Yamba trip planner

Yamba is a town in northern New South Wales, Australia at the mouth of the Clarence River. The first European to visit the area was Matthew Flinders, who stopped by in Yamba Bay for six days in July 1799.The town economy is strongly based on fishing and tourism, but has a diverse range of influences, due to the 'Sea Change' phenomena and the large number of baby boomers who are starting to retire to the warmer climates.At the, Yamba had a population of 6,032, but as a popular tourist destination, it can triple its population in the holiday period. In 2009 Yamba was voted the number 1 town in Australia by Australian Traveller Magazine.Yamba is known to have experienced the natural phenomenon known as Sea foam.HistoryIn 1799 Matthew Flinders landed on the present southern headland at Yamba. He’d been despatched from Sydney to find a new Eden, but from his vantage point atop a craggy promontory, now Pilot Head, he dismissed the turbulent estuary as dangerous and unworthy of further examination, before sailing away. In the 1830s, timber harvesting commenced. in 1861, the Townsite was surveyed, and by October 1862 construction of the breakwater Clarence River Heads Post Office was completed. Originally named Shoal Bay and later in 1885, to be renamed Yamba with a population of approx 340.In 1908 the Yamba Surf Lifesaving Club was formed and is one of the oldest surf clubs in the world. Yamba began to develop as a tourist destination in the 1930s following the arrival of the railway line at nearby Grafton. Guesthouses were replaced by motels and holiday apartments following the sealing of the main road in 1958, with visitors now able to use bridges rather than punts and ferries.

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