Health & Beauty
THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 27 #04 Tuesday, July 3, 2012 Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
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W H E R E W O R D S FA I L M U S I C S P E A K S
CAB AUDIT
Inside Breaking taboo Mary Gardner’s Writers’ Festival book reviews green this on Israel and – p15 week Palestine – p9 enterprises – p13
School Holidays – p18-19
Guy Kachel launches albumn – p20
Byron Shire Council Notices Page 42
Uranium protest links to NAIDOC week in Japan’s nuclear fallout full flight Hans Lovejoy
BHP Billiton (BHPB) has told The Echo it will be business as usual at the Roxby Downs uranium mine in South Australia when the planned Lizard’s Revenge protest rolls into the small town in mid July. Activists from all over Australia will converge to highlight the the dangers of uranium and the mine’s expansion, and it will come just after last weekend’s anti-nuclear demonstration in Japan. The New York Times reported protesters numbered between 20,000 and 45,000 in Tokyo, who were against restarting the nation’s nuclear power plants. The Japanese government approved restarting two reactors on the western side of the country in a bid to head off expected summer power shortages. It has been described as the largest protest in central Tokyo since the 1960s. A Fairfax journalist at the Roxby Downs Sun newspaper told The Echo that BHP and the police are playing down the protest, but says they have heard residents say they are a bit worried about vandalism as it has happened in the past. ‘BHP said to me that business will continue as usual, but I have heard otherwise,’ she said, ‘It’s a bit frustrating because it’s hearsay and you can’t report hearsay.’ She said all BHP employees are required to sign confidentiality agreements. ‘You can’t even say to anyone outside the company that your coworker cut his finger.’
Letterbox DVD drop Co-organiser for the upcoming Mullum anti-nuclear fundraising event, Anthea Amore, says the local contingent are planning a letterbox drop in Roxby Downs of the anti-uranium
documentary DVD When The Dust Settles by filmmaker David Bradbury. ‘We are also raising funds to get Dr Helen Caldicott, international antinuclear activist and paediatrician, to travel to Roxby Downs to speak to mothers there about the dangers of nuclear radiation,’ Amore says. ‘She says there is no safe exposure levels to uranium, despite whatever is said otherwise.’ The festival/protest was called at the request of longtime anti-nuke warrior and Indigenous elder Kevin Buzzacott, or ‘Uncle’ Kevin’.
Dreamtime story The name Lizard’s Revenge comes from an Aboriginal dreamtime story from that area, filmmaker David Bradbury told The Echo. ‘Kevin Buzzacott says his people’s dreaming story speaks of a giant lizard, Kalta, who lies under the ground at the area around Roxby Downs and the story goes that this lizard should never have its head or back broken or the world as we know it will cease to exist. Kalta is angry because the Olympic Dam uranium mine is digging into his back; he wants revenge.’ The anti-nuclear fundraising event, ‘Uranium Boom; Nuclear Doom,’ is planned at Mullumbimby RSL on Friday July 6. A Skype hook-up with antinuclear activists in Japan is planned, along with the screening of When The Dust Settles. Mandy Nolan will MC the evening with plenty of entertainers: world music duo Nakula, belly dancer Tara Murphy, poet Gina Lakosta, and DJ Sheik Yerbooty. The headliners are reggae bands Fyah Walk, Raz Bin Sam and the Lion I plus country gospel band The Lucky Wonders. A 13-seat mini-van is leaving July 10 or 11 and there’s room: Call Iris on 0417 937 720. For more info on Lizard’s Revenge see: http://lizardsrevenge.net.
Pictured is the ‘Bigal Nali Jagun’ dancers: Rebes Reuben, Uncle Lewis Walker, Nigel Stewart and Uncle Magpie Currie, who marked the start of NAIDOC week on Monday at the Mullum Council chambers. Up to Thursday this week, there will be plenty to do: a family fun day is planned for Tuesday at the Mullumbimby Neighbourhood Centre from 11am; on Wednesday, the Arakwal website will be launched at the Byron Cultural and Community Centre (4pm), as well as a screening of Walking With My Sisters from 6.30pm. And on Thursday, a march from Railway Park 10am is planned with free entertainment, BBQ, kids’ activities and more to be held at Main Beach Park until 2pm. Photo Jeff Dawson
Belongil’s foreshore breached on high tide Video footage of last weekend’s high tide lapping over sandbags near Manfred Street in Belongil has been sent to Byron Shire councillors and staff. Belongil resident and Byron Preservation Association (BPA) vice-president John Vaughan sent the footage via email, and is calling for a review and halt of the current interim works being carried out on the shoreline. He claims the footage shows ‘the orientation of the geobags is still contrary to the consent and is 90 degrees out of the correct alignment as approved in the DA in all locations.’ Mr Vaughan also added, ‘The compromised and damaged condition of the interim works since May 2009, particularly at the base levels, is com-
mon at all four of the interim work sites at Belongil Beach. It proves BPA’s repeated claim of Council’s failure to monitor and maintain/rebuild as required in the interim wall consent conditions.
Complaint lodged to NSW ombudsman
trapping sand and preventing the natural recovery rate at Belongil Beach. The beach profile at Belongil is lower than it would have been in the beach’s natural state.’ Mr Vaughn says he has also lodged a recent complaint to the NSW ombudsman regarding ‘Council’s failure to conform to the consent conditions which outlines the current state of repair of the interim works.’ A Council spokesperson, when contacted by The Echo, said Council wasn’t unable to comment at this time.
‘The BPA considers that a quick inspection at low tide would reveal to any councillor the very compromised state of the interim works,’ he said. The erosion, according to Mr Vaughan, is ‘by more than three me- Q See the video of this story on Monday’s tres from its recent higher profile pre the mid-June event. ‘Council’s Jonson Street works is Go to echonetdaily.net.au
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