Coffs Harbour tourism tipsCoffs Harbour in Australia is a sub-tropical city with a population around 65,000 located in NSW about 570 kilometres north of Sydney and 350 kilometres south of the Queensland capital of Brisbane. This city boasts ideal year-round weather that makes it one of the most popular holiday centres on Australia's eastern seaboard. Coffs Harbour has distinctly more upmarket tourism and holiday accommodation infrastructure than Byron Bay to the north and Port Maquarie further south. Regular visitors to Coffs Harbour are generally more middle-aged than in Byron or Port Maquarie and the holiday vibe of the town is less focused on parties, alcohol and sex. |
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Coffs Harbour holiday tips Holidaymakers have a broad choice of holiday accommodation to suit any budget, including four star resorts, hotels, backpacker centres, motels, cottages, bed and breakfasts, caravan parks and wilderness camping facilities. A cheap motel room can be found for as little as AUS$65 per night. Coffs Harbour has plenty of quality restaurants and cafes, many with an Asian flavour. About 60 thousand people live in the shire with other major towns including Nambucca Heads, Bellingen and Dorrigo. Popular nearby holiday attractions include the Orara Valley to the west with its sparse hinterland and charming villages, the seaside village of Sawtell ten minutes to the south, the beautiful Ballinger Valley to the south-west, and the multicultural seaside town of Woolgoolga about 25 kilometres north of Coffs Harbour. Commercial tourism drawcards include Aquajet Leisure Park, the Big Banana, the Botanic Gardens, the Buskers Festival, Coffs Harbour Zoo, George's Gold Mine, Kiwi Down Under, the Pet Porpoise Pool, the Clog Barn, Bruxner Park Flora Reserve and the Butterfly House. Coffs Harbour has the largest regional airport in NSW and it is serviced with regular flights by Qantas, Sunshine Express and Virgin Blue from most major cities and towns on Australia's east coast. The cost of airline tickets is about the same as petrol to drive. The drive north from Sydney on the Pacific Highway covers multi-lane freeways that narrow to a double and single lane highway with frequent overtaking sections. This car trip of 550 kilometres should take about 6-7 hours, the main dangers being other motorists who tailgate and large trucks going too fast.
The Countrylink rail service provides two daily train trips to Coffs Harbour from both Sydney and Brisbane. Two local bus companies service the town and surrounding area with daily trips. To navigate your travel through Coffs Harbour, it's best to study a comprehensive online street directory. The Park Beach Plaza shopping centre just off Pacific Highway is the largest shopping precinct between Newcastle in NSW and the Gold Coast in Queensland, and is open seven days a week. Markets are held at the Jetty Village Shopping Centre from 8am to 2pm every Sunday. Coffs Harbour is popular among retirees seeking a warm climate and, because of tourism, the population swells dramatically during the summer holiday season.
The Coffs Coast shoreline covers 90 kilometres and features 30 different beaches, most offering fantastic waves for surfers or safe waters for swimming. Fifteen lifeguards are employed by the local council to patrol many of these beaches. The Coffs Coast stretches from Scotts Head in the south to Red Rock in the north and the New England National Park to the west. The area is dotted with lush, pristine rainforests and small towns. There are 52 national parks, state forests and nature reserves in the region. Migratory humpback whales can be seen off the coast, mostly from June to November, and whale-watching tour boats can be boarded from the Coffs Harbour marina. Dolphins are most common between September and April. The best land observation points are at Muttonbird Island, Hungry Head, Boambee Head and Nambucca Lookout.
This region was originally home to the Gmbayngirr Aborigines, a large settled population who took advantage of the superb climate and abundant natural resources. Captain James Cook spotted the island chain running along the Coffs Coast and on May 15, 1770, he named them the Solitary Islands. According to legend, the first Europeans in the area were convicts who had escaped and taken refuge on Muttonbird Island. The area was settled by timber fellers who first moved into the district in 1841, most building their homes on the Bellingen and Nambucca rivers. Timber that particularly attracted them was the "Red Gold" cedar and they cleared huge tracts of the Bellinger Valley for farming. Naval architect and shipbuilder John Korff named the area Korff's Harbour in 1847 when he was forced to take shelter in the bay. The name was changed to Coffs Harbour in 1861 when the town site was reserved by the NSW government. A port was soon built and it was visited by just over a ship every day until a vessel called Carrywell was wrecked in 1865. Shipping boycotted the port because of this tragedy and didn't return until a lighthouse was opened in 1847 to help steer vessels through the area's various navigation hazards. Gold was discovered in the Orara Valley just east of Coffs Harbour in 1881 and an ensuing gold rush fuelled the growth of many towns inland from the Coffs Coast. The first school was opened in Coffs Harbour in 1885.
The first jetty was completed in 1892 and this enabled timber felling to continue as an economic mainstay into the 20th Century. Other local industries included fruit growing, dairying and sugar cane farming. Banana plantations became popular after a gentleman named Herman Reick introduced Fijian bananas to NSW in 1881. Bananas became the main fruit export throughout the 1900s. A railway was established in 1915 and in 1923 it linked to Sydney, sparking a holiday tourism industry which has flourished till the present day. Gold mining continued along the Coffs Coast until the 1960s, by which time bananas, avocados, timber, fishing, engineering, tourism and dairy/beef farms were the main economic drivers. The weather at Coffs Harbour is superb for holidays and has been assessed by Australia's peak scientific body, the CSIRO, as the best climate in Australia. The average Spring minimum temperature is 11 degrees with an average maximum of 25 degrees Celsius. In Summer the averages vary from 19 to 26 degrees, in Autumn from 12 to 26 degrees, and in Winter from 8 to 20 degrees. During Summer the average sea temperature off Coffs Harbour is 23 degrees. In Winter it is 18 degrees. The Great Dividing Mountain Range meets the coast near Coffs Harbour and the highest mountain altitude in the region is 1,583 metres. This is a very comfortable city in which to holiday. In 2002, Coffs Harbour was awarded the Nations in Bloom Award as the Most Liveable City in the World for its size. Tourists can find further holiday information at the staffed Visitor Information Centres in Coffs Harbour (1300 369 070), Bellingen (1800 808 611) and Nambucca (1800 646 587). To book the cheapest tickets, hotels, car rentals, etc. for Australia, visit our Travel Shop. |
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