In the 1950s an Aboriginal Welfare Committee was established in Coffs Harbour under the authority of the Aborigines Welfare Board. Aboriginal people had been living since at least the 1940s (and likely earlier) at a large camp at Fitzroy Oval on Coffs Creek in the centre of Coffs Harbour. Newspaper articles from this period demonstrate the Committee's active role in attempts to move Aboriginal people out of camps at the Fitzroy Oval and Coffs Harbour Cemetery into better housing. This was to occur in 1956 with the completion of 8 cottages at Wongala Estate on the Pacific Highway north of town. The unsightly camp at Fitzroy Oval was demolished, however, due to the chagrin of the Coffs Harbour City Council, another camp including 8 shacks sprang up on the Coffs Cemetery side of the creek. 

Cultural places, contested Spaces, p.54

In 1956, families were moved off the Fitzroy Oval camp to Wongala Estate, a housing settlement on the Pacific Highway a few kilometres north of town. It was established by the Aboriginal Welfare Board.

The name Wongala means "working together". Grace Roberts, Her Life Her Mystery Her Dreaming, Becker, 1989, p.38

A research study of local living conditions was conducted in 1965.