Australia's Bohemian North — the continent's most easterly point, world-class surf, and a farm-to-table food scene the rest of the country envies
Byron Bay is the most easterly point of mainland Australia, a small coastal town that built a global reputation as Australia's counterculture capital — and in recent years as its farm-to-table food destination. The Cape Byron lighthouse, the country's most visited lighthouse, sits above the town's surf breaks and the humpback whale migration corridor. The food culture is driven by producers in the surrounding Tweed Valley — Three Blue Ducks, an organic farm-to-restaurant operation, helped define the national conversation about sustainable farming. Bluesfest each Easter draws major internation…
Known as Cavvanbah — meaning 'meeting place' — in the Arakwal Bundjalung language, Byron Bay has been inhabited for at least 22,000 years. The Arakwal Bundjalung people's connection to the Cape Byron headland remains protected in law — Cape Byron is a registered Aboriginal sacred site, and Arakwal National Park borders the town. European settlement began in the 1870s for the cedar-getters harvesting Hoop Pine along the far north coast. The Byron Bay abattoir and the whaling station defined 20th-century industry; the transformation to alternative lifestyle destination began in the 1970s and ac…