Toormina is a suburb in the

City of Coffs Harbour The City of Coffs Harbour (also known as the Coffs Harbour City Council) is a local government area in the mid north coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The area under administration is , expanded in 2004 to take in parts of the former P ...

, on the east coast of New South Wales,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Located in the city's south, Toormina is near the seaside suburb of Sawtell.

History

The suburb was developed in the 1980s by Mr Patrick Hargraves, a local landowner who owned a large amount of land within the Coffs Harbour and Sawtell area. Hargraves holidayed in Sawtell with his family annually for Christmas during the 1960s and says that he ''″saw the opportunity for expansion in new subdivisions to the west of the existing centre and slowly bought the land that now is Toormina″''. The suburb’s name ′Toormina′ was inspired by local residents. Some of Hargraves′ clients, who were Italian residents living in the area, suggested the name Taormina based on the famous resort area in Sicily, Italy. Hargraves decided that the name sounded better without the ′a′ and changed the name to Toormina. The suburb is connected to

Coffs Harbour Coffs Harbour is a city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 as per 2021 census. The Gumbaynggirr ...

by Hogbin Drive, commonly referred to as the Link Road, and is serviced by Sawtell Coaches and Busways. During the subdivision of the land along Hogbin Drive, which was involved in the development of Toormina, Hargraves agreed to a land swap with the Coffs Harbour and District RSL for the Coffs Harbour Education Campus and also donated land for the Coffs Harbour Catholic High School, St. John Paul College.

Schools

The area's education is covered by

Toormina High School Toormina is a suburb in the City of Coffs Harbour, on the east coast of New South Wales, Australia. Located in the city's south, Toormina is near the seaside suburb of Sawtell. History The suburb was developed in the 1980s by Mr Patrick Harg ...

, Toormina Primary School and (Bayldon) Primary School, and a number of independent schools including the Catholic Primary School Mary Help of Christians.

Toormina Gardens

A local shopping centre, Toormina Gardens, was built in the 1980s to service the growing population in south Coffs Harbour. Situated off Toormina road, the centre was bought in 2001 by

Centro Properties Group Vicinity Centres , previously known as Federation Centres and Centro Properties Group, is an Australian Real Estate Investment Trust specialising in ownership and management of Australian shopping centres. As at December 2021, it had stakes i ...

and renamed Centro Toormina. In April 2007 the Coffs Harbour City Council approved a A$20 million redevelopment of the centre that would incorporate a Kmart Australia discount department store, in with the existing supermarkets run by Coles and

Woolworths Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to: Businesses * F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores * Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), former operator of the Woolworths chain of shops ...

, and specialty stores including Man to Man Menswear, Michael Hill Jewellers, & Sanity Music. Major work on the redevelopment, which included the suburb's first set of traffic lights, was completed by November 2008 by Mainbrace Constructions, with the grand re-opening for Centro Toormina on the 27th."Seeing the light at Toormina"
, ''Coffs Coast Independent'', retrieved 18 November 2008 Centro was sold in 2013 and renamed back to its original name Toormina Gardens. Supermarket chain Aldi built its stand alone shopping complex next to Toormina Gardens and began its operations in late 2013.

Other

Clint Greenshields Clint Greenshields (born 11 January 1982) is a former France international rugby league footballer who played as a for the St George Illawarra Dragons and the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL, and for the Catalans Dragons in the Super Lea ...

, a former player for St George Illawarra Dragons, in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

, came from Toormina. He previously played in France for the Catalans Dragons from 2007 until 2012 where he switched to the

for the QLD Cowboys. Other town facilities include a velodrome, skate park and a well maintained BMX track that regularly hosts state championships.

References

{{authority control Mid North Coast Towns in New South Wales Coffs Harbour