Dorrigo, New South Wales

Dorrigo, a small town on the Waterfall Way, is located on the Northern Tablelands, in northern New South Wales, Australia. The town is part of Bellingen local government area.It is approximately north of the state capital, Sydney via the Pacific Highway, and west from the coastal city of Coffs Harbour. The town is situated on the Dorrigo Plateau near the New England Escarpment, which is part of the Great Dividing Range. Dorrigo is above sea level. At the 2011 Census, Dorrigo had a population of people.HistoryThe traditional custodians of the land that is now known as Dorrigo are the Aboriginal people of the Gumbaynggirr nation.European settlement of the area followed on from the early timber cutters in the 1860s. The first official European in the district was Land Commissioner Oakes who sighted the mouth of the Bellinger River.Dorrigo is derived from the Aboriginal word, dondorrigo, meaning "stringy-bark". For many decades it was believed that explorer and settler Major Edward Parke named the region after a Spanish General named Don Dorrigo with whom Peake fought in the Peninsula War.