Alstonville, New South Wales

History

Europeans were first attracted to the area, known as the Big Scrub, in the 1840s by the plentiful supply of red cedar. It was not until 1865 that the first settlers selected land in the area, then known as the parish of Tuckombil. Some notable selections in the first five years include that of the Freeborn, Roberston, Graham, Newborn, Crawford, Mellis, and Newton families. By 1883 Alstonville boasted two pubs, six stores, two black-smiths, nine sugar mills, and four saw mills.

Sugar cane was an important industry to the early settlers, with many small mills operating across the district. These were later replaced by larger more efficient steam mills such as those erected in 1882 at Alstonville (owned by the Melbourne Sugar Company) adjacent to Maguires Creek and at Rous Mill adjacent to Youngman Creek. By 1896 the Rous mill boasted a light rail line to transport cane from Alstonville. From the 1890s ownward, dairies became common across the area, later becoming the dominant industry for the first half of the 20th century. Due to lack of refrigeration, cream, not milk, was the product of interest, which was transported to local factories to be made into butter. The first butter factories were located at Wollongbah (1889), Rous (1889) and Teven Road (1890). In 1900 the NSW Creamery Butter Company built the Alstonville factory near Maguires Creek, which was sometime later acquired by the Norco Co-operative. After closing this building became a caravan factory, peanut factory, and finally a furniture factory, which is still open today.

One notable former resident of Alstonville is Patrick Joseph Bugden, who was awarded a Victoria Cross (the highest military decoration which can be awarded to a member of the armed forces of the Commonwealth). "Paddy" served as a member of the 31st Battalion AIF during the First World War. The annual Anzac day parade starts at the Paddy Bugden Memorial, which is situated on Bugden Avenue.

Origin of the name

The village was originally known as "Duck Creek Mountain" after Duck Creek, which flows along the southern edge of town eventually merging with Emigrant Creek and the Richmond River. The name was given by the cedar cutters because of the abundance of wild duck on the upper tidal reaches of the creek. In 1873, due to conflict of the original name with a different duck creek the first postmaster and owner of the general store John Perry proposed the name "Alstonville". Alstonville, also the name of the Perry farm, was derived from Alston the maiden name of his wife Annie Alston.

Climate

Alstonville has a wet humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa). It experiences moderately hot, rainy summers and mild, somewhat drier winters.{{cite web |title = Climate classification maps: Köppen - all classes |url = http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/maps/averages/climate-classification/?maptype=kpn

|Jan record high C = 41.7 |Feb record high C = 39.7 |Mar record high C = 36.0 |Apr record high C = 34.8 |May record high C = 30.1 |Jun record high C = 27.5 |Jul record high C = 27.2 |Aug record high C = 34.7 |Sep record high C = 34.5 |Oct record high C = 37.2 |Nov record high C = 40.7 |Dec record high C = 38.6 |Jan record low C = 13.8 |Feb record low C = 13.0 |Mar record low C = 10.7 |Apr record low C = 8.3 |May record low C = 4.2 |Jun record low C = 2.7 |Jul record low C = 2.9 |Aug record low C = 4.0 |Sep record low C = 4.2 |Oct record low C = 7.0 |Nov record low C = 8.8 |Dec record low C = 11.7 |year record low C = 2.7 |access-date = August 8, 2025}}

Population

|1966|576 |1971|779 |1976|1457 |1981|2936 |1986|3266 |1991|3678 |1996|4725 |2001|4751 |2006|5006 |2011|4990 |2016|5066 |2021|5182

In the 2021 Census, there were 5,182 people in the Alstonville urban centre. 84.3% of people were born in Australia. The next most common country of birth was England at 4.2%. 92.1% of people only spoke English at home. The most common responses for religion were no religion 39.9%, Catholic 18.7% and Anglican 14.9%.

Facilities

Crawford house, a pioneer house situated next to Elizabeth Ann Brown park is now a historical museum. Directly behind is the town's major shopping centre, Alstonville Plaza, which has a few specialty shops, and a major supermarket. The town has a post office but no longer has any bank.

Summerland Farm, previously known as the "Summerland House With No Steps", has been operating near Alstonville since 1971. A business of Aruma, formerly House with No Steps, Summerland Farm provides training and employment for in excess of 100 people with a disability in fields such as farming and hospitality. A must see tourist attraction, major distribution hub for regional farms and a working avocado and macadamia farm, Summerland Farm is one of the region's oldest and most successful tourism and horticulture businesses.

Alstonville has two stationed emergency services, Fire & Rescue NSW Station 204 and NSW Police.

Economy

An industrial estate is located in Russleton Park, with cement, macadamia processing and rural supplies dominating. In addition, numerous bus depots are located here, and there is a mail sorting facility. The industrial estate is located across the highway from Wollongbar; however, it is not a part of Wollongbar.

Alstonville is also home to many locally-run shops and services.

Schools

The town of Alstonville is home to two public and one private school: Alstonville Public School (state primary), St Joseph's School (Catholic primary) and Alstonville High School (state secondary). In 2016 the newly built Alstonville Preschool was opened, situated next to the Olympic Swimming Pool.

Transport

Transport between Alstonville and Wollongbar, is by either car, or foot/bike, as a path runs between Bulwinkel Park and the shopping centre at Wollongbar.

There is a regular bus service operating between Ballina and Lismore which passes through Alstonville.

Transport issues

A bypass has been constructed for the Bruxner Highway to remove congestion and improve safety. Previously Alstonville traffic became unusually congested (for such a small-population town) because its main road was the main thoroughfare between Lismore and Ballina. All three schools (and bus stops for another three schools) are located in a bottleneck with only one entry/exit road; as a result, parking for all three schools is usually congested.

Sporting teams on the plateau

The area has many parks, including Geoff Watt Oval, the major sporting ground for cricket, and soccer, and Crawford Park, across the other side of the highway. This park is a second sporting ground for soccer.

• The Alstonville and District Football Club is the local soccer club, known as "Villa", and is uniformed with red and black.
• Wollongbar Alstonville Pioneers Rugby is the local rugby union club, located at Wollongbar.
• Alstonville & District Cricket Club is Alstonville's only cricket team. Each year they have a team in the LJ Hooker League. They play at Geoff Watt Oval, Hill Park Oval & Gap Road.
• Alstonville is also the home of FNC NSW futsal at the Alstonville Entertainment Centre.

Interesting facts

Andesanthus lepidotus 'Alstonville' is a small tree grown in many parts of Australia for its brilliant display of purple flowers in autumn. This variety along with the dwarf variety 'Jules' was developed by Ken Dunstan a resident of Alstonville, hence the name.

The world's first commercial orchard of macadamia trees was planted in the early 1880s by Charles Staff at Rous Mill, on the Alstonville plateau, 7 km south west of the centre of town.

Media

Radio stations that cover Alstonville are ABC North Coast, 101.9 Paradise FM, River FM and Triple Z FM.

Alstonville receives TV from SBS and ABC and the regional affiliates of Seven, Nine and WIN Television’s 10 Northern NSW.

The local newspaper is The Northern Star.

Notable residents

• Rachael Beck, actress
• Doug Daley, rugby league player and administrator
• Nicholas Hamilton, actor
• Russell Strong, surgeon
• Brendan Drew, cricketer
• Alethea Jones, director/producer
• Harley Cameron, wrestler/sports entertainer

References

References

1. {{Census 2021 AUS
2. Council, Ballina Shire. (2007-08-24). "Aboriginal culture and heritage".
3. Cottages, Alstonville. (2019-08-07). "The History of Duck Creek - Alstonville".
4. (2002-08-01). "Australians at War — Paddy Bugden won VC for his bravery". Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs.
5. Beck, Hylke E. (October 23, 2023). "High-resolution (1 km) Köppen-Geiger maps for 1901–2099 based on constrained CMIP6 projections". [[Nature (journal).
6. "Statistics by Catalogue Number". Australian Bureau of Statistics.
7. "Search Census data". Australian Bureau of Statistics.
8. "Home - Paradise FM 101.9".