Lismore

Lismore is a city in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, on the Wilsons River in the hills behind Byron Bay. Each winter the Lismore Lantern Parade fills the streets with giant lanterns made by local artists and schools.

The Bundjalung people are the traditional owners of the river valleys and the rainforest of the region. Red cedar drew timber cutters to the Richmond River and its tributaries in the 1840s, and William and Jane Wilson took up land on the river and named their station after Lismore, an island in Scotland. The Big Scrub, a lowland rainforest that covered the district, was cleared for dairy farms in the late 19th century. The town grew as a river port, shipping timber and later dairy products and sugar down the river to the coast. Lismore became a city in the 1940s, and Southern Cross University opened its main campus there in the 1990s.

Norco, a dairy cooperative owned by farmers of the region, has its head office in Lismore and makes milk and ice cream. Macadamia nuts from the orchards of the Northern Rivers are processed in plants around the city.

The Lismore Regional Gallery, in the Quadrangle near the center, shows art of the Northern Rivers. Rotary Park, a patch of the original Big Scrub rainforest inside the city, keeps tall figs and rare trees. The Koala Care Centre cares for sick and injured koalas of the region and releases them to the wild. Saint Carthage's Cathedral, built of brick in the Gothic style in the early 20th century, is the seat of the Catholic bishop of Lismore.