A tranquil life in Wooyung

By Jo Kennett

ITS NAME means ‘slow’ in the local Indigenous dialect and Wooyung is a peaceful haven from the increasingly frantic pace of life on the rest of the Tweed Coast.

Wooyung, with its nature reserve, wetlands home to rare double bora rings, and a long white sand beach flanked by littoral rainforest, is about as tranquil as life can get on the Tweed Coast.

The bora rings were the site of Bundjalung feasting and ceremonies, an enviable life undisturbed for thousands of years until cedar getters came along in the 1840s.

Then the schooner Swift was wrecked on Wooyung Beach during a cyclone in 1949.

Two of the timber cutters on board freed Captain Robb, who was trapped inside with another man, and according to Kathy Cherry’s history in The Big Volcano, the Robb family still live in the area today.

Henry Jones arrived and established a dairy farm along

Jones Road in 1902 and then sand miners arrived in 1935.

Wooyung has no township, no shop, or school (though there was a school built in 1919 that no longer stands), or any of the types of buildings that make up a village.

It’s an area that runs from just south of the Black Rocks sportsfield, out to Tweed Valley Way on the south side of Wooyung Road and halfway down into the Billinudgel Nature Reserve, inside Byron Shire.

At the heart of Wooyung is the Wooyung Beach Holiday Park.

According to a history written by Kathy Cherry and published in The Big Volcano, a Sydney insurance salesman came to Wooyung in 1963 and decided to build a motel and caravan park.

Apparently it killed him because in 1967 his widow put it on the market.

In 1968, Kathy’s parents, farmers Ray and Jeanne Thomson, bought the business and it has been in the family’s hands ever since. Kathy and her husband Frank Cherry bought the business in 1978 and now her son Mark and his partner run the popular park. Tweed Shire Mayor (and former biophysicist) Chris Cherry was one of Kathy’s nine children. They have kept the simple, old school 1960s-style camping going and apart from planting gum trees for koalas, the bushland surrounding the campsites is all natural and a haven for birds and wildlife.

It’s just a short walk to the unadulterated delights of Wooyung Beach which is mostly deserted apart from the odd fisherman or surfer.

Wooyung may be quiet, but it isn’t boring. There has been a history of unsuccessful developments in the area, with one in 1990 involving former Councillor Tom Hogan (father of Muriel’s Wedding producer PJ Hogan and immortalised as the Bill Hunter character) and an ICAC investigation into alleged bribery and corruption.

In 2004, a Gold Coast motivational speaker and wouldbe developer was thrown in the slammer for defrauding investors of $2 million in his failed Water at Wooyung project, some of the money being spent on buying himself a home.

A 2006 proposal for the same land included creating a new lake, three islands, restaurants, tennis courts, tourist accommodation and a golf course beside Wooyung Beach which enraged the nature-loving locals.

The NSW Land and Environment Court found a 1988 council consent for the project was still valid because they had hammered in one surveyor’s peg, but the development was ultimately knocked back.

At the 2021 Census, Wooyung had a population of 139 people living in 62 dwellings and the average rent was only $315 which sounds pretty darned good to live in paradise.

Wooyung includes places like Warwick Park Road, which has some truly lovely and spectacular rural properties with views across the cane fields and out to the ocean as far as Byron Bay.

One such property, on the other side of Warwick Park Road, is currently on the market with Craig Dudgeon at Elders Real Estate Tweed Valley for $1.85 million, but that is already under offer. These things do fall through at times so it’s still worth while talking to local agents if you are interested in buying into this lovely area.

Although there aren’t enough properties at Wooyung to gather any significant data from, most are rural acreage, some with rainforest type settings and many with those million-dollar views. There are currently five properties on the market at Wooyung, all under offer, but still worth a shot if you are keen. It’s just over a 30 minute drive to all the shops, restaurants and beaches of Tweed Heads/ Coolangatta.

If you are looking for a haven from the rush of the rest of the Tweed Coast, you won’t find anywhere on the coast more lovely and peaceful than Wooyung.

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This beautifully renovated, Five-bedroom, double storey brick home on an elevated 663 sqm block in Murwillumbah is bursting with appeal. Fully renovated throughout, the new owner will be able to move straight in and enjoy gorgeous hybrid timber flooring, fresh white walls, a contemporary, stylish bathroom, and a fully-appointed kitchen with island bench, new stainlesssteel appliance, gas cooktop and all the mod-cons.

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