The Summerland Way is a 199–kilometre state route, designated B91, in New South Wales. It runs generally north from Grafton to the border between NSW and Queensland just west of Mount Lindesay. The road continues from there into Queensland as Mount Lindesay Highway. With the decommissioning of the Mount Lindesay Highway in New South Wales in 1982, the length of the Summerland Way was increased by 9.4 km to the Queensland border. It is sealed for its entire length, although some of the road north of the Lions Road turn-off is narrow and winding. In 1996, the Federal Government committed $20 million toward upgrading the Summerland Way. A $7 million contract to realign 1.2 km at Dourrigan's Gap, approximately 16 km north of Kyogle, was awarded, with work starting in February 2002 and expected to take 12 months to complete. It was so named as the region in runs through is a popular tourist area for people during summer. The Summerland Way is an alternative route to the Pacific Highway. The highway crosses the Clarence River via the Grafton Bridge.
History
Grafton
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. 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. 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 Coastrailway line reached South Grafton and services were connected by a rail ferry that transported railcars across the river. In 1932 a bridge across the Clarence River, a unique design of two storeys with the railway running underneath the road, was opened.. This led to a further increase in motor vehicle traffic to the north, and to a need for road improvements.
Casino
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.
Kyogle
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. 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.
Mount Lindesay
In 1928 the NSW Main Roads Board declared the route of what would later become Mount Lindesay Highway 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. 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.
