Maclean

Maclean is a town in Clarence Valley local government area in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia.

Maclean is a town in Clarence Valley local government area in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the Clarence River and near the Pacific Highway. At the 2016 census, Maclean had a population of 2,628, total urban area including Townsend and Gulmarrad is more than 5,200. The Maclean, Yamba and Iluka area known as the Lower Clarence had a combined population of 16,279. Its industries are tourism, sugar cane production, farming and river-prawn trawling. Together with Grafton, Maclean is the shared administrative centre for the Clarence Valley Council local government area.

The area was originally inhabited by the Gumbaingirr or Yaygir indigenous peoples. Matthew Flinders landed near the mouth of the Clarence River in 1798.

Cedar cutting began in the area in the 1830s. The Maclean area was known as Rocky Mouth in the 1850s. The township was officially laid out in 1862 and named after Alexander Grant McLean, the Surveyor-General. The sugar industry began to develop around 1865.