Yamba NSW. July 5th 2026

Yamba NSW. July 3rd-7th 2026

We are back in Yamba again and surprised to find ourselves down the other end of the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park, rather than our 'usual' place right up the other end. It's an ensuite site in their unique style which is s block of six, one each for six adjacent sites rather than one ensuite on each site.  Our van is backed right onto one of the pools, but probably because they don't heat this pool, it's pretty quiet. The kids come and go to have a ride on the water slide but then disappear again back to the other heated pool. Or their scooter, or bikes or wherever. So far so good. 

Went out for a bit of a drive around today, first stop was Angourie to look at the 'world famous' beach. Well it's world famous if you are in the surfing world.

Angourie Beach. Yamba NSW 2026

Around the corner are the "Blue and Green pools". I've been here a few times and they just look like dark forbidding pools of cold inky water. As I've mentioned before, they are the result of the quarrying that took place here from 1890 to 1899 to provide bluestone rock to build the channel training walls in the nearby Clarence River.

Angourie Pools. yamba NSW 2026

Too bad that in 1899, the miners broke through into a spring and the big holes filled up with water. They used to have steam powered cranes to lift the rocks onto a steam train that ran right around the headland and across to a wharf on the Clarence River at Yamba, maybe 5k. You can see a few old relics lying around and if you consider that these rails have been more or less in salt water for 127 years, they look pretty good.

Old railway lines. Angourie Pools, Yamba NSW July 2026

Back around in Yamba itself we took a cook's tour in the car. Overlooking the Main Beach is the lighthouse. Not the original. This one was built in 1956 to replace the original one that became a bit obsolete when they built the Pacific Hotel more or less right in front of it. 

Lighthouse. Yamba July 2026

What to do on a rainy day in Yamba? Grab a coffee and go watch the waves at the beach is one option.

Main Beach. Yamba NSW July 2026

Having expired that avenue of diversion, we took a drive up the highway to New Italy to have a look at the museum. Fascinating story of how these early settlers came to be in Australia.

In a nutshell, the Italians were involved in the The De Rays Expedition (1879–1881) which was a disastrous and fraudulent attempt by French nobleman Marquis de Rays to establish a South Pacific utopian colony called "La Nouvelle France" (New France) on the island of New Ireland in present-day Papua New Guinea.

They escaped to Australia and following a period of 12 months when they each had to go out into the community and work, they reassembled and were granted citizenship and they all went and settled at "New Italy" up on the North Coast of NSW.

Museum complex. New Italy NSW July 2026

While we were up that way we drove out to Evans Heads to have a look around. The town and area has a nice feel about it and we've pencilled it in for a stay next time we come up here.

Breakwater on Evans River. Evans Head NSW July 2026

I got all excited about a sign that said "F111 Museum", which turned out to be an the old WWII airfield, which after a bit of a chequered history was recently bought privately from the Council and operates as a private airfield and a museum. According to the website it has all kinds of interesting aircraft, including the F111. Unfortunately, closed on Monday. Maybe next time....

Had a bit of fun on the way back. Our car's GPS kept telling us to go out to Casino, drive down to Grafton and then back up to Yamba. You can see why, the M1 apparently doesn't exist! Turns out our maps are from the 2021 update, too soon after the M1 was opened to have been included. Like only a few weeks earlier. You'd think the map people might have had a bit of a look around, 'scan the environment', before publishing. 

Oh oh. We are in the middle of the mudflats. better go back and take the long way around!

As we flew along the very much solid, existing M1 and the bridge over the Clarence River, I grabbed a snap of the oldest existing, operational sugar mill in Australia. It's on Harwood Island in the Clarence, at Yamba. It was opened in 1874 and is still crushing 'em. As a side story, the cane used to be brought down the river in barges until someone invented the railways and then the motor lorry. The last of the barges were scuttled along the river in 1975.

Sugar Mill. Harwood Island, Yamba NSW July 2026

Punt or barge used to carry sugar cane down to the mill. This was the last one left and the council crushed it because they deemed it 'unsafe' for the public. Ferry Park, Maclean NSW August 2012