Bellingen

Bellingen, New South Wales is a small town on the North Coast of the Australian state of New South Wales (pop 2800). Bellingen is approximately half way between the major Australian cities of Sydney and Brisbane, at 30°27′S 152°54′E. The Bellingen area is a mixture of valley, plateau and coastal environments.

Bellingen township lies on the not-quite-spelled-the-same Bellinger River, this different spelling being the result of a misinterpretation of some poor handwriting. The Bellingen Shire local government area is also home to the Dorrigo (west) and Urunga (east) townships. The rural communites of the Thora and Kalang vallies and the pastoral area of Gleniffer are additionally accessed from the Bellinger Valley.

Bellingen is was one of the filming locations for the 2003 comedy film Danny Deckchair, written and directed by Jeff Balsmeyer. Bellingen was also the notional setting of the book Oscar and Lucinda written by Booker Prize winning author Peter Carey.

In fact Bellingen has a strong affinity with the arts and is home to four festivals: the popular Global Carnival, the Jazz and Blues Festival, Stamping Groundand Camp Creative.

Bellingen is home to well-known current events reporter George Negus and pianist David Helfgott (subject of the film Shine released in 1996). Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist was born in Bellingen.

Bellingen was originally known as Boat Harbour, changing its name to Bellingen in 1870. First settled by Kooris before European settlement. From the 1840s onward red cedar attracted more settlers. Cedar was transported down the river. Bellingen was found to have fertile ground and had a major dairy industry which today has been supplanted by tourism and the arts.