THE BYRON SHIRE
What’s New
Volume 29 #04 Tuesday, July 8, 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
Inside this week
page 18-19 TERRA NULLIUS NOW MONSTERUM INHUMANUM
CAB AUDIT
Free waste and recycling audit – p5
A rewarding PNG journey for locals – p7
Writers festival news – p14
Interview with James Guppy – p15
A new school term begins! – p16–17
Byron Shire Council Notices Page 39–40
Mayor pushes for Raising the NAIDOC flag retaining rail lines Hans Lovejoy
While proponents of rail trail continue to spruik repurposing the region’s disused railways, Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson (Greens) is calling on ‘potential providers or users of the rail line for proposals and plans that utilise the rail corridor in Byron Shire, while not removing the tracks.’ He’s organised a meeting at the Byron Community Centre, on Thursday July 17 from 6.30pm and says it’s a chance for the community to come and hear what other options may exist for the rail corridor, ‘aside from a far away train return, or the track-removing rail trail proposal.’ The call follows the second government-funded study on the region’s tracks; the first explored the plausibility of returning rail, while the latest released mid-June examined the possibility of rail trails. And while that report recommended the track’s removal to accomodate rail trail, it also spruiked a possible $200 million per year injection for the region. Cr Richardson said, ‘Whether it be festival sites seeking ways to bring attendees to a site via public-transport rail-line options, or developers seeking to establish housing clusters along the line, it is also important that possible users of track-based transport options can outline their vision.’
MP ignores light rail But that view is not shared with local state MP Don Page (Nationals), who recently told Parliament that he is ‘keen to see a rail trail established on the Casino to Murwillumbah rail
line,’ and has been lobbying to have the rail trail funded from the $110 million Regional Tourism Fund. Interestingly, Mr Page failed to tell parliament that the 2013 independent report into returning rail did not include the potential use of light rail. According to Hansard’s transcription from June 19, he said, ‘[The report] indicated that any combination of train services on the line would not meet the public transport needs of the region because two of the three largest urban areas – Ballina and Tweed Heads – would not be serviced.’ He said that Treasury and Infrastructure NSW ‘are currently examining the [current rail trail] report to verify the consultant’s cost-benefit analysis and after this is done I am confident further announcements regarding funding for this project will be made by this government.’ Meanwhile the mayor says, ‘It is time now for the community to join the discussion of how best to provide transport options for our community, especially our youth.’ ‘It is time for all those who have formalised or well-considered ideas or projects that utilise the rail tracks to come forward and share them with the wider community.’ Q Editorial page 10
Meeting for rail corridor options Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson is calling a public meeting to table rail corridor options at the Byron Community Centre on Thursday July 17 from 6.30pm.
After recently stepping down as Arakwal Corporation CEO after 17 years, Yvonne Stewart received the Leader Of The Year award at Monday’s NAIDOC (National Aborigines’ and Islanders’ Day Observance Committee ) ceremony. Photo & story Eve Jeffery
There are few who would disagree that Arakwal woman Yvonne Stewart is a strong, intelligent woman who is a role model for indigenous people and, in particular, Aboriginal girls. This assumption is flawed in that Yvonne is actually a strong, intelligent woman who is a role model for all people regardless of race and, in particular, a wonderful example to all girls regardless of nationality or creed. And there’s the rub for reconciliation. Too often white fellas, in their ‘tolerance’ of the first peoples, relegate Aboriginal Australians to a ‘them and us’ status as a nation and a people. White Australia, in its rush to fall over itself over-compensating for the horrors of the past, is missing
the point: we can only be reconciled when we are one body of humanity. It has become a habit in recent years for the worst type of separation to happen and it is not helping the ‘Aboriginal problem’. An Aboriginal man told me a few years ago that his children, who were talented athletes, were being overlooked for representative teams because the coaches believed they were better off in the Aboriginal team. This man felt as though his sons were being given the consolation prize – playing for the black fellas. ‘Don’t get me wrong, my boys are happy to represent their people, but not at the cost of representing their country.’ The biggest employer of Aboriginal people in the shire is the local mob. The Arakwal Corporation em-
ploys dozens of indigenous people because there is little else for them in town and in the shire. Yvonne Stewart has been involved in the Arakwal Corporation since it was first registered in 1994, around the same time as Native Title was registered. She moved back to the area with her family in 1997 to take a more active role. Yvonne recently left her job as CEO of the corporation after 17 years. ‘Seventeen years in one job is a long time,’ says Yvonne. ‘It has just come to a stage where I feel a bit stale and need to do something else.’ Yvonne says the Native Title registration was a great thing for the local mob. ‘It was about bringing family back together to connect continued on page 2