For generations of Tweed residents, the Tweed Heads landmark known as Razorback has been a special place.
On Saturday, February 18, the Tweed Byron Bush Futures Project is holding a Walk ‘n Talk at Razorback. Tweed residents and visitors can learn more about the history of this iconic lookout and bushland restoration works currently underway as part of the project.
The speakers will include local community member, Joshua Slabb who will talk about the site’s Aboriginal cultural heritage; Joan Smith from Tweed Heads Historical Society will explain the many different uses of the site and show historic photographs; and Russell Linnane, a local bush regenerator, will show participants around the bushland remnant and talk about the environmental values of Razorback and the threats to its long-term survival.
Joshua Slabb will talk about how Razorback was a special place for the people of the Tweed long before Europeans came to the area.
“The site continues to hold significant cultural value and is used for cultural learning and knowledge within the local Aboriginal community,” Mr Slabb said.
Joan Smith from the Tweed Heads Historical Society will take up the story following European immigration to the Tweed.
“By the 1920s, Coolangatta and Tweed Heads was becoming a tourist destination; mainly for the pristine beaches where the city people came to recuperate on their doctors’ advice,” Mrs Smith said.
“During the daytime guests were encouraged to walk and swim at the beach and take short walks to Point Danger and Razorback. A walk to Razorback from town would take at least half a day and kept the guests occupied and outdoors,” she said.
The landmark was not named until 1938 and up until then had been variously known as Toongarabah, Trig Hill and Observation Hill.
Mrs Smith recalls the difficult walk to the summit as a child, and the rocks which gave the landmark its name.
“The top was very stony and difficult to walk on and it was easy to turn your ankle,” she said.
“That was the part referred to as the razor….the old-fashioned cut-throat razor? Many of the early visitors had to get down on their hands and knees to make the climb to the top.”
Bush Futures Project Manager John Turnbull said Razorback supports littoral rainforest vegetation, an Endangered Ecological Community in NSW and a Critically Endangered Ecological Community under Commonwealth legislation.
“The vegetation at this site has persisted despite significant weed infestation and interestingly, is one of only two sites in the Tweed that supports littoral rainforest on soil substrates, with the majority of occurrences occurring on coastal sands and hind dunes.”
The Lookout is located on Razorback Road, off Charles Street, Tweed Heads. The Walk ‘n Talk will run from 10am to 11.30am (NSW). Participants are asked to meet in the car park at the bottom of the access track, to wear sunsafe clothing and bring drinking water.
The award-winning Tweed Byron Bush Futures project is funded through the NSW Environmental Trust and aims to achieve the sustainable management of a number of State and regionally significant urban and near-urban bushland areas within Tweed and Byron Shires.
For more information contact the NRM Community Support Officer, Claire Masters on (02) 6670 2199 or csotweed@tweed.nsw.gov.au
