Summerland Way

European settlement along the Clarence River had reached the area where Grafton now stands in the 1830s, with a store and shipyard being established at South Grafton in 1839. By the early 1840s there was a wharf, a store and an inn on the northern bank of the river.[6]

Prior to 1861, when a punt service began operating on the river, the only way to cross was by rowboat. A steam-driven vehicular ferry began operating in the mid-1860s.[6] This increased the need for a reliable road to areas north of Grafton.

By 1905 the Casino to North Grafton section of the North Coast railway line had been completed, but there was no rail connection to the south until 1915, when the North Coast railway line reached South Grafton and services were connected by a rail ferry that transported railcars across the river.[7]

In 1932, a bridge across the Clarence River with a unique design of two storeys with the railway running underneath the road, known as Grafton Bridge, was opened.[6] This led to a further increase in motor vehicle traffic to the north, and to a need for road improvements.

In December 2019, the New Grafton Bridge opened and runs parallel to the original bridge. Summerland Way was permanently rerouted via Villers Street, Pound Street and the new bridge, and no longer runs along Prince, Fitzroy, Craig and Bent Streets.[4] The new route bypasses the Grafton city centre and avoids the low 3.5m clearance rail bridge over Prince Street. When the Pacific Highway through Grafton was bypassed in May 2020, the B91 route (but not Summerland Way) was further extended along the old Pacific Highway (now Big River Way) and interchange with Pacific Highway at Glenugie.[5]

European settlement along the Richmond River had reached the area where Casino now stands in the early 1850s, when a village known as “The Falls” was established on the northern side. In 1876 a bridge across the Richmond River to the settlement was completed, enabling road access from Grafton in the south and on to Kyogle in the north. The road was the only means of travel to Grafton until 1905, when the railway reached the town.[8]

In the 1830s a huge property, known as “Richmond Head”, was established in the upper Richmond River valley. The area around what is now Kyogle was settled throughout the 1840s and 1850s, but the name “Kyogle” was not used before 1899. In the 1860s cedar cutters arrived and for the next thirty years tree felling and sawmilling were the district's most important industries.[9] These industries made roads to where they worked, substantially contributing to the road network of the district.

Road access from Casino was facilitated by the opening of the bridge at Casino in 1876. The road was the only means of travel to Casino until 1910, when the railway reached Kyogle.[9]

In 1928 the NSW Main Roads Board declared the route of what would later become Mount Lindesay Highway (NSW) as part of State Highway No. 9 – Great Northern Highway, although part of it had not yet been built. Construction of the “missing link” between Woodenbong and Mount Lindesay was completed in 1929, and a section west of Woodenbong was reconstructed by 1934.[10]

In 1935 the Summerland Way was constructed between Casino and the recently completed highway. During World War II the road was improved as an inland, flood-free route to Brisbane which avoided the problems associated with the Clarence River and its two ferry crossings.[9]