital Media and Communications at Southern Cross University.