My grandfather the late Robert King (1867-1957) came from a family of Timber cutters. Robert King had a farm in the Broken Head hinterland (Byron Bay region) in the early 1900s. He and other family members spent a lot of time fishing at Broken Head and what is now known as King's Beach. I suspect that my grandfather probably much preferred fishing at King's Beach to dealing with difficult dairy cattle on his farm twice a day seven days a week....and who wouldn't'''

His grandfather Stephen King and his brother (after their release as convicts) moved in 1842 with their families from the Clarence River to what is now Ballina and commenced the cedar cutting industry on the far North Coast of NSW. In 1849, he and some fellow timber cutters travelled north along the coast and hinterland and set up another cedar cutting industry at what is now known as Brunswick Heads.

Robert King's father continued the family tradition of timber cutters. However, he was tragically killed at the age of 37 years by a falling tree limb, leaving a widow and seven children.

My grandfather started work at the age of 12 in the Sugar Cane Mill, then operating at North Creek, near Ballina.

Later he hauled cane to the many loading wharves on the Richmond River. Leaving this, he and two brothers felled cedar, silky oak and hoop pine at Coopers Shoot and surrounding areas and with bullocks hauled the logs to Tallow Beach.

Timber cargo vessels anchored outside the break and winched the logs from the beach. This must have been a difficult operation as Tallow Beach is well known for its turbulent currents.

In later years, Robert King took up farming at Broken Head. He was a keen fisherman and often frequented the headland of Broken Head and surrounds - including what is now known as King's Beach. I am not aware of any formal record as to how King's Beach acquired its name but my strong hunch is that it acquired that name because of the King family's long association with the beach and surrounding countryside.

I hope this bit of local history might be of interest......

- Robert Humphreys