Grafton (New South Wales)

Grafton is a city in northern New South Wales, Australia. One of Australia's most beautiful provincial cities, Grafton is renowned for its jacaranda trees, graceful old buildings, sporting and cultural facilities, and its location on the banks of the Clarence River.

Understand
The city was founded in 1855, and in 2021 had a population of 19,000.

Get in
Grafton is 630 km north of Sydney and 320 km south of Brisbane.

Clarence Valley Airport is 12 km SE of the city, but as of May 2023 has no scheduled flights, after Rex airlines cancelled their routes to Sydney and Taree in mid-2022. The nearest airports with commercial service are at Coffs Harbour, 87 km to the south, or Ballina, a 140-km trek to the north, and car hire is available from both (advance booking recommended).

A variety of bus services stop in Grafton on their trips between Sydney and Brisbane.

Most major car rental services can be found in the city. 4WDs are recommended if travelling to remote National Parks and beaches, but most can be accessed by 2WD vehicles and campervans.

XPT trains stop daily in Grafton from Sydney and Brisbane. The trains are comfortable and clean, but slow and lack modern amenities like wifi or at-seat charging, but all services have a full buffet car service, and fares are generally much cheaper than flying. Three trains daily run to Sydney taking about 10 hours, serving Coffs Harbour, Wauchope for Port Macquarie, and Newcastle en-route, along with various smaller towns. One daily service runs north to Brisbane, but is a sleeper service from Sydney that passes through Grafton at around 1AM, arriving into Brisbane at 5AM, making it very inconvenient. The train station is in South Grafton, across the river from the CBD.

Get around
Busways provides local bus services.

See
Lying on two sides of the Clarence River, the town is connected by a single, unique bridge. Completed in 1932, the bridge is a dual-level railway (bottom) and road (top) bridge plus a centre bascule section (essentially a drawbridge).

Buy
Grafton Shoppingworld provides some specialty shops, as does the nearby main streets.

South Grafton also has its own local shops.

Go next

 * Byron Bay
 * Casino
 * Coffs Harbour
 * Yamba