In the early ‘70s, Hang gliders took to the sky around Byron Bay & Lennox Head. A few years later Paragliders joined them & they are still thrilling onlookers today and giving 100’s of people every year the opportunity to experience free flight & see our beautiful coast from a bird’s eye view.

It is interesting to note that a gentleman called John Dickinson, who lived in Grafton, actually invented & built the first Hang glider & with a mate they first flew it by being towed up behind a boat in the Grafton river. This was the start of worldwide Hang gliding….

40 years ago, in 1976, as more & more people were taking to the sky, the pilots decided they should start a club so they all met at Norma’s Café in Lennox Head & formed the first Hang gliding club which was called ‘Byron Bay Sky Surfers’ as most of the flying was done around Byron. A few years later it became known as the Byron Bay Hang Gliding Club, but as Lennox Head became more popular & we were also flying at sites in the Hinterland around Nimbin, Kyogle, Lismore, Casino and the Tweed Range, the name was changed to the Northern Rivers Hang Gliding Club.

Pilots & instructors like Phil Mathewson, John Ogden, Wayne Fisher, Pete Flounders, John Woods and a few others all laid the groundwork for flying in this area, developing a relationship firstly with the local landowners and also with the Byron Council to allow people to enjoy soaring aloft on a hang glider.

One of the first training organisations, called ‘Headwind School’ started operating at this time & was run by Ian Hird. Neil Mersham was working with Ian, instructing new pilots and doing tandem introductory flights, but as Ian moved on to other things, Neil kept the flying business going & eventually started his own school in 1990. His Flight Zone Hang Gliding School operated till 2019 with Neil flying from the Lighthouse at Byron Bay & Lennox Headland.

In the late 1970s the Rushton twin brothers, Brian & Col, came on the scene and added their wonderful enthusiasm & experience to the growing local Club. Brian took over from Graeme Johns, whose company Skyland Kites was building hang gliders for the local market and southeast Queensland.

Brian eventually bought Graeme’s training gliders and equipment and started instructing student pilots on the beach below Tallow Ridge which today remains a favourite flying site in Byron Bay. Brian continues to operate his school Byron Airwaves Hang Gliding School whilst his brother Col love just getting away from it all and flying up to the clouds & heading off into the wild blue yonder. He is still thrilling us with tales of his amazing cross-country flights.

Soon there were 4 Hang gliding schools operating in the area with Peter Aitken starting up ‘ProFlyte Hang Gliding’ which is still around today & in 1993 Ashley Wilmott joined the crew with `Seabreaze Hang Gliding’. So, as more & more people were wanting to experience the joy of flight they are well catered for.

As well as teaching flying & giving introductory tandem flights to the public, Neil, Brian, Peter & Ashley have also successfully competed in State, National & International competitions. Over the year’s they have had amazing adventures while discovering new Mountain sites around the area to fly from & doing some incredible cross-country flights.

It was about 1988 that Phil Teese came to the Northern Rivers, a reporter/photographer from Sydney who was over city mayhem & escaped to Byron Bay. Phil learnt to Paraglide in Switzerland in the early '80s & with a core group of 3 brought paragliding to Australia. Phil started the first Paragliding school in this area in the late ‘80s, flying off Coorabell & Lennox Head, but after he had an accident the school closed & there was limited paragliding locally for a few years.

In 1991 Mark Mitsos came on the scene, he had a small manufacturing business in Suffolk Park for a few years where he successfully designed & built several hang gliders with Brian and Colin helping to build, tune and test fly the new wings. It was heady stuff back then, everyone was breathing, living and talking flying. Around this time Mark also tried his hand at paragliding & even flew tandem Paragliders at Byron & Lennox Head. Mark actually developed the ‘reverse launch technique’ that all paraglider pilots use today when launching with stronger wind.

In 1997 Andrew Polidano, James Samuel & a few other guys who had learnt to Paraglide in India started flying Coorabell again & very rapidly paragliding became so popular that the club's name changed again to now include Paragliding. We are now the Northern Rivers Hang Gliding & Paragliding Club.

Andrew Polidano started a new Paragliding school in 1999, ‘Poliglide’ teaching people to Paraglide & Paramotor. Andrew also conducts Introductory Tandem flights at Lennox & the Byron hinterland & has towing operations at Evans Head & Casino. A number of the paraglider pilots fly cross country from our sites & have also successfully competed in State, National & International competitions.

The Hang-Gliding Federation of Australia in 1979/80 produced a National Training Program to be introduced to all hang gliding & paragliding instructors to standardise training procedures and the training syllabus which was developed became the standard which is followed today. The first Instructors Seminar was held in Brisbane and the many National Instructors Conferences have since helped shape the modern way of instructing and teaching student pilots.

44 years later the NRHGPGC is flourishing, with new pilots joining us in the sky regularly. We have such a rich history of flying in the Northern Rivers area where our club has maintained a strong culture of caring for each other & the sites we fly, mentoring new pilots & decorating the sky with amazing colourful wings.
Written by Jan SMITH

The northern rivers club has had representatives in state, national and international events and on two occasions has had its members as national champions in paragliding. The club currently has the only female paraplegic paraglider pilot as well as the only female motorised paragliding pilot in Australia. Members of the club have over the last 10 years been involved in national governance, of the sport as well as membership on national safety committees and involvement in producing Australian standards for training. In the year 2000, the sport and recreation facilities in Lennox Head was the location for the HGFA national instructors’ clinic due to the facilities and sites suited for training. The NRHGPG club has a strong presence in the National scene.

1976 The Skyriders team from Sydney make the first flight off Tallows. Unlike today, Tallows ridge had no trees so top landings were possible.

Inspired by this, Neil Mersham, Ian Hird, John Woods, John Ogden and Dennis Cummings sit down at Norma’s Café in Lennox Head and form the Byron Bay Skysurfers Club. The state-of-the-art glider in those times is the awesome CB200. Regular flights are made at Tallows, Lennox Head and Montecollum.

1978 NSW State Titles are held at Tallows and Coorabell.

1982 Palmwoods site opens up.

1981 Brian Rushton comes 3rd in Nationals.

Flying a Meteor 170, Niel Mersham sets up a Club cross-country record (Coorabell to Mallangenee, 90km) which will stand for 20 years

1985 Neil Mersham wins the NSW State Titles.

1986 Lennox Head closed due to Ballina airport upgrades. Possums opens for paragliders. A Mr Dennis opens the first paraglider school in the Byron region.

1987 Club hosts the NSW State Titles at Killarney.

1989 First paraglider launches at Tallows. Pilots start to use VHF radios to access CTAF’s

1990 First tandem flights at Tallows.

1991 Lennox re-opened after extensive negotiations with CASA.

1998 visiting pilot Stephan Boxy sets the Club paragliding distance record (Montecollum to Mt Warning, 30km)

2002 Geoff Ward and Brian Braby set a new Club cross-country record (Boogarem to Warwick, 146km), both flying an XS142 (not the same one). Andrew Polidano does a 90km cross-country from Tyagarah to Beechmont launch in a paramotor.

2003 tow winch launching starts

2004 Club changes name to Northern Rivers Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club.

2005 New paragliding records set; Che Golus & Cedar Anderson – Possum’s to Mount Lindsey 93km; Che Golus – Powerline Spur to Channon 25km; Cedar Anderson & Andrew Polidano – Monte to Barkers Vale 32km

New records by Cedar to Tabulam. 

1977 – Les Buckley Broken Head

1977 – NSW State Titles - Doug Sole Tallows

1977 – NSW State Titles – Tim Travers

1979 – Brogen