 Following the arrival of the first Europeans many of the towns and villages along the Wilsons River including Lismore, Wyrallah, Bexhill and Coraki, were located or developed at their present sites due to the most effective form of transport at the time, river going ships and boats.The Wilsons River, then known as the North Arm of the Richmond River, and the Richmond River itself was named and charted by Henry John Rous in 1828.It was the furthest navigable section of the river system and provided the access necessary for shipping out the region's most valuable commodity at the time with was the red cedar which was to be steadily cut from the Big Scrub subtropical rainforest that once covered most of the region.