Grafton

Grafton has a very beautiful and very gracious city centre, characterised by wide streets, elegant Victorian buildings, a superb location on the banks of the Clarence River, a sense of solidity, and a long-standing concern with civic beauty, manifest in the 6500 trees and 24 parks which adorn the city. In fact, the first ornamental trees were planted as early as 1874 and the city’s famous jacaranda stands in 1907-08.

Grafton is located about 40 km due west of the coast and 625 km north-east of Sydney at the junction of the Pacific and Gwydir Highways. The area was occupied by the Gumbaingirr Aborigines at the time of European colonisation. It is thought that the first whites in the area were convict escapees from Moreton Bay who passed through the area in the late 1820s and early 1830s. One of their number, Richard Craig, reported a big river and a plenitude of valuable timber when he arrived at Port Macquarie in 1832. He was later employed by a Thomas Small of Sydney who, inspired by Craig’s reports, sent off his brother and two dozen sawyers on board the schooner, the Susan, to the “Big River”.

It was the first European vessel to enter the river. Other cedar-cutters followed in their wake. Small took up a large parcel of land on Woodford Island, opening the way for other pastoralists along the river that Governor Gipps named the Clarence in 1839. A township was laid out in 1849 and named after the Duke of Grafton who was the grandfather of Governor Fitzroy. The first land sale took place in the early 1850s, a school opened in 1852 and the first Anglican church in 1854. The population, by 1856, had grown to 1069.

Wharves were established in the 1850s and Grafton benefited both from its location on the main coastal road to the north and from gold discoveries on the upper Clarence River. It soon became the major town on the Clarence and was declared a municipality in 1859 Grafton was declared a city in the mid-1880s, by which time its population had surpassed 4000. In 1897 South Grafton established itself as a separate municipality and the two settlements were not amalgamated until 1956. This separation must have been due, in part, to the absence of a bridge.

Remarkably, this situation was not rectified until 1932. It is even more remarkable when one considers that the rolling-stock of the Sydney-Brisbane railway (which reached South Grafton in 1915) had to be ferried across until that time. Still, when it did arrive it was a most unique construction, consisting of two storeys with the railway running underneath the road. It was, furthermore, a lift bridge, although the decline of the river trade saw the lift section sealed.

The Jacaranda Festival CVR Motorhome Rally

The CVR jacaranda grew from humble beginnings, with mainly members only enjoying their chapter outing to coincide with the main jacaranda event. As others heard about the fun times, it grew to 15 vehicles plus.

Our President at the time Ian Wright, then asked Carol Randall to come on board and use her marketing skills to see if we could encourage more CMCA members to attend and maybe grow it in to a week’s outing.

Having a program which had something for every taste and aiming to get people involved was the key. Our older members were unsure of what the outcome would be, especially when I decided we needed a concert, and various bus trips other than just shopping and to the breakfast. We needed an easy

dress up theme, we needed to do something to tie in with the Melbourne Cup we needed to advertise our event.

With much badgering and pleading with members, we held our first concert full of skits and entertainment. Our theme was Hawaiian, we held horse races and had a hat parade and fashions on the field. Bus trips to the garden displays, and a local tour of Grafton and it’s history were all on the agenda. The year, 2006.

Every year we have seen growth, with both new members and old members returning. Our jacaranda is a much talked about event and has grown to become a must do on the CMCA members calendar.

Carol Randall N5638
CVR secretary.