It wasn’t until 1828 that Captain Henry Rous aboard the HMS Rainbow  discovered and named the Richmond River. Until then the River entrance had been well concealed.

Families harvesting cedar were the first colonials to settle on the Richmond following the news of an overland journey of a small party of cutters from the Clarence in 1842. Equipped with bullocks and a whaleboat these men, rowed to the mouth of the river at Ballina. After checking the river entrance, they journeyed back to the Clarence to collect their families and tools before returning on board the Sally.

Within several years of the first cedar cutters coming to the Richmond, Ballina had become a small cedar settlement boasting huts and sawpits, with the landscape dotted with stacks of cedar. 

As the number of cedar camps in the area increased throughout the 1840s and 1850s other settlers moved in to take advantage of the opportunities that surrounded the cedar cutting trade.

Storekeepers, ship-owners and shipwrights were among the many occupations that the early cedar camps supported. With many of the camps accommodating women and children,  the need for teachers and clergy to guide the intellectual, moral and spiritual lives of settlers added further diversity to cedar settlements.

The first lighthouse was erected in 1866. The current lighthouse was completed in 1880 on a 35 metre high headland. It is only 7m high.

The introduction of the Robertson Land Act in 1861 brought a new wave of settlers to the Ballina area to take advantage of freehold land to establish farming. The first selectors undertook mixed farming with many also engaging in timber harvesting after land clearing.

The restrictions that distant markets placed on early farmers also meant a large part of their work focused on producing food for domestic consumption. Many families also kept cows, pigs and chickens, and grew vegetables and fruits.

From the 1860s a number of farmers experimented with sugar cane along the flood plains of the Richmond. Sugar farmers began cultivation of cane in the late 1860s and by 1875 there were 75 small sugar mills along the banks of the Richmond River. 

Before the establishment of the Broadwater Sugar Mill these early sugar cane farmers processed their own cane using small and privately owned mills. The establishment of the mill at Broadwater in 1881 saw much of the floodplain areas south of Ballina cleared and cultivated for sugar cane, marking a change in land use that continues to the present day.

The country surrounding the sugar farms had, by the 1890s, become dominated by dairy farming.

Milled timber was in demand to construct housing and commercial buildings an increasing population required. While modest timber houses for many decades dominated both the rural and urban landscape, a number of larger and ‘finer’ domestic houses from the turn of the century remain in the Ballina area.

‘Brundah’, built in 1908 for the Lang family, is listed on the State Heritage Register and is one of a number of domestic buildings that form part of the Norton Street Heritage Trail in Ballina.

At the beginning of the Norton Street trail on the corner of Norton and River Street is Riversleigh. Built in the late 1880s, Riversleigh is an important example of the type of commercial buildings that were once common along River Street.

The small river village of  Wardell also boasts a number of ‘original’ timber buildings, including Mayley, built in 1910 by Henry Lumley. Recently renovated and restored, Mayley is still used as a home but also operates as a restaurant.

Across the street from Mayley is the Wardell Police Station (1898) and next door the (old) Post Office (1927). Close by is the Catholic Church precinct which includes the timber convent (1912), presbytery (1904), and the ‘little school’ building (1913), all heritage listed by the National Trust and Ballina Shire Council. Other notable historic timber buildings include the Wardell and District War Memorial Hall (1925) on Richmond Street and the charming Carpenter Gothic Uniting Church (1905) on Wilson Street.

Today, Ballina has much more than the Big Prawn. The Richmond River is ideal for swimming and fishing. The surf at the 32 km of beaches in the shire, like Angels and Shelly beaches, is consistently excellent.

The town’s Naval and Maritime Museum is one of the best in the country. And the town is known for its handsome and impressive 19th century public buildings.

Ballina’s urban population at 2021 was 46,190.