Coffs Harbour is one of the best-loved coastal cities in New South Wales and an almost essential stop on the route between Sydney and Brisbane. Stretched along a subtropical coastline of golden beaches, with green mountains dropping almost to the sea, it combines the laid-back life of a beach town with attractions for the whole family. It is famous across Australia for the Big Banana, the first and most famous of the 'Big Things' (those giant kitsch figures dotted along the country's highways), a symbol of a region that was for decades the country's banana capital.
But Coffs is much more than its giant banana. Its coastline is part of the Solitary Islands Marine Park, one of the best places in NSW for diving, snorkelling and watching humpback whales on their annual migration. The historic harbour and its jetty (a timber pier) lead out to Muttonbird Island, a nature reserve and Gumbaynggirr sacred site with 360° views and a seabird colony. And inland, less than an hour away, the Dorrigo rainforest, a World Heritage site, offers waterfalls and a spectacular Skywalk above the treetops.
This guide explores Coffs Harbour with a practical, curious eye: how to enjoy the Big Banana and its slides, head out to see whales or dive in the marine park, walk to Muttonbird Island from the harbour, peer over the edge on the Forest Sky Pier at Sealy Lookout and escape to the Dorrigo rainforest. It's an ideal destination for a one- or two-day stop on a coastal road trip, or for a family getaway of beach, nature and gentle adventure.
Coffs Harbour is the traditional Country of the Gumbaynggirr people, one of the largest Aboriginal nations on the NSW coast, known as the 'sharing people' because of the abundance of resources from their land and sea. They lived on this coast for thousands of years, and places such as Muttonbird Island (Giidany Miirlarl) hold deep spiritual significance. The European town was born tied to the sea and to cedar: in 1847, shipbuilder John Korff took shelter from a storm in the bay and gave it his name (Korff's Harbour), which a surveyor's mistake turned into 'Coffs'. From the 1860s the 'cedar getters' arrived to log the red cedar, and later bananas made the region Australia's banana capital. Colonisation displaced and hit the Gumbaynggirr people hard, yet they keep their culture alive. The full story is on our history page.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Long before there was a giant banana beside the highway, this coast of golden sand and green mountains already had its custodians: the Gumbaynggirr people, one of the largest coastal Aboriginal nations in New South Wales. Their Country stretches from around the Nambucca River in the south to near the Clarence River in the north, and from the sea to the Great Dividing Range. The Gumbaynggirr lived on this land for many thousands of years, and they still do.
They are sometimes known as 'the sharing people', a nickname tied to the extraordinary abundance of their territory: a coastline rich in fish, shellfish and seabirds, generous rivers and estuaries, and rainforests and woodlands full of food, medicinal plants and materials. That wealth supported an intense cultural life, with gatherings, ceremonies and exchanges between groups. The sea, the rivers and the sacred sites were woven into the stories of the Dreaming, the Law and creation.
One of the most significant places in all of Gumbaynggirr Country is today's Muttonbird Island, which they know as Giidany Miirlarl, meaning 'sacred place of the moon'. The island is now a nature reserve linked to the harbour by the breakwater. It holds deep spiritual importance and features in ancestral stories. To understand the history of this place beyond its beaches and its banana, you have to recognise that Coffs Harbour is, first and foremost, Gumbaynggirr Country, and that its people keep their language, their culture and their connection to land and sea alive.
European arrival on this coast was shaped first by the sea and then by a tree. During the first half of the 19th century, coastal ships worked their way along the NSW north coast, and the small bay we now know as Coffs served as an occasional shelter. The most widely told version says that in 1847 the shipbuilder and shipowner John Korff had to take shelter there from a storm and named the spot 'Korff's Harbour'. Some years later, around 1861, a Crown surveyor's mistake while reserving land turned that name into 'Coffs Harbour', and it has stayed that way ever since.
What drew the first settlers was red cedar (Toona ciliata), the most sought-after timber in colonial Australia, so valuable it was called 'red gold'. From the 1860s, the 'cedar getters' pushed into the rainforests of the Coffs hinterland to fell the huge cedars. The logs were floated down the rivers and shipped to Sydney to make furniture and boats. It was an intense harvest that soon used up the best trees and opened the way for new settlements.
For the Gumbaynggirr people, this arrival was devastating. The occupation of their lands and waters, the clearing of their sacred forests, the diseases brought by the settlers and frontier violence all hit the population hard. Many Gumbaynggirr were pushed off their places and later confined to missions and reserves. Even so, the Gumbaynggirr nation survived and held on to its identity, and that fact is central to the region's history.
Once the cedar was gone, Coffs found a new economic engine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: bananas. The subtropical climate, sunny slopes running down to the sea and fertile soils turned out to be ideal for growing them, and the hills around Coffs were covered in plantations. The region became Australia's great banana capital, with thousands of hectares under bananas and an industry that defined local identity and the local economy for decades.
The banana boom drew workers and settlers, including a notable immigrant community. Families of Italian and Indian (Sikh) origin were especially prominent, among others, and they brought both their labour and their culture to the area. The north coast railway, which reached Coffs in the early 20th century, and the harbour made it possible to get the produce to market. Building the breakwater and the harbour, which joined Muttonbird Island to the mainland, transformed the coastline and gave Coffs the shape it has today.
That banana identity gave rise in 1964 to the city's most famous symbol: the Big Banana. It was conceived as a roadside attraction to sell bananas and other produce to travellers. This enormous concrete banana became Australia's first 'Big Thing' and inspired dozens of imitations around the country (the big ram, the big lobster, the big koala). Kitsch and lovable, the Big Banana went from roadside advertisement to national icon and to the emblem of a region that lived off this fruit.
Over time, bananas stopped being the big business. Competition from other regions and from other crops (blueberries, greenhouse vegetables) gradually replaced the old plantations, though banana plants are still part of the landscape. Coffs Harbour's economy shifted towards tourism, services, health, education and diversified farming. The city, now home to more than 70,000 people across its wider area, became the main hub of the 'Coffs Coast'.
Its position halfway between Sydney and Brisbane, on the Pacific Highway, made it a classic stop on east coast road trips. Visitors come for the beaches, whale watching and diving in the Solitary Islands Marine Park, the World Heritage-listed rainforest at Dorrigo, lookouts such as the Forest Sky Pier and, of course, a photo at the Big Banana. The recent completion of the Coffs Harbour bypass took traffic out of the centre and strengthened its tourism profile.
At the same time, the region is seeing an important revival of Gumbaynggirr culture. Language revitalisation work through organisations such as Muurrbay and through education programmes, the recognition of sacred sites such as Giidany Miirlarl (Muttonbird Island), Aboriginal cultural tours and the return of traditional names are all part of a more honest look at the past. They also shape a present in which First Peoples have a voice again.
For travellers, the visit becomes much richer once you know a few things. Beneath the beaches and the giant banana lies ancient Gumbaynggirr Country, and the 'sharing' nation is still very much alive. These hills were first cedar rainforest and later seas of banana plants. In the end, Coffs Harbour is a crossroads of stories: sea and mountains, Aboriginal people and settlers, red gold, bananas and tourism, all packed into an especially beautiful stretch of the New South Wales coast.
