THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 28 #52 Tuesday, June 10, 2014 Phone 02 6684 1777 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
Byron Bay Writers Festival Program in this issue
NOW WITH FEWER POMERANIANS
CAB AUDIT
Inside this week
Hope for refugees – p16–17
Abbott’s budget battle – p12
Future of West Byron – p14
What’s new in town – p18
Local artists at work – p23
Byron Shire Council Notices Page 38–39
Whale watching off to glorious start
Man charged over stolen car in Bay
Story & photo Eve Jeffery
A man is due to appear in court in July after being charged with a number of offences when police pulled over a stolen car near Byron Bay on Saturday. About 3.20pm on Saturday, traffic and highway patrol officers, on Ewingsdale Road as part of Operation Stay Alert, noticed a Nissan Micra hatchback that had been reported stolen from a Queensland address on Saturday May 31. The vehicle was followed to Shirley Street, where it was pulled over without incident. The 36-year-old male driver and his two male passengers were arrested and taken to Byron Bay police station. The driver was issued with court attendance notices for possessing property stolen outside NSW, driving while unlicensed and two counts of fraud relating to failing to pay for petrol at service stations in Moorland and Taree. He is due to appear before Byron Bay Local Court on Thursday July 10. The man’s two passengers are not believed to have known about the offences and were released from custody.
With the official start of the whale watching season at Cape Byron Lighthouse on June 1, the annual Whale Day was held in the lighthouse precinct with glorious weather and whales a-splashing. Visitors to the Cape enjoyed educational activities presented by NPWS staff and Friends of Cape Byron volunteers and, of course, our ocean-travelling guests. Lee Middleton, the Discovery program coordinator for the local National Parks office, said that there were great activities for everyone, including counting whales. ‘The whales pass us every year and we like to celebrate that. ‘I get really excited about the whale count. We’re focusing on Humpbacks but we count any other whale species we might see. Counting the whales is designed to get some science involved in the day. We record the information and collate it with other areas throughout the whale season to get an idea of numbers.’ Lee says that whale numbers are increasing which, in itself, is a cause for celebration and hopes are high for growth in the seas. ‘Last year
From New Jersey via Melbourne, Cape Byron visitor Shari Cohen got a double treat when she tried on the Bowe the Baby Humpback costume and saw whales for the very first time.
there were about 17,000 whales passing by the east coast; hopefully this year we will see the numbers increase and the pattern has been about ten per cent increase each year.’
One of the highlights of this year’s day was the arrival of the newest whale on the rock, ‘Bowe’, a wearable baby humpback whale costume that children, and very
petite adults, can try on. For more information about the whale migration and meeting Bowe, follow the links at www. nationalparks.nsw.gov.au.
Mayor bids to stall govt’s West Byron decision Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson is hoping fellow councillors will support him in a bid to ask the state government to defer a decision on the controversial West Byron development. In a notice of motion due to be put at this Thursday’s council meeting, Cr Richardson notes ‘the deep concern of the broad community regarding the adequacy of the planning processes as part of the assess-
ment of suitability for rezoning the West Byron Urban Release Area’ and calls for Council to ‘request the minister of planning [Pru Goward] to defer the assessment of suitability for rezoning the West Byron Urban Release Area’.
Studies called for The deferment would depend on a comprehensive traffic study ‘that follows RMS (formerly RTA)
guidelines and accounts for the all impacts of the traffic generated by the full 1,100 homes and all the traffic generated by the proposed retail and light industrial businesses’. Cr Richardson also wants a ‘sitespecific acid sulfate soils study’. ‘This is fundamental to assessing the site’s suitability for the proposed … zoning and would assess the likely impacts of the proposed development and associated drainage
works on the health of the Belongil estuary.’ Cr Richardson also wants to see the Byron Coast Comprehensive Koala Plan of Management (KPoM) and the Local Growth Management Strategy (LGMS) completed before the development site is considered for rezoning. Given past voting patterns it is unlikely the mayor will have the numbers to get his motion up. Of
the nine-member council Crs Cubis, Hunter, Wanchap, Woods and Ibrahim are likely to vote against the motion. In related news the Byron Residents’ Group has called an urgent meeting to discuss the West Byron plans. The meeting will be held at the Byron Sport and Cultural Complex on Wednesday June 11 at 6.30pm. Q Letters, page 14