The video presents an overview of Urunga, a small coastal township on the north coast of New South Wales with a population of about 3,000, 65% of whom are retirees. It describes the town’s relaxed lifestyle, mild climate, and the meaning of its name – “long white sands” in the Gumbaynggirr language. The centerpiece is the Urunga Boardwalk, a kilometre‑long promenade offering panoramic views of the Bellinger and Calang (Kallang) Rivers, the ocean, Milestone Spit, Picket Hill, and the Great Dividing Range. The narration explains the geography of the Urunga Lagoon, an estuarine wetland that supports mangroves, seagrass and salt‑marsh habitats. Historical context is provided, beginning with the Gumbaynggirr Aboriginal presence, early European exploration in the 1840s, and the cedar timber trade that made the river mouth a hazardous shipping hub. Engineering responses – training walls (1890‑1905), a breakwater (1900), and regular dredging – attempted to stabilise the river mouth but could not prevent the decline of river shipping after the railway reached Urunga in the 1920s and deeper ports opened at Coffs Harbour. A chronological timeline details key milestones: the proclamation of the valley (1894), the first footbridge/boardwalk (1908), railway arrival (1923‑1928), replacement of the footbridge by a 1,200‑ft boardwalk (1940), and subsequent upgrades in 1988, 1999, 2006 and 2010. The narration concludes with a reflective tone, emphasizing Urunga’s quiet, old‑world charm and the boardwalk’s appeal as a near‑paradise walking experience.
Chapters
Ulunda. A small township with a population of 3,000 at the confluence of the Billinger and Callan Rivers in the far north coast of New South Wales. 65% are retirees. They enjoy the simple lifestyle, love the beautiful walks along the riverbanks and around the foreshores, relax with a little fishing, golf, and bowls in a climate which is always mild in winter, not too hot in summer, and enjoy lots of sun and healthy soil. In the language of the local Gumbaynggirr Aboriginal people, the word Urunga means long white sands. The township is perhaps most famous for its boardwalk. It is recognized as one of the best boardwalks on the New South Wales coast. It stretches for over a kilometer and provides views of the town, the banks of the Calang and Bellingen Rivers, the ocean beyond the river mouth, and views of the Great Dividing Range. At the mouth of the river, there are views of Milestone Spit and Picket Hill. It is possible to see beyond Nambucca Heads. The boardwalk spans the mouth of the Urunga Lagoon, an estuarine wetland which provides habitat for mangroves, seagrass, and salt marsh. The lagoon extends 2 kilometers south from the junction of the Kallang and Bellinger Rivers. It is about 200 meters wide and covers about 600 hectares. When the Bellinger Valley was first settled by Europeans, the mouth of the Bellinger and Callan Rivers was not fixed in its current position. The form of the landscape we see today suggests that the river mouth has moved over time, and the Ourunga Lagoon may have once been a main river channel. At that time, the entrance over the river bar was dangerous for shipping which transported timber from the valley to Sydney and supplied the growing community with goods and food. To lessen the danger to the vital shipping trade, work began on a series of training walls in 1890. This was completed in 1905. The aim of the walls was to fix the mouth of the river in one place and produce a deep water channel by the funneling effect of the narrow entrance. Rock for the wall was obtained from ships' ballast and later from a quarry on the Kallang River and shipped downstream on a punt. Despite the engineering works, ships continued to founder on the bar and the river mouths remained shallow and dangerous as sand shoals built up behind the walls. Regular dredging was required to keep the channel open. In its heyday between 1900 and 1915, over 20 different vessels used the facilities of Ballinger Heads, but the advent of the railway and deep water facilities at Coffs Harbour resulted in the decline of the shipping to the Billingen. Dredging operations ceased in 1929. Now here's a bit of history. Prior to European settlement, the Urunga area was inhabited by Gumbaynggirr Aborigines. In early 1840, a stockman and 2 shipbuilders traveled northwards and discovered a new river north of the Nambuka. The Land Commissioner for the Macleay, Henry Oates, officially used Bellinger River in documents in 1840. In 1841, William Miles, a stockman from Kempsey, became the first European to explore the Bellinger Valley. The same year, the government surveyor Clement Hodgkinson recognized the richness of cedar in the area. In 1842, the Northumberland crossed the bar at the site of modern-day Urunga. It did not proceed upstream, but it was the beginning of an active trade in cedar with timber workers cutting the trees and waiting for the floods to carry them down to the river mouth. As the cutters cleared the land, farmers moved into the valley and grew maize and grazed dairy cattle. The first settlers arrived in the area around 1863. By 1868, a pilot station had been built up Urrunga to assist sailing ships trying to cross the shallow and dangerous bar at the mouth of the river. At that time, Urrunga was called Bellinger Heads. By 1872, there was a ferry or a punt service across the Kallang River. In 1880, steam tugs were introduced to facilitate a safe crossing for ships. Urrunga Island was proclaimed an Aboriginal Reserve in 1891. By 1892, the first training walls were being built to control the mouth of the river. The Valley of Urunga was proclaimed in 1894. In 1900, a breakwater was constructed to help shipping. In 1908, the first boardwalk, little more than a footbridge and basic footway, was built so the pilot and local boatmen could gain access to the breakwater. The North Coast Railway line reached the town in 1923. The Urunga Railway Station was opened in 1926, and a bridge across Bellinger River was opened in 1928. Trenching operations on the Bellinger River and at the river's bar were stopped in 1928. By 1933, the pilot station had been closed down after the tug Repton was wrecked on the breakwater. In 1940, the footbridge was replaced by a 1,200 feet long boardwalk. This Urunga Boardwalk was upgraded in 1988, 1999, and 2006. The most recent extension was in 2010. In this small, quiet township away from the rush of the Pacific Highway, there's a charming, old-world, unhurried feeling about Urunga, and walking the boardwalk is an experience that takes one very close to paradise.
