Most visitors to Byron Bay stay close to the ocean. The beaches are the reason people come, and the ocean is magnificent. But Byron Bay sits at the edge of a landscape that extends inland with a complexity and beauty that the coastal strip, for all its appeal, cannot match.
This is the Rainbow Region.
What the Rainbow Region actually is
The Rainbow Region is not a formal geographic designation with precise boundaries. It is a name that emerged from the counterculture communities that settled the Byron Bay hinterland from the 1970s onward, drawn by cheap land, alternative values, and a landscape that appeared to support a different kind of life from the cities they had left. The name stuck because the landscape earned it. The region's volcanic soils produce extraordinary fertility. After rain, when the mist rises from the rainforest and the light catches it at the right angle, the optical conditions for rainbows are almost a daily event in the wetter months.
In rough geographic terms, the Rainbow Region encompasses the Byron Shire and the Tweed Shire, extending from the coast inland to the range, with the towns of Bangalow, Federal, Lismore, and Murwillumbah serving as inland reference points. The northern boundary is roughly the Queensland border. The western boundary is the Great Dividing Range.
The volcanic geology
The landscape of the Byron hinterland is dominated by the remnants of an ancient shield volcano. The Tweed Volcano was one of the largest in the southern hemisphere. It erupted repeatedly over millions of years, depositing layer upon layer of basalt across the surrounding landscape. What remains is the eroded core: Mount Warning, known by its Bundjalung name Wollumbin, stands at 1,156 metres above sea level at the centre of the ancient caldera. The ridgelines that radiate outward from Wollumbin are the remnant flanks of the original volcanic edifice, carved by rivers and rainfall over millions of years into the gorges, valleys, and waterfalls that the region is known for.
This geology is why the Byron hinterland looks so different from the coastal lowlands. The basalt has weathered into deep, extraordinarily fertile soils. The steep terrain has protected large areas of subtropical rainforest from clearing. The river systems that drain the caldera cut through layers of ancient lava, creating the permanent watercourses, sheltered gorges, and swimming holes that distinguish the hinterland.
The ecology
The subtropical rainforest of the Byron hinterland is among the most biodiverse ecosystems in Australia. The Big Scrub, the original name for the vast lowland rainforest that once covered most of the Northern Rivers, was almost entirely cleared for dairy farming and banana cultivation in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Fragments remain in protected areas, and the forests of the Nightcap Range, Minyon Falls, and the ranges above Bangalow represent what was once a continuous canopy that stretched to the coast.
The wildlife in the remaining and regenerating forests is significant. Koalas inhabit the hinterland in greater numbers than the coastal strip. Platypus occur in the creeks and river systems of the area. The flying foxes that roost in numbers near Byron Bay in summer feed on the flowering and fruiting trees of the hinterland. More than 400 bird species have been recorded in the Northern Rivers region. The brush turkey, which many visitors to Byron Bay encounter on the Cape Byron Walking Track, is a common sight in the forest. At night, the sugar glider, the greater glider, and the eastern pygmy possum move through the canopy of the more intact forest patches.
The glow worm colonies that Rise Up accesses on its night tours depend on this ecology. The creek systems of the hinterland, fed by rainfall on the volcanic soils of the ranges, create the permanent moisture conditions and the insect diversity that glow worm populations need. The same forest that shelters koalas and platypus also shelters the cave overhangs and steep creek banks where Arachnocampa larvae hang their silk threads in the darkness.
The towns
Bangalow, 20 minutes south of Byron Bay, is the most accessible of the hinterland towns and the most visited. Its main street has been transformed from a small dairy-farming service town into a strip of good independent retailers, cafés, and restaurants. The Bangalow Hotel has been serving the district since 1907. The Saturday morning market draws visitors from across the region.
Federal, a further 15 minutes south of Bangalow, is smaller, quieter, and frequently mentioned by people who live in the region as their favourite village. The Federal General Store operates as a restaurant and café with produce that comes largely from the surrounding farms. The store has won more regional food awards than a single-room building in a village of 300 people has any reasonable right to win.
Nimbin, further west, is the town most associated with the counterculture history of the region. Its reputation is larger than its current reality. It remains interesting as a document of an alternative social experiment that has been running, in various states of coherence, since 1973. For visitors who want to understand what the Rainbow Region was imagined to be before Byron Bay became expensive, Nimbin provides context.
Why most visitors miss it
The hinterland is not visible from the beach. There is no obvious prompt to go there. The distances feel significant on a map to someone accustomed to urban geography but are in practice 20 to 40 minutes by car. The marketing of Byron Bay focuses on the coast because the coast photographs well and because most visitors come for the coast and nothing else.
The consequence is that the landscape that gives the region its name, its soil fertility, its water, its biodiversity, and a great deal of its character remains largely unseen by the majority of people who visit. Rise Up exists, in part, to change that.