 The river passes through the major regional city of Lismore, where it is subject to seasonal flooding.The traditional custodians of the land surrounding the Wilsons River are the Aboriginal people of the Bundjalung clan, who lived as hunter-gatherers.Wilsons Creek was named after William Wilson, the first settler in Lismore, in the period 1844-5; and in 1976, the stream was renamed as Wilsons River.