Ballina has several beaches, with the most popular in the north of the town. Shelly Beach is a patrolled beach, also popular are Lighthouse Beach and the pretty swimming beach at Shaws Bay Lagoon.
You can also travel along the river with various trips available. Ballina also has its own market held at the Circus Ground every 3rd Sunday.
There are also a number of other things to do and various types of accommodation around Ballina.
To travel further along the coast head to the Big Prawn, where the Ballina Transit Centre is. Here most of the main bus companies stop. There are several bus services to Lennox Head and Byron Bay.
Where Ballina's name originated from is not entirely certain. Some believe it was named directly after the Irish town of Ballina, although a more likely source is a Bundjalung word, "bullinah", meaning "place of many oysters". One possibility is that the Aboriginal name reminded the predominantly Irish settlers of "Ballina", so the name's origin could be an accidental or deliberate corruption of the Aboriginal form.
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Marvel at Dubbo's Western Plain Zoo and discover the rare opal at Lightning Ridge. Explore the Ghost Towns and outback city of Broken Hill and admire the splendour of the Menindee Lakes in the Kinchega National Park.
Investigate the Minnamurra Rainforest and enjoy the waterfalls of the Illawarra Plateau. Explore the snowfields of the Snowy Mountains, Mt Kosciusko and traverse the Murray River from the Alpine headwaters to Lake Hume. Moving on to the Southern Coast of New South Wales and the panoramic vistas's of Jervis Bay, the famous Blow Hole at Kiama and north to Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay.
PLEASE NOTE: The New South Wales travel destinations outlined above are only a small selection from the tens of thousands of Australian travel information pages available on Australian Explorer. A comprehensive list of destinations for New South Wales Holidays can be found on the main New South Wales Holidays location guide.
