Ballina

Postcode: 2478

Ballina is a town (2001 population: 16,599) and the seat of the Ballina Shire Council Local Government Area on the North Coast, New South Wales, Australia.

Ballina is located on the Pacific Highway, and was established on the northern shore of the Richmond River near Cape Byron, Australia's most easterly point, in the 1840s. Ballina boasts some of the most beautiful surfing beaches and picturesque headlands on the east coast of Australia. It is approximately 750Km north of Sydney and 205Km south of Brisbane. It is home to the World's Largest Prawn (made of concrete and fibreglass).

The Richmond River and its estuaries abound with marine wildlife and for many years has remained a favorite of fishermen and water sports enthusiasts alike.

Ballina has a number of famous "landfalls" associated with it. The first, in 1928, was Charles Kingsford Smith. His plane, the "Southern Cross", crossed the coast over Ballina after its epic journey across the Pacific. Ballina had a festival associated with the event during the 1970s and 1980s, and a school in East Ballina bears the name "Southern Cross". The second landfall associated with Ballina was in 1973 when the Las Balsas rafts were towed into Ballina by fishing trawlers after their journey from Ecuador. They originally had planned to arrive in Mooloolaba in Queensland, but currents had forced them off their destination. Their journey was almost twice as long as the Kon-Tiki expeditions of 1947 and proved that people could have travelled across the Pacific in ancient times.

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