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 Available early Tuesday at: http://www.echo.net.au VOLUME 22 #01 TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2007 22,300 copies every week
The endless search for the perfect
T H E
I N M AT E S
A R E
I N
Page 21
C H A R G E
Taking a walk on the wild side
Principals of the North Byron Shire Parklands proposal Brandon Saul and Splendour’s Jessica de Crou, centre foreground, surrounded by residents busily making points from the public gallery and vocal opponent Cr John Lazarus, left in white t-shirt.
More heat than light at Parklands forum Story & photo Lou Beaumont The open forum on the North Byron Shire Parklands Festival Site at Wooyung held at council chambers on Monday June 4 was predictably heated, with interjections throughout the meeting. What was perhaps not so predictable was that the majority of the outbursts came from Cr John Lazarus, seated in the public gallery. A request for mutual respect between proponent and the public by Mayor Jan Barham at the opening of the meeting fell on deaf ears, with Cr Lazarus repeatedly ignoring pleas from the Mayor throughout the meeting to sit and be heard in the formal manner. Mayor Barham later said of the meeting, ‘I think he [Lazarus]
unnecessarily inflamed the situation and people’s concerns rather than allowing an opportunity for people to air their concerns so they could be raised by Council and heard by the applicants and therefore addressed and any misinformation dispelled. ‘When you have a councillor actually obstructing that free flow of information that obviously people need to hear then that’s really disappointing. Especially when I think everyone else was doing it with goodwill, which only encouraged an open and transparent process.’ The proponent team, including co-owners Brandon Saul and Splendour’s Jessica de Crou and their ecologist Mark Fitzgerald,
presented their plans for the site that has Indigenous, wildlife and rural significance. Murmurings from the public gallery had begun well before the proponents had completed outlining their proposal and public question time was opened with an agitated Yelgun resident, Chris, who wanted to know, from Council and the Splendour team, the proponent’s motives in buying the site. Resident Chris asked Council to enlighten the public with regard to discussions with the proponents prior to the purchase of the land. He said, ‘What inspired them to spend over $6 million on land that wasn’t yet zoned for this purpose? They’re taking a mighty big risk!’ The same resident pointed out
that he believes that the development of the site is purely for the proponents’ private profit. When Brandon Saul responded by saying that he felt money has squeezed a lot of what is special out of Byron and how he is inspired by the Woodford festival model, the resident responded, ‘That still doesn’t alter the fact that it’s going to be a disaster. Just how gullible and naïve do you think we are?’ Many questions from the public gallery addressed the fate of the wildlife corridor which runs through the site. While the proponents were at pains to describe plans to maintain and expand the corridor via land swaps with NPWS and tree planting, the public applauded a continued on page 7
",).$ -/4)6%
Michael McDonald A sewage treatment plant is hardly the place you would expect to find international vistors but thousands fly into one such plant each year, slipping unnoticed by Customs and Immigration, on the outskirts of Byron Bay. I learnt this last Sunday at Byron Shire Council’s celebration of World Environment Day, usually held on June 5, Greens MLC Ian Cohen’s birthday. We were out at the sewage plant which filters water into artificial wetlands to take the bird tour expertly guided by Council’s biodiversity extension officer Wendy Neilan and keen amateur birdwatcher Rex Fisher. Perfect weather, a pleasant easy walk, and lots of interesting birds darting, flying and floating – duck, the Jesus bird (jacana), stilts, spoonbill, wrens, swamp hens, a goshawk in search of a meal, the island nest where the black swans might have been. Apparently around 200 species have been sighted all up. As well as being impressed by the birdlife, even an amateur eye such as mine could see the impressive plantings by humans. Thousands of melaleucas had been planted out and it was a pleasant dream to imagine wetlands either side of Ewingsdale Road all the way into town – we could change the name to Byron Bayou. The whole day was a great example of cooperation between Council officers and volunteers to highlight and explain the beauty of Mother Nature, the dangers assailing her thanks to homo sapiens, and what we can do to help her out. A Friends of the Wetlands group is being formed so more people can take a walk on the wild side. It will be a good reminder of why we live here.
INTERIOR
&OR FREE MEASURE QUOTE CALL
OR VISIT OUR SHOWROOM AT #ENTENNIAL #IRCUIT "YRON "AY /FFICIAL !GENTS FOR $ESIGNED "LINDS 6EROSOL 3ILENT 'LISS *UST "LINDS 3HUTTERS 0ETER -EYER "LINDS
2EMOTE MOTORISED SYSTEMS AVAILABLE