Byron Shire History

Mar 312012
 
Byron Bay - Placename & History

The local Arakwal Aboriginal people’s name for the area is Cavvanbah, meaning “meeting place”. The history of Europeans in Byron Bay began in 1770, when Captain James Cook found a safe anchorage and named Cape Byron after Captain John Byron, who circumnavigated the globe in 1764-66 and thus preceded Cook on the Pacific. In the 1880s, when Europeans settled more permanently, streets were named for other English writers and philosophers. Byron Bay is part of the erosion caldera of an ancient shield volcano, the Tweed Volcano, which erupted 23 million years ago. The volcano formed as a result of the Indo-Australian Plate moving over the East Australia hotspot. 1770: Captain Cook sails past and names Cape Byron as a tribute to his fellow navigator, Vice-Admiral John Byron, grandfather of the famous poet. The area was called Cavvanba, meaning meeting place, by the local Arakawal and Minjangbal tribes. 1840s: The “Big

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