The Big Scrub was the largest area of subtropical rainforest in eastern Australia. It was dominated by the Red Cedar or Red Gold as it was often referred to, which was  sought so eagerly by the early cedar cutters for its fine quality timber.
It covered much of what is now Byron Bay and Lismore in the Northern Rivers  of NSW and was estimated to cover 75,000 hectares of subtropical rainforest associated with the Mount Warning volcanics.  It was then intensively cleared for agriculture in the 1900’s. Only a few remnants survived the clearing with less than 1% now existing.

At Alstonville Country Cottages we have worked to rehabilitate this remnant of the Big Scrub and red cedars can be spotted through the rainforest as well as an extensive range of other native trees such as Black and Red Bean trees, Sandpaper Fig, Blue Qandongs, Kamalas to mention just a few.

Spend time enjoying the path down to the creek following in the footsteps of the Cedar getters, listening to the birds. Consider how the big logs were floated down the creek  to the Richmond River at Ballina and out into the Pacific Ocean.

Check out www.abc.net.au ABC Radio National In search of Red Gold