For thousands of years, the area now known as the Tweed Valley was the country of the Bundjalung people.
The Tweed River was named by the explorer John Oxley in 1832, and by the 1840s timber-getters were already cutting red cedar trees in the hinterland forests.Eventually most of the rainforests were cleared for cattle grazing and sugar cane growing.
That's what makes Stott's Island, in the Tweed River, so special. It is a protected area of the original rainforests that would have covered the banks of the river on both sides and up into the hills. It is incredibly thick and jungle-like, and from the river, massive fig trees, palms, hoop pine and mangroves keep company with loads of trees I certainly couldn't identify from the tinny. It is amazing to think that this density of vegetation once covered the Tweed's flood plains.
A couple of years ago, we pulled the tinny up onto the island, and attempted to try and beat a track into the bush, but the mozzies forced a hasty retreat!
