THE BYRON SHIRE ECHO
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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 #14 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2007 22,300 copies every week
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Spaghetti Circus is ready, set to go in new direction
Woodbine’s orchid the grand champion
Spaghetti Circus is presenting their major work for 2007, The Ready Set GO! Sports Show where circus collides with sport in a thrilling and spectacular ride. The joys of winning, the woes of losing and all the crazy bits in between are presented through death defying acrobatics, playful juggling, hula-hooping madness, mindbending contortion and hilarious clowning. The cast consists of the newly formedYouth Performance Troupe aged between 12 and 18 years.
Some of the members have been training for over ten years and are obsessively dedicated to mastering skills in circus as well as creating innovative physical theatre and circus performance. The Ready, Set … GO! performance showcases the new creative direction Spaghetti Circus has taken. Performers have been working hard at developing their theatrical and standup comedy skills that have taken their circus performance to a new and exciting level. continued on page 2
Ron Hutchison, president of the Byron District Orchid Society, and past president Graham Little admire the grand champion of this year’s orchid show at the Mullumbimby Ex-Services Club. The champion of champions, this yellow Den Speciosum (variety Grandiflorum), was cultivated by Anthony Woodbine and is about twelve years old and only in its first flowering... patience is certainly a virtue among orchid growers. Photo Lou Beaumont
Green groups confirm opposition to Splendour proposal at Yelgun A coalition of local environment groups remains opposed to the proposed festival site at North Ocean Shores/Yelgun. A development application has been lodged with Byron Shire Council for a trial Splendour in the Grass festival at the site in August next year. ‘The site adjoins the Billinudgel Nature Reserve which has outstanding conservation values, including over 55 threatened flora and fauna species,’ said the coalition in a press release. ‘The coalition stresses that the Jones Road wildlife corridor has already been protected at a state level. In 1997 the State Planning Minister called a Commission of Inquiry to settle conflicting landuses and implement appropriate zonings. ‘Commissioner Cleland high-
lighted the major significance of the wildlife corridor and recommended that the majority of lands adjoining Jones Road be zoned for environmental protection, with a few small remnants zoned for prime agricultural use. The zonings and special provision clauses which now protect the corridor were supported by Council, government agencies, conservation groups and community representatives. ‘For over 15 years Byron Environment and Conservation Organisation (BEACON), Conservation of North Ocean Shores (CONOS) and Byron Environment Centre (BEC) have campaigned for the establishment of the Billinudgel Nature Reserve and for the protection of the State-significant wildlife corridor along Marshalls Ridge.’
BEC spokesperson Mark Parratt said, ‘To propose a festival as big and as loud as Splendour in the Grass in an area adjoining a nature reserve and within a wildlife corridor is a potential environmental disaster. It will be impossible to control 25,000 patrons in a rural area such as this with irregular boundaries extending for kilometres. Also flooding and emergency evacuation will present major problems’. The North Coast Environment Council is also opposed to the proposal. Spokesperson Jim Morrison said, ‘The NCEC has lobbied for the protection of the unique environment values of the North Ocean Shores area for several decades and Rose Jones in the red tissu hangs out with Rhiannon Walker in handbalance was party to the Cleland Inquiry while Peter Freeman rolls by in his German wheel. These and other members of back in 1997. It is hard to see how the Spaghetti Circus Youth Performance Troupe were warming up before their continued on page 2
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opening Ready Set GO! Sports Show last Friday night. Photo Lou Beaumont
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Showroom 84 Centennial Ct Byron Arts & Industry Estate p. 6680 8862 Beachfront Bay Whalers Lawson St Byron Bay p.6685 8587
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