Palmwoods, New South Wales
Palmwoods is a locality located in the Northern Rivers Region of New South Wales.[2] It sits within the Byron Shire local government area and it is approximately 31 kilometres (19 mi) from the regional centre of Byron Bay. Its closet town is Mullumbimby, via Main Arm, which it is 13.5 kilometres (8.4 mi) from.[3]
The traditional owners of this place are the Bundjalung (Arakwal) people.[4][5]
It shares a name with Palmwoods, Queensland which it was named for.
European history
Before 1926 the locality now known as Palmwoods was considered to be a part of Upper Main Arm until it was purchased by John Richard Hingston Gaggin (known as Richard) and his sister Arabella Annie Elizabeth Gaggin (known as May); both of whom had immigrated from Ireland.[6][7] The siblings named their property for the location in Queensland as it was then one of the best fruit growing areas and they wanted to emulate it.[8]
At their property they primarily grew bananas but also experimented with other crops which included being some of the first people in the region to farm macadamias and, from the 1930s, they began selling off and leasing sections of the land.[8][9][10][11]
The Gaggin siblings both died and were buried at Palmwoods and in May Gaggins obituary in 1943 it stated that:[6]
[Palmwoods] is probably the largest area of thriving banana plantations in one spot in New South Wales, the shaping of which from the primeval jungle began in 1926. With the exception of a few acres of grassland the whole tract was under dense scrub with not even a rudimentary road, and with bunchy top decimating all neighbouring plantations
— Obituary: Miss AAE Gaggin, The Northern Star, 16 March 1943
References
- ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Palmwoods (State Suburb)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
- ^ Digital Atlas Pty Limited. "Map of Palmwoods in New South Wales showing Mullumbimby (highlighted in purple) - Bonzle Digital Atlas of Australia". www.bonzle.com. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
- ^ "Palmwoods (Locality)". NSW Place and Road Naming Proposals System. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
- ^ "Arakwal People of Byron Bay". Retrieved 24 July 2025.
- ^ "Aboriginal Cultural Heritage". Byron Shire Council. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
- ^ a b "OBITUARY Miss A. A. E. Gaggin". The Northern Star. Vol. 67. New South Wales, Australia. 16 March 1943. p. 4. Retrieved 25 July 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Mr JRH Gaggin". The Northern Star. New South Wales, Australia. 26 January 1945. p. 4. Retrieved 25 July 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ a b Brunswick Valley Historical Society Inc (2019), Labels and landmarks : the many meanings of Brunswick Valley place names, Brunswick Valley Historical Society Inc, pp. 70–72, ISBN 9780958592192
- ^ "Nuts and bananas, "happy combination" experiments at "Palmwoods"". Northern Star. Vol. 62. New South Wales, Australia. 10 August 1937. p. 9. Retrieved 25 July 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Australian nut seed for Africa: Palmwoods grower's consignment". The Tweed Daily. Vol. XXVI, no. 207. New South Wales, Australia. 1 September 1939. p. 8. Retrieved 25 July 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Visit to "Palmwoods"". Mullumbimby Star. New South Wales, Australia. 26 January 1933. p. 2. Retrieved 25 July 2025 – via National Library of Australia.