Just a 5 minute scenic drive to Bangalow and 15 minutes to Byron Bay lays the hamlet of Possum Creek. Friday Hut Road is the main road in Possum Creek and happens to be one of the most sought after roads in the shire. It was so named during the timber milling days where the cedar-cutters met at a hut on this road every Friday to collect their pay. The first cedar-cutters arrived on the Richmond River in 1842 and this was the beginning of the Brunswick River cedar trade. While ‘surf loading’ was developed to overcome the problem of getting vessels across the dangerous Brunswick River bar, towards the southern end of the Byron Shire coast another natural obstacle required a inventive response by the cedar getters. Cape Byron’s hinterland backed by steep hills, and in some places by cliffs, where the escarpment was less precipitous, although still very steep, logs were slid from the elevated basaltic plateau where the cedar grew, to the back of the coastal plain from where they were dragged by bullock teams to the coast for loading onto ships. Such places were known as chutes or shutes, a term which has survived, albeit spelled differently, in the names of several Byron Shire localities: Cooper’s Shoot, Skinner’s, McLeod’s Shoot and Possum Shoot (near Coorabell) at the top of Possum Creek. Surrounding suburbs are Bangalow, Coorabell, Binna Burra and Byron Bay. Take a drive along Friday Hut Road and the surrounding country roads to absorb the beauty of this stunning and unique suburb.
|