THE BYRON SHIRE ECHO Advertising & news enquiries: Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au http://www.echo.net.au VOLUME 20 #13 TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2005 22,300 copies every week $1 at newsagents only
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Digital dead ends for Telstra funds? Michael McDonald With the National Party lobbying hard for a five billion dollar fund from the sale of Telstra to upgrade telecommunications services in the bush it is worth looking at how successful earlier efforts to upgrade services have been. The Nats made Networking The Nation, in part set up as a ‘social bonus’ of earlier Telstra sales, a very useful pork barrel from 1997 to 2004. The north coast was awash with NTN funds in its heyday. It was probably no hindrance that the chairman of NTN was Doug Anthony, father of then Richmond MP Larry Anthony. The initial benefit of more money in the community is obvious. But have the NTN funds done anything much to improve telco services on the north coast?
$2m in public funds Over $2 million in public funds went into Norlink, the internet provider originally supported by local business and community organisations. On May 26 this year Norlink went into voluntary administration and is hoping shortly its creditors will accept a deed of company arrangement so it can continue to trade its way out of difficulty. Its vision of a series of ‘E-towns’ supported by local councils was not realised and its presence did not make it as far as Kyogle, one of the intended towns. It operated online from MAP, the Mullumbimby ISP it acquired, and offers a wireless service. As of last Thursday morning online documents still bore the logos of groups which have since sought to distance themselves from Norlink. The NSW Farmers Association says it has had no association with Norlink for a number of years and the Northern Rivers Regional Development Board abandoned administrative support to the company in 2000.
But Norlink chief Keith Davidson is still cheerful about the company’s prospects.When asked if the NTN funds had been spent wisely, he said, ‘Yes, we have a broadband wireless service into hospitals and schools’ and cited a number of towns receiving the service in Byron Shire and the Lismore area. He also said Kyogle would be the ‘second stage’ with infrastructure ‘ready to install’. What Norlink had achieved is little different to that done by local businesses such as Linknet. No over-arching plan has emerged from NTN to give the bush a wealth of high speed connections. Interestingly, on Thursday afternoon after I had talked to Mr Davidson, the mullum.com.au site became inaccessible and the norlink.net.au site became just a pointer to Regional Telecom, Norlink’s new name. Still Mr Davidson believes Norlink is ‘a positive story’. The company’s fixed line business has been sold and private investors are ready to put in additional capital, he says.
Bangalow project One of the local beneficiaries of NTN funding was Bangalow businessman Christopher Sanderson, who was down to receive $894,000 for an online produce marketing service called variously TAFTCO and Grower Direct. An earlier incarnation of Mr Sanderson’s project was the Regional Internet Marketing Cooperative which was involved with the Northern Rivers Agricultural Development Corporation (NORADA), actively promoted by Doug Anthony. Its efforts to find Asian markets for Australian growers were found wanting by some members of the NSW Farmers Association. Mr Sanderson chose not to talk to The Echo but directed me instead continued on page 2
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Joy and sadness fill memories of war
Almost 40,000 Australians lost their lives during World War II and more than 30,000 were taken prisoner. Last weekend many of the 170,000 veterans still surviving remembered those six years while the world fought and celebrated 60 years of peace. Though not in the Pacific conflict himself, French Army officer Gaston Vanzetti, pictured above, reflects on the same feelings of elation and relief he felt in Europe at the end of WW II. Gaston and dozens of Diggers, family, friends and school children gathered at the Brunswick Heads War Memorial on Monday morning to commemorate Victory in the Pacific’s 60th anniversary. Photo Jeff Dawson
New Mullum supermarket off the rails Cheaper prices, greater range, better parking – all items that would be on anyone’s shopping list for a new supermarket. Mallams held out all three as carrots to Council and Mullumbimby residents in return for approval of their plan to build on a parcel of State Rail owned land in Station Street. Traffic congestion, increased flooding and fragmentation of the town centre were too high a price to pay however for improved grocery shopping and, persuaded by a public gallery packed with protesters, a majority of Councillors voted to reject the rezoning proposal at last Tuesday’s Council meeting. After what they say has been 15 years of planning, Mallams thought the final hurdle was in sight when Council staff put up a report rec-
ommending approval of the new supermarket location. While the report acknowledged the substantial increase in traffic volume as an issue, it put aside the adverse effects on neighbours in favour of the benefits to the general public. Access to the currently vacant site would be along Station or Tincogan Streets which currently handle 1,600 and 1,300 vehicles per day respectively. Traffic counts estimate that a new retail development would generate an extra 2,900 vehicles per day. Tincogan Street resident Rhonda Ellis spoke against the use of the six metre wide Tincogan Street as an access route calling it ‘the narrowest and most dangerous corner in town’. Station Street property owner, Ian Pickles, also protested
the use of Station Street as the proposed entry point for 3,000 vehicles. Many local businesses did not support the proposal, concerned that it would draw shoppers away from the existing shopping hub. Mullumbimby real estate agent Mark Cochrane reeled off a list of local businesses who, he said, opposed Mallams’ plan, which also includes providing an unstated number of ‘ancillary shops’ such as a bottle shop, chemist and cafe in addition to a new supermarket. After drawing a parallel with Lismore Shopping Square, he said ‘This will become a ghost town. I am in favour of a larger supermarket but not on this site. The retailers of Mullumbimby are not fat continued on page 4