Fingal Head is a small fishing village come holiday resort which lies just one kilometre south of New South Wales border, 874 km from Sydney. It consists of a narrow spit of land that lies between the Tweed River estuary and the ocean. In fact, the northern tip of Fingal Head forms the south head of the river mouth. Access is via Fingal Rd which heads off the highway at the south-eastern edge of Tweed Heads, just before you cross the bridge over the Tweed River.
The traditional inhabitants of the area were the Minjungbal people who settled more or less permanently due to the plentiful supply of food and water. They met with other tribes on an annual basis at Bunya Mountain (north of what is now Brisbane) to hold corroborees. The impact of white settlement was such that they had virtually died out by the end of the 19th century.
Captain James Cook sailed up the Gold Coast in 1770. He was nearly shipwrecked on Cudgen Headland and thus chose the expressive names of Mount Warning and Point Danger for two local landmarks.
John Oxley encountered the estuary in 1823 while scouting out a suitable spot for a penal colony. His party took shelter during a storm in the lea of the 10-acre islet off Fingal Head. Two men from his party investigated the island where they found turtles and an unidentified wreck. Thus Oxley called it Turtle Island and named the river after a waterway in northern England. In 1828 Captain Rous surveyed the river, travelling about 36 km upstream. His charts describe the islet as 'Cook's Isle' by which name it is still known.
Timbergetters worked the riverbanks for cedar from about 1844. They encountered hostility from the Minjungbal but the gun proved mightier than the spear. Logs were floated along the creeks and the river to the estuary although the bar rendered shipping hazardous until a breakwater was built in 1902. 25 men and three women were recorded as living on the Tweed in 1846.
Today Fingal Head is a classic holiday resort destination noted for its holiday activities like boating, rock fishing and surf fishing, golfing, swimming, tennis and surfing. Fingal Beach is recognised as an excellent surfing destination and is remarkably peaceful in comparison to the busy beaches which lie to the north of the Tweed River estuary.
Things to see at fingal inlcude
*Fingal Lighthouse
*Cook Island
