Exhibition draws on pre-colonial past

An exhibition exploring what the Northern Rivers region looked like before European settlement will open at Bangalow Heritage House & Museum on September 25.

The exhibition will feature line drawings of plants by horticulturist and bush regenerator Andy Erskine, some of which featured in the book The Big Scrub Rainforest — A Journey through Time, published by Big Scrub Landcare and Rous County Council.

Exhibition co-ordinator Christobel Munson said before European settlement in the area in the 1800s, 75,000ha of the Northern Rivers was covered with dense rainforest, which came to be known as “Big Scrub” or “Big Brush”.

A team of researchers from Bangalow Historical Society unearthed descriptions written by those early settlers, including children and the first government surveyors attempting to map out the land in the 1860s.

They also gathered images of the rich diversity of plants and animals of the rainforest they would have encountered.

“The early settlers were likely British-born or first colonials unused to the sub-tropical heat, hacking their way through jungle so dense it took days to cut a path of a few metres; through trees so old and massive the sky could not be seen, nor the voices of mates heard a dozen paces away,” Munson said.

“Strange birdsong was heard and animals unknown to the settlers crossed their paths, too, adding to the feeling of stepping into another world.”

The exhibition will run at the museum, which is open Wednesday to Saturday from 10am to 2pm, for six weeks.