TAKE THE SLOW ROAD

People say the journey is as important as the destination. But when that destination is the Northern Rivers – where dairy flats and macadamia rows give way to sprawling beaches, rainforest still clings to the misty hills, and the roll call of towns includes icons like Byron Bay, Ballina and Yamba – the journey has a lot to live up to.

WRITTEN BY CHRIS ASHTON

As it turns out, it delivers. Beyond the coastal strip that never fails to draw the crowds, a tangle of back roads leads to places most visitors – and some locals – never think to look for. Towns like Uki, tucked beneath the green shoulder of Wollumbin-Mt Warning, or the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it village of Clunes, where the general store still doubles as the communal living room and the driver coming the other way lifts two fingers off the wheel in greeting – because out here, that’s just what you do.

This is the Northern Rivers worth slowing down for: fewer cars, greater adventures, and more farm gates than freeways. While Byron and Ballina may be the icons everyone comes for, it’s the towns which surround and connect them which leave the deepest impression.

There’s no ideal way to plan a trip like this. You can point the car in a direction, but the best of it tends to arrive unexpectedly – a hand-painted sign for a cheese shop you weren’t looking for, a hall with its doors flung open and a trestle table of cakes inside, a pub with a blackboard promising trivia at seven. The Northern Rivers rewards those willing to be interrupted. Here are three ways to let it.

MURWILLUMBAH TO BILLINUDGEL: THE LONG WAY ROUND THE MOUNTAIN

Start in Murwillumbah, where the Tweed River curls past old Queenslanders and art deco shopfronts, then let the road pull you inland instead of down to the coast.

Chillingham – population circa 230 – is as quiet a hamlet as they come, but on the second Sunday of the month its community hall overflows with produce and preserves for the local market. It’s a great introduction to what lies ahead. While in town, it’s worth stopping by the bush tucker Eden of Buck’s Farm, where you can try exotic fruits like the Himalayan Buddha’s Hand.

From there, climb through Tyalgum – small enough to park in the middle of – which is exactly what you should do for the artisan gelato. Push on to Uki, where Bastion Lane’s ‘roast office’ pulls double duty as cafe and village post office, before the road narrows toward Stokers Siding and the turnoff to Dunbible Hall: a weatherboard community hall hosting yoga and community choirs, worth a look even when there’s nothing on.

The route rolls through dairy country to Tweed Valley Farmhouse Cheeses, where a tasting can easily become lunch, and finishes at nearby Billinudgel – home to the Billi Pub, a proper front-bar affair whose Nudge Nudge Wink Wink dance parties, held the first Saturday of each month, are legendary. By the time the coast reappears, you’ll have covered barely 50km, and it will have taken most of the day. That’s the idea.

MULLUMBIMBY TO ELTHAM: HALLS, PUBS AND ONE VERY GOOD POP-UP

The word ‘small’ doesn’t do Coorabell justice. It’s smaller than that; easy to pass through without even realising. Yet its hall is a beacon of rural life, with art shows, film screenings, artisan markets and food pop-ups – from Foxy Luu's, the beloved Byron institution now setting up shop every Thursday with fresh Asian street food and live music, to El Polaco Kitchen's monthly fusion feasts of empanadas and pierogi – replacing distant moos with the steady hum of conversation and laughter.

Nearby Bangalow has grown into something of a destination itself these days, but duck past the boutiques to the Bangalow Heritage House Museum, an underrated, low-key counterpoint of rotating exhibits. The Farmers Market also sets up right next door on Saturday mornings – an enticing two-for-one.

Clunes might be the dark horse of the group. The Clunes Store is more or less the whole village – there’s a butcher and a book shop too, but the store is the star, in more ways than one. Not content with just purveying local produce, its car park transforms into a makeshift dance floor some evenings, with locals and visitors sliding in for line dancing. It’s the sort of thing you’d rarely plan a trip around, but you’ll be glad you stumbled into.

The road continues through Bexhill – worth a stop for Dhezi Deli, stocked with a bounty of cheese, pickles, preserves and other assorted snacks, and the little-known Open Air Cathedral – to Eltham, whose pub is reason enough to finish here. Trivia nights and live music keep the front bar busy: a good place to sit with a beer and let the day’s back roads settle in.

BYRON BAY TO MCLEANS RIDGES: FARM GATES AND QUIET TALK

From Byron’s southern hub of Suffolk Park, head south on Broken Head Road, then turn onto Midgen Flat Road, where the verdant roadside soon becomes a slow parade of farm-gate stalls: honesty boxes stacked with whatever’s in season, hand-lettered signs, the odd dog keeping watch. Zentveld’s Coffee Roastery also calls this stretch home.

Once known for the old Harvest Cafe, the tiny town of Newrybar is in the middle of a rebirth. Coffee and cake at The Little General is reason enough to pull in, but unexpected finds like the Aurum honey mead cellar door – pairing drops such as sparkling Manuka rosé and a native-botanical white with a fine dining tasting menu designed by a Michelin-rated chef, served Saturdays between 10am and 4pm at the

AURUM Cellar Door

Newrybar Community Hall – are reason to linger for the long haul. Pearces Creek is easy to drive straight through, and most people do – but keep an eye out for the Pearces Creek Talks, held in the town’s 100-year-old wooden hall: informal local gatherings on everything from farming to the arts, open to anyone who wanders in. A reminder that these communities aren’t just scenery; they’re still in conversation with themselves.

By McLeans Ridges, hunger will have set in, and En-Joy Thai – a genuinely unexpected roadside restaurant where takeaways fly out the hatch, but the real reward is a sunset meal at a picnic table, the fading light bathing the hills beyond in gold – is the kind of place you’d never find without this particular back road, which is, in the end, the whole point of taking it.

None of these routes need following to the letter. Skip a town, add a detour, turn around because a sign caught your eye. The Northern Rivers back roads aren’t always just there to get you somewhere – sometimes, they’re the whole point of travel.