Comboyne is a village on the
Mid North Coast region of
New South Wales. It is situated on the Comboyne Plateau, some 60 km south-west of
Port Macquarie, 35 km west of
Kew and 54 km north-west of
Taree. It is an attractive agricultural area with fertile soils and a high rainfall. The word "Comboyne" is a corruption of the local
Biripi people's name for "a place of kangaroos" (Gambuyn). At the , Comboyne had a population of 453.
The
Birpai
The Birrbay people, also spelt Birpai, Biripi, Birippi and variant spellings, are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales. They and share a dialect continuum with the Worimi people.
Language
The Gathang language (aka Gadjang or Wori ...
(also known as
Birrbay) people have lived in this area for more than 40,000 years.
Previously, the area was covered in sub-tropical rainforest which has almost all been cleared by the early 20th century. The early explorers originally sought the valuable timber of the
Australian Red Cedar
''Toona ciliata'' is a forest tree in the mahogany family which grows throughout southern Asia from Afghanistan to Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Names
It is commonly known as the red cedar (a name shared by other trees), toon or toona (also a ...
. The second oldest natural reserve in the state is at nearby
Boorganna Nature Reserve which preserves a remnant of sub-tropical rainforest. The
Antarctic beech Antarctic beech is a common name of two species in the genus ''Nothofagus'':
*''Nothofagus antarctica'', native to South America
*''Nothofagus moorei
''Nothofagus moorei'', commonly known as Antarctic beech, is an important Gondwana relict of t ...
has been
recorded at four sites in the Comboyne area.
Geology and climate
The annual average rainfall at Comboyne is a high 1818 mm. The climate is sub tropical, though at an elevation of 705 metres, it is cooler than at the coast nearby. Soils are derived from
basalt, which provide a deep red loam. Below the basalt are less fertile sedimentary rocks. The Comboyne Shield Volcano erupted some 11 to 13 million years ago.
The Comboyne plateau is a scarp-bounded
paleoplain located between the
central north coast of New South Wales and the
Great Dividing Range
The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...
.
Miocene basalts overlie much of the plateau,
creating relatively fertile red/brown
soils. In the southern third of the plateau are underlying
Triassic sediments of the Lorne basin.
The plateau has a wet, sub tropical climate,
though subject to frost and occasional snow.
References
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Towns in New South Wales
Mid North Coast