West off Pacific Highway at Urunga, just south of Coff’s Harbour. This picturesque small town is set in the beautiful Bellingen River valley. Several of the town’s buildings are protected by the National Trust. The place has become something of an artistic-hippy colony. You can see (and buy) interesting craftwork at the Yellow Shed and the Old Butter Factory. It’s also possible to hire a canoe and head out along the river, which has duckbilled platypuses. Once a month (on the third Saturday), there’s a local market – Bellingen Community Markets – where you can buy anything the locals either produce or want to get rid off.

During the summer hundreds of flying foxes nest on Bellingen Island.

Bellingen is the setting of one of the final scenes in Peter Carey’s novel Oscar and Lucinda, the 1997 film of which stars Cate Blanchett, Tom Wilkinson and Ralph Fiennes.