Back to main index

Murwillumbah Historical Society Inc. Murwillumbah Museum 2 Queensland Rd, Murwillumbah, NSW Open 10AM-4PM Wednesdays, Fridays & 4th Sunday of the Month (excluding Public Holidays) School Groups and Tours by appointment

Phone (02) 6672 1865 PO Box 383 Murwillumbah 2484 EMAIL ADDRESS Research Officer: Joan Fleming

---

Tweed Shire Council	Murwillumbah History	Pioneer: Bray Family	Theme Displays
Radio Room	Robey Steam Engine	Books For Sale	Membership Form

'Murwillumbah' The name Murwillumbah is of Aboriginal origin. Joshua Bray (one of the Tweed's early settlers) laid claim to the naming of the place in a paper he wrote in 1902. It is also said that the NSW Government had asked a Jonathan Harris to suggest a name for the town back in 1873 and is reportedly in family records that Jonathan had named the town. There are several translations for Murwillumbah, the most common one being 'Home of many possums'.

Stand in the Tweed Valley somewhere around Murwillumbah and you will find yourself in a great amphitheatre roughly 32km across and walled by high ranges on all sides except to the east where they slope down to the sea. You are really standing in a great circular excavation of the inner parts of a dome, an area from which all the rock mass has been eroded away leaving the encircling ranges to present their stiff-like walls towards the centre and Mount Warning.

. Mt Warning, towering skywards some 1157 meters one is fully aware of its value from the scenic viewpoint, standing as it does like a sentinel higher than and overlooking its encircling ranges, features which serve only to emphasise it as the centre of activity. It is reported that Mt Warning is the first place in Australia the sun hits.

Murwillumbah, approx. 30km south of the Queensland and New South Wales Border, lies within the warmer northern part of the South Temperate Zone. It is the administration headquarters of the Tweed Shire and commercial centre serving the mid and upper Tweed Valley.

By 1875 the growing and refining of sugar had begun in this area. Shortly after this the development of refrigerated transport led to a rapid expansion of the dairy industry, with the building of Norco's Cheese and Butter Factory in 1911.

An important day in the history of the Tweed Valley and Murwillumbah was Christmas Eve 1894, 11.25 am. when the first train to bring passengers into town steamed into the Murwillumbah Station.

Next Topic