Bundjalung Country map
Where Bundjalung Country runs, why no single map is official, and who holds the boundaries.
Lower Clarence River
Maclean
Maclean bills itself as the Scottish Town of Australia, and backs it up with more than two hundred tartan-painted power poles lining its streets above the Clarence River.
About Maclean
Maclean recorded 2,778 residents at the 2021 Census. It was founded in 1862 by Scottish Highland families, many of them displaced by the Highland Clearances, and has hosted the Maclean Highland Gathering — bagpipes, caber tossing, Highland dancing — every Easter for more than a century. The tartan power poles were added from 2000, timed to the Sydney Olympic torch relay passing through, and proved popular enough that they've since spread the length of the town from the Harwood Bridge to Ferry Park.
Maclean sits on the lower Clarence River, close to the southern edge of Bundjalung Country and within the Country of the Yaegl People, whose native title over the lower Clarence was recognised by the Federal Court in 2015 (Yaegl People #1 v Attorney General of New South Wales [2015] FCA 647). For local Aboriginal community and land matters, the Birrigan Gargle Local Aboriginal Land Council (based in nearby Yamba) serves the lower Clarence area. This page doesn't try to draw an exact boundary between Bundjalung and Yaegl Country; the Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC is the registered body for Yaegl native title matters.
Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC: listed on the National Native Title Register.
Keep learning about Bundjalung Country
Clans and groups
Arakwal, Githabul, Bandjalang, Widjabal, Nyangbal, Yugambeh and the other names you will meet.
Bundjalung language
Dialects, why spellings differ, and the language centres that actually teach and publish.
Place names
Which Northern Rivers town names come from Bundjalung language, and which came from Britain.
Bundjalung National Park
The coastal park between Iluka and Evans Head, its campgrounds, and the Iluka rainforest.
History: reserves and land rights
The Protection Board years, the reserves and stations, and where to look for family records.
Parks, sacred places and walks
Jointly managed parks, places custodians ask you to treat with care, and Aboriginal-led walks.
Also on this site
Community email and web hosting
Email for Maclean
A name@bundjalung.au address suits Maclean residents and small businesses who want a stable contact point.
A free static site
Local artists, historians, and small Maclean businesses can get a simple static page live under name.bundjalung.au at no cost once identity checks are complete.
Bundjalung artists, makers, and business owners in Maclean: this page doesn't publish a directory of local people or businesses without their say-so. If you're a Bundjalung artist, maker, or business owner based in or around Maclean and would like a page, portfolio link, or listing here — with a link back to your own site or socials — use the contact form below or email info@bundjalung.au and mention Maclean. Nothing about you goes on this page unless you ask for it.