Cape Byron was named after poet Lord Byron’s dad, Captain John Byron, a friend of Captain Cook’s, and is one of the first places named as Cook sailed the Endeavour down the coast in 1770. Lord (George Gordon) Byron was born in 1788.

Coopers Shoot, Skinners Shoot, these are the steep paths down which huge cedar logs were heaved, hauled and hurled. Cedar-getters arrived in the 1840s, cutting and dragging logs to creeks, in the hope of floods, to wash the timber down the river. Logs were marked when cut, and collected downstream, often for a bounty. Ancient forest disappeared.

Bullock teams hauling logs carved tracks winding through the hills. These tracks followed paths trod for millennia by the locals, being simply the best way to get from here to there. Some of these are now paved.