Big Banana, Solitary Islands Marine Park and World Heritage rainforest halfway between Sydney and Brisbane
Coffs Harbour sits at the mid-point between Sydney and Brisbane on the Pacific Highway — a coastal city of 75,000 that holds an unusual combination of whale watching (June–October), sea turtles, and subtropical marine diversity at the Solitary Islands Marine Park, plus Gondwana World Heritage rainforest at Dorrigo National Park an hour inland. The original Big Banana (1964, the first of Australia's famous 'Big Things') is still here, now a water park and toboggan complex. The Forest Sky Pier, cantilevered 310 metres above the escarpment, is one of coastal NSW's most dramatic elevated viewpoin…
The Gumbaynggirr people inhabited the Coffs Harbour coastline and hinterland for tens of thousands of years; their language and culture remain living, with community-led paddle tours among the few places in coastal NSW where visitors can engage directly with living Indigenous knowledge. European settlement accelerated with the timber trade in the 1860s and the railway in 1915, and the banana industry — established by Chinese and European market gardeners who found the volcanic hinterland ideal for tropical fruit — defined the city's identity through most of the 20th century.