Port Macquarie began life as a prison. In 1821 the colonial government established a penal settlement at the mouth of the Hastings River for convicts who had committed further crimes, naming it after Governor Lachlan Macquarie, and the place later became a quiet farming and fishing community before it was reinvented as a holiday town. Today it is a lively coastal city of more than forty thousand, with surf beaches, a long breakwall covered in painted rocks and a pleasant foreshore walk.
The town's best-known resident is the koala, which has its own hospital here, open to visitors and caring for animals injured by cars, dogs and fire. The surrounding bushland still holds a wild population, and you will see road signs warning of them. A few kilometres south, Tacking Point lighthouse looks out over a wide sweep of ocean where humpback whales pass in winter, and the walk to it from the car park is short and easy.
This is where the Oxley Highway Mountain Section begins, and it is a good one. The road leaves the coast and climbs steadily into the Great Dividing Range, with a series of curves through rainforest and eucalypt, passing lookouts and the turn to Ellenborough Falls, one of the longest single-drop waterfalls in the southern hemisphere. Higher up, near Walcha, the landscape opens into tableland farms and cool air. The surface is generally well maintained, though trucks and caravans slow progress on weekends, and fog in the mountains is common in the morning. The highway is named after John Oxley, who explored this country in 1818 and found the Hastings River on his way down to the sea.
For fuel, Port Macquarie has everything, including several big stations on the highway, and the main street has cafés, bakeries and plenty of pubs. Services are sparse once you climb, so fill the tank before leaving. If the weather turns, you can retreat to the Glasshouse arts centre by the river, or watch the dolphins from the breakwall at sunrise.