Get Away with Dre: Northern Rivers Rail Trail

The Northern Rivers is known for Byron Bay, Ballina, Tweed Heads, Lismore and the Richmond Valley, but I think exploring the Northern Rivers Rail Trail (RT) by bike is an experience you have to try to really take in and explore the region.

The Northern Rivers is a beautiful, lush, green region of New South Wales, running from Tweed Heads to Hernani (west of Dorrigo) which includes the Clarence, Richmond and Tweed river catchments – it’s not called the Northern Rivers for nothing.

The Northern Rivers Rail Trail

The Northern Rivers RT is an old unused railway line that’s been repurposed into a free share path. Because the old railway line was used to transport people, goods, livestock and minerals the railway connected all the rural towns to each other and to main centres. When the train line closed tourism in these towns drop, so repurposing these lines into a sharepath gives everyone the opportunity and ability to explore all these little towns and villages, and some of the most spectacular countryside in NSW in an accessible and safe environment. You’ll get to experience this once scenic train ride up-close and personal.

2 sections are now open and ready for you to explore:

• Murwillumbah to Crabbes Creek – 24kms
• Casino to Lismore – 29.7kms

There is a proposed North Lismore to Byron Bay trail in the making, once completed the Northern Rivers Rail Trail will be 132 kms one-way in length, which you’ll get to do in one-hit if you’re down for the challenge.

My partner Mik and I make up Dogpacking Australia. We explore and share multi-day dog friendly outdoor adventures around Australia with our 3 dogs, so we naturally opted for the dog-friendlier trail Murwillumbah to Crabbes Creek as an out-&-back and you can read all about it here.

Not all adventures go to plan. In the end couldn’t make it to Crabbes Creek, we finished 5.2kms shy of the finish line, at Burringbar. We slept there for the night and made our way back to the start, cycling a total of 37.6kms.

The trail is stunning and picturesque. It’s mostly on shared path mixed with bits of compacted gravel, making it accessible for any type of wheels. We saw trailers, prams and a wheelchair on the trail.

At the start of the trail, at Murwillumbah Station, the resident bike shop has bike repair services and hired bikes available to experience the RT. You can also hire trailers for your kids and dogs – that’s how dog friendly they are.

We didn’t need any gear because we were fully stocked, thanks to Anaconda. Check out all gear used here.

Murwillumbah

In the local Bundjalung dialect it’s thought to mean “the bleeding big nose”. Murwillumbah is a main centre on the Tweed – people travel from around the Northern Rivers area to Murwillumbah for an array of food and provisions. 

The RT starts at the heritage listed Murwillumbah Railway Station which they kept looking the same, with the addition of The Platform Cafe, Better By Bike shop, and new toilets. It’s a starting hub equipped with everything you need before a cycling trip – a first aid station, multiple bike tool stations and bike cleaning stations. You can even park here – the Murwillumbah Rail Trail parking lot – where you can safely park and unload your gear – that’s how organised the Northern Rivers RT is.

The ride out of Murwillumbah, which is also the ride back in, is one of the trip’s highlights. The farmland scenery you travel through is spectacular. 

 

Dunbible

This is one of the prettiest pit stop. There’s a shelter with an outdoor table and chairs overlooking picturesque private farm land. 

Dunbible means “the black apple tree” in the local Bundjalung dialect. In the late 1880s, the area was home to a very small community, predominantly farmland for diary, pigs and cattle, today almost 400 people live there.

The station opened on 24 December 1894 with basic amenities, a waiting room, ladies’ room, basic toilet facilities and a storeroom, however in early 1920’s the residents of Dunbible wanted more and rallied for upgraded facilities: a new cream shed and pig yards alongside the station.

Dunbible was so isolated that the railway brought new opportunities in the area. Cream from cows in the morning could be delivered to the NORCO butter factory in Murwillumbah within half an hour.

 

Stokers Siding

A cute village with some quaint cafes that sit alongside the RT.

Stokers Siding was mainly cane & dairy farmland. The trains transported the cream to the NORCO butter factory and the cane to the sugar mill in Condong. They also transported logs to mills at Murwillumbah and Mullumbimby. Workers would carry logs from the sawmill to the station.

Stokers Siding was one of the first stations with a raise platform. The place is now home to over 600 people and it’s known for its thriving art community.

There’s parking nearby so you can choose to park your car here and start or end here, or get picked up or shuttled by shuttle bus.  

 

Burringbar Tunnel

The Burringbar Tunnel is 524 m long, 7 m high and 3.7 m wide, connecting the Stokers Siding village with Burringbar. It’s the longest tunnel out of 9 railway tunnels along the Casino to Murwillumbah line.

The tunnel opened in 1894, closed it’s rail services in 2004 so the microbats and glow worms moved in. It’s home 3 species of bats: the eastern horseshoe bat (rhinolophus megaphyllus), the southern myotis (myotis macropus) and the little bent-wing bat (miniopterus australis).

You’ll get to see the glowworms light up during the wetter period in Summer. Obviously, there’s no lighting in the tunnel, so you must have a light to enter.

 

Get Away with Dre and Dogpacking Australia was supported by Anaconda