Burringbar, New South Wales

Burringbar
Burringbar Broadway (main street) (2024)
Burringbar Broadway (main street) (2024)
Burringbar is located in New South Wales
Burringbar
Burringbar
Coordinates: 28°25′S 153°20′E / 28.417°S 153.333°E / -28.417; 153.333
CountryAustralia
StateNew South Wales
LGA
Location
Government
 • State electorate
 • Federal division
Population
 • Total858 (2006 census)[2]
Postcode
2483

Burringbar is a village 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) south-east of Murwillumbah in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. It sits within the Tweed Shire local government area and is 44 kilometres (27 mi) from the regional centre of Tweed Heads.

The traditional owners of this place are the Ngandowal and Minyungbal speaking people of the Bundjalung Nation, specifically the Goodjinburra, Tul-gi-gin, and Moorung-Moobah clans.[3][4][5]

The Northern Rivers Rail Trail passes through it.[4][6]

History and origin of place name

Burringbar is named for the Yugambeh–Bundjalung language word Bunungban which is a long boomerang used in warfare and were used for striking opponents rather than throwing. It has been alternately suggested that it is taken from a combination of the words Burring (also meaning long boomerang) and the suffix '-bah' which means 'place of'.[7]

The first European owner of the land here was Thomas Ewing who built the first colonial building there in 1888 and soon after, in 1894, Burringbar Station- part of the Murwillumbah railway line, was constructed there.[4] With the station constructed Burringbar soon became an important stop for goods and, by the mid-1990s, up to 8 train travels through there a day; use of this railway line declined and the station was closed in 1967 and it was dismantled in the 1990s.[8][9]

Demographics

In the 2011 census, Burringbar recorded a population of 858 people, 48.6% female and 51.4% male.

The median age of the Burringbar population was 41 years, 4 years above the national median of 37.

81.2% of people living in Burringbar were born in Australia. The other top responses for country of birth were England 4.1%, New Zealand 1.5%, Scotland 0.9%, Germany 0.9%, Canada 0.7%.

90.4% of people spoke only English at home; the next most common languages were 1.4% Italian, 0.5% Lithuanian, 0.5% Spanish, 0.3% German, 0.3% Maltese.

The novelist Jessica Cole, otherwise known as Jessie Cole, comes from Burringbar, which is also the setting for many of her novels.[10]

References

  1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Burringbar (urban centre and locality)". Australian Census 2021. Edit this at Wikidata
  2. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Burringbar (L) (Urban Centre/Locality)". 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
  3. ^ "Aboriginal cultural heritage". www.tweed.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  4. ^ a b c "Burringbar". Northern Rivers Rail Trail. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  5. ^ "Aboriginal cultural heritage". Tweed Regional Museum. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  6. ^ "Places". Northern Rivers Rail Trail. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
  7. ^ Brunswick Valley Historical Society Inc (2019), Labels and landmarks : the many meanings of Brunswick Valley place names, Brunswick Valley Historical Society Inc, p. 26, ISBN 978-0-9585921-9-2
  8. ^ "Burringbar Station". www.nswrail.net. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  9. ^ "Burringbar Station". museum.tweed.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  10. ^ Chenery, Susan (1 August 2014). "Jessie Cole: Life in a secret world". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 December 2019.