The Byron Shire Echo – Issue 37.27 – December 14, 2022

– where do your local politicians stand?

Hans Lovejoy

With the public’s right to protest under the spotlight, where do those who represent us at the state level (or aspire to), stand with the current law that sent activist Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco to jail for 15 months?

Coco stopped a lane of traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in April to highlight the government’s inaction on climate change.

The laws that sent Coco to jail were amendments to the Road and Crimes Act in The Roads And Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill 2022.

It was rushed through both houses on March 30 and 31 this year by the NSW Liberal-Nationals government, with the support of NSW Labor, just as the north coast was being hammered by catastrophic floods.

A Lismore group who gathered to protest Saturday, along with the NSW Greens, are calling to reverse the draconian anti-protest laws.

Local Ballina MP Tamara Smith told The Echo, ‘In the Legislative Assembly (lower house), which is where I am elected, the MPs against the bill were Alex Greenwich (independent), Jenny Leong, Jamie Parker, and myself (all Greens)’.

In the Legislative Council (upper house), locally-based Nationals MLC and failed local candidate, Ben Franklin, spoke extensively in favour of the bill on March 31.

Echo questions to Franklin

One week after the Global Ripple OpShop was devastated by fire, the much-loved charity is rising from the ashes on a wave of support from the local community.

With the shop’s premises in the Byron Industrial Estate lying in smouldering ruins last Tuesday, founder Jacqui Boyett and her team were left without a shred of stock and nowhere to go.

Now they have secured a 12-month lease for a new space that is, literally, just down the road.

‘We’re alive again,’ Ms Boyett told The Echo

‘To go from how we were feeling at the beginning of last week after the fire, to being where we are

now… I really feel that we’re being held by the community and looked after by someone upstairs.’

Now next to Bunnings

The charity’s new home is in a warehouse at 2 Grevillea Street, right next to Bunnings.

The space will be open to begin receiving donations of pre-loved items at their new home by this Thursday, with an eye to being fully up and running in the new year.

They have already received incredible support from the community, including financial donations to their GoFundMe campaign, in-kind donations from across the Shire, and a mountain of messages and support.

‘The biggest thing has been the

support from everyone…it’s picked me up,’ Ms Boyett says.

‘Just to give you an example, we‘ve had other op shops in the Shire offering to provide us with racks and hangers. I mean they could be looked at as our competitors. It just shows the spirit in this community.’

Global Ripple’s phoenix-like rise also means that they will be able to continue supporting the local and international charities that rely on their help to continue operating.

The Suffolk Park Progress Association (SPPA) say they will request that elected councillors retain a decisionmaking role in a large mixed-use complex proposed for Clifford Street, after the Sydney-based developer commenced court proceedings against Council for refusal.

In a presentation to be given at this Thursday’s Council meeting, SPPA president, Donald Maughan, says that given the major concerns from the community, ‘We want community views to be represented, and we want the community be kept informed by our councillors throughout the case’.

Let down by West Byron representation

His speech reads, ‘Our Suffolk Park community’s concerns relating to the Land and Environment Court cases are validated by the way the West Byron development went in that same court’.

‘Decisions were made by staff on advice from Council’s external solicitors, with none of our elected Councillors at the table. That outcome left community with a feeling of capitulation and no representation in the process.

‘We, the Suffolk Park community, ask Council to urgently resolve today to retain their role as the decision makers in the court process and select a sub-group of councillors to have authority to make these decisions’. ▶ Continued on page 4 ▶ Continued on page 3

‘Some people don’t realise that Global Ripple isn’t a church-run op shop, but actually a private charity that raises money for a whole range of other charities,’ says another member of the Global Ripple team, Chrissie Klements.

Paul Bibby

Hans Lovejoy

From left: Chrissy Clemens, Jacqui Boyett (founding director and manager), with Jenni Scarpella. Photo Jeff ‘Burnt Out and Rebirthed Since 1066’ Dawson

A sad farewell for young Jack

Eulogy by Tara Crittle

Yeew! That greeting is synonymous in my family, as I’m sure it is for many of you, with Jack. Bursting with energy, life and enthusiasm. In fact in my house Jack actually became ‘Yew’! As in – ‘I saw Yew down the road or ‘Mum, Yew called for you’.

Now I will never be able to hear that greeting without feeling loss. The loss of someone incredible. The loss of someone who lit up any space he was in. The loss of someone who, once met, would never, ever be forgotton, even if that meeting was only fleeting.

We are forever changed for meeting Jack – and how lucky are we to have had Jack in our lives.

He was a beautiful ray of sunshine who lit up our lives after we lost his dad, John.

John was unbelievably proud of his son. When I was pregnant for the first time, John would regularly bring this beautiful, white-haired baby around to our Mullum home, ostensibly to get me prepared and to ‘give me

practice’ but really he was just showing off his gorgeous son. John honoured me by asking me to be Jack’s godmother.

Over the years, many of us got to bathe in the light of Jack: Regular time with my dad, Peter, at Crabbes Creek as a boy; Easter, Christmas and sulky races with his cousins; Fishing on the local beaches and Yamba with Hamish; and then Dad took

Jack as a young adult on a trip overseas to Turkey.

As an adult, Jack continued to embody that joy of life we knew in him as a child and I was lucky enough to experience this with him at the Teepee forest – oh yes, Jacky Boi knew how to party!

But it was his mum, Debra, who always had Jack’s heart. A friend messaged me the other day with

memories of Jack. They had reconnected recently but it was something he had said when he was younger that really stood out for her.

He had told her that he is who he is because of his mum.

I will never forget how much he loved you Deb.

Vale Jack Paris! May that beautiful light of yours shine on forever in our hearts.

All who knew and loved Jack Paris Kingdom Lambert-Crittle joined in a celebration of his life on Monday, December 12 at the park opposite New Brighton’s Yum Yum Tree Cafe. Photo Jeff Dawson

It’s that time of the year when we dust off the respirator and the whacker packer, don the holey Dunlop Volleys and gallivant, stumble, gallop, and stride or fall over the line at the end of Clifford Street, South Golden Beach.

The annual race has been celebrating some, and disappointing most, since 2001.

We’ll be combining this year’s run with the Community Gardens Christmas Party at the end of Clifford Street this Friday December 16. The Community Gardens barbecue/party will go from 4.30pm until 7pm, with a band playing in the rotunda, and we will have the race around 6pm.

‘The most important thing for us, pretty much as soon as it happened, was to try and get up and running as quickly as possible so we could keep supporting those groups.’

In aid of this same goal, Global Ripple will be holding a fundraiser at the Stone &

Wood brewery in the Byron Industrial Estate on the afternoon of December 23.

Running from 4–6pm, the fundraiser will include a charity auction of items provided by local businesses.

‘We’d love a few local businesses to come forward and donate an item or

two that we can sell at the auction,’ organiser Jenni Scarpella said.

Meanwhile, enquiries are continuing into what started the December 5 blaze.

The Echo understands that fire investigators attended the Global Ripple site last week but are yet to

finalise their investigation.

In addition to destroying Global Ripple’s space, the fire also gutted Byron Taxis, which shared the same building and the nearby Suby cafe.

Firefighters were able to subdue the blaze before it spread to a neighbouring apartment block.

Bibby

A community-led proposal to provide housing for locals at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness may be kiboshed by Byron Council after staff identified a series of ‘issues’ with the plan.

Led by local not-for-profit organisation, One Roof Byron, the project would see a cluster of four tiny houses and a permaculture garden built on land near the Brunswick Valley Sewage Treatment Plant (BVSTP) on Vallances Road, Mullumbimby.

It would provide housing for a socially diverse group of residents, including essential workers such as nurses and teachers, and be a prototype for similar projects in the future.

‘Food gardens will be started in pots and planted out after the homes are established,’ One Roof Byron said in their proposal, which is coming before this week’s Byron Council meeting.

‘This process will be guided by experts and housing recipients will gain skills and confidence to grow their own food where they live.’

The project, which also involves local organisations

Useful Yurts, Shedding, and the Mullumbimby Community Gardens, would offer an immediate start to help address the ongoing homelessness emergency.

But Council staff have recommended that Council ‘declines to progress with the proposal’.

In their report on the plan, contained in the agenda to this week’s council meeting, they outlined a series of problems, including that the land is currently zoned operational as it ‘currently hosts’ the BVSTP.

This is despite the fact that the site in question is some distance from the actual plant and has not been used for at least two years.

Staff also argued that there was currently insufficient vehicle access to support even a small residential development on the site, even though land on Vallances Road has been earmarked for affordable housing for some time.

Concerns were also expressed about an apparent lack of detail in the plan.

‘This proposal begins to articulate an innovative response to this unmet need, that brings together local not-for-profit partners

with diverse skill sets, but does not provide adequate information about the model of service delivery proposed to support vulnerable community members; in this case, people experiencing homelessness,’ staff said.

‘Further detail is required on the proposed delivery of support services, the organisation’s governance framework and demonstrated housing/service delivery experience to ensure safe and effective project delivery’.

Staff have recommended that an audit of Councilowned or managed land which may meet the stated requirements for crisis and

transitional supported accommodation be undertaken, to give ‘due consideration to future opportunities or proposals in a holistic manner’.

The housing plan is the latest community-led proposal for land at Vallances Road. Another part of the site had been earmarked for use as a natural burial ground.

However, that proposal, which was years in the making, was abandoned by Council last month, after staff found that the site was unsuitable.

The housing proposal will be debated at this week’s Council meeting.

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Brunswick Heads Public School choir were in fine voice for Christmas carols at the Mullumbimby Showgrounds, held last Sunday. Photo Jeff ‘Auto Tune’ Dawson

Damian Farrell

Stories through movement, from Jan 16

The latest upcoming Sprung!!! performance, The Rivers’ Stories, will be held January 16 –20, and explores First Nations social values, as taught by Cabbage Tree Islander elder, Julia Paden.

The five days of immersion will be led by interdisciplinary dance makers, Mitch King and Jade Dewi Tyas-Tunggal.

Sprung!! Dance Theatre is a not-for-profit and community-based organisation providing workshops and specialised dance and theatre training for people with disability. For more info, visit www.sprung.org.au.

Where do your local politicians stand on protest laws?

around his support for the law are yet to be replied to. Those few who voted against the bill in the upper house were MPs Emma Hurst (Animal Justice Party), David Shoebridge, Abigail Boyd, and Cate Faehrmann (all Greens).

So far, the local candidates in the 2023 state election are incumbent Greens MP Tamara Smith, Nationals candidate Joshua Booyens and Labor’s Andrew Broadley.

The Echo asked Broadley and Booyens if they support the law (and their party’s position) that sent Coco to jail. ‘And if elected, would you try to ‘repeal the law and support a NSW bill of rights?’

While Labor’s Broadley

is yet to reply, the Nationals hopeful Josh Booyens replied, ‘While I appreciate the question, my focus has been and will continue to be, on what is top of mind and the concerns for the people of the Ballina electorate.

Nats not focused on human rights

‘What I’m hearing on the ground is that people are more interested in our elected local member working to secure land to build affordable housing, fight for investment in hospitals, schools, in our growing region – all things the NSW Nationals do well in our regions. I’m campaigning on the issues that are

important to our community – environment, people and economy – local actions and local outcomes – and giving voice to those issues and concerns that have been ignored by our local member for the last eight years’.

In the neighbouring electorate of Lismore, Labor MP Janelle Saffin’s office provided a statement to support those who protested outside her electorate office recently. It reads in part, ‘Peaceful protest and should never be a criminal offence. Jenelle is working across her party to change this’.

Saffin was absent from the March 30 vote, and as such, her vote was recorded along party lines.

Fed Sheds DA a ‘structural tension’ with town masterplan: councillor

Paul Bibby

Councillors have approved a masterplan for Federal that envisages a pedestrian and cycle-friendly town with a safe and vibrant Main Street running beside an upgraded park that forms the heart of the hinterland village.

But Council heard last week that the document will carry no weight, when a controversial light industrial development proposed for the centre of the town comes before next week’s Council meeting for assessment.

The masterplan, which was approved at last week’s Council planning meeting, sets out 15 separate actions for the village. This includes an upgrade to the intersection of Binna Burra and Coorabell roads, a network of safe and pedestrian-friendly paths and cycleways, and a renewed focus on building affordable and sustainable housing in the town.

Independent councillor, Mark Swivel, sought to remind councillors and the community that the plan will have virtually no impact when it comes to determining individual development applications such as the ‘Fed Sheds’ proposal.

Fed Sheds will come before this week’s Council meeting for determination.

‘A masterplan has very little weight in a real-world sense,’ Cr Swivel told last week’s meeting.

‘It’s an expression of wishes and cannot be enforced by any court or other institution.

‘Next week we look at the Fed Sheds development, which has created an extraordinary degree of community division, and is a project that will occur right in the middle of the village.

‘With the greatest respect to all of the people involved in the masterplan process, the reality is that there’s a structural tension between the masterplan and that particular project.’

The $2.8 million ‘Fed Sheds’ project would see the old house directly opposite Federal Hall/Jaspers Corner replaced with three buildings housing a total of eight light industrial tenancies.

The two-storey development, which lies within the

Federal Village Heritage Conservation Area, would also include 26 parking spaces, two loading docks and its own storm water and sewage treatment facilities.

Food and drinkrelated premises would not be permitted on the site, in a bid to limit the impact on neighbours and the surrounding environment.

The Development Application (DA) received 216 submissions while on public exhibition, including 64 submissions in favour and 152 against. It came before Council’s August planning meeting, but was deferred so that staff and councillors could consider social impact and specific queries raised with the proposal, and so that the developer could be requested to conduct a workshop with the local community.

Recommended approval

Staff have recommended that the development be approved, as they did on the first occasion, arguing that it complies with the planning rules for that part of the Shire, and that the building’s bespoke design would complement the streetscape and nearby heritage buildings.

▶ Continued from page 1

Maughan says ‘Some, but not all of the community concerns are: 1. the development requiring use of neighbouring community land for APZ’s; 2. Totally inadequate parking allocation; 3. Exceeding height and bulk of the development; 4. Inaccurate traffic survey report; and 5. Building commercial development on R2 designated land’.

In response, Cr Duncan Dey says he has lodged an urgency motion, which reads in part that councillors only learned of the court case ‘last Friday’.

Urgency motion

His motion requests that ‘a group of three councillors be delegated authority, currently resting with the general manager, to make

decisions arising out of the L&E Court case…’

The Echo asked the developers behind the controversial plan, Denwol, ‘Why isn’t Denwol seeking to negotiate in good faith with Council instead of going to court? Was Council’s rejection unreasonable, and if so, how?’

A Denwol spokesperson told The Echo that given the DA was before

the court, it was ‘not appropriate to discuss the matter further at this time’. They did say, ‘We can confirm that prior to initiating LEC proceedings, we did endeavour to discuss the issues with Council’.

According to www.denwol.com. au, ‘Denwol is a Sydney-based diversified property group owned and controlled by Phillip Wolanski’.

Ralph James, Council’s Legal

Counsel, told The Echo, ‘On July 19, 2022, the development application [DA 10.2022.137.1] was refused by Council. On September 9, 2022, the applicant commenced proceedings in Class 1 of the Land and Environment Court’s jurisdiction, appealing against Council’s refusal of the development application.

‘The appeal is listed for a Conciliation Conference on February 3, 2023’.

‘[A masterplan] is an expression of wishes and cannot be enforced by any court or other institution’.

– Cr Mark Swivel

Pictured on the banks of Fishery Creek, Ballina, are Jade Dewi Tyas-Tunggal, who leads some of the Sprung!!! dancers, Zac, Tara and Max, through improv dance moves. Also pictured front are Mitch King and Aunty Julia Paden.

Photo Jeff Dawson

Sula-Mae grapples with the greatest

Feliu

Former Mullumbimby lass, Sula-Mae Loewenthal, 24, started to learn self-defence six years ago, after leaving school, so she could travel around Europe in safety.

Now she travels the world competing instead.

As a result, the former Shearwater Steiner student, based in the UK, now counts a world Jiu-Jitsu title under her belt.

World Jits champ

Sula-Mae was last week crowned world champion in her middle-weight division at the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) championships in Anaheim, California, and matterof-factly says ‘it’s a good feeling’.

The world Jiu-Jitsu championships (commonly known as the Worlds or Mundials), held once a year by the federation, are widely considered the most important and prestigious Jiu-Jitsu tournament of the year.

Twelve girls from all over the world competed in Sula’s middle-weight, purple-belt division, but judges were quick to award her the

coveted title, after her impressive display as a top ‘grappler’.

Her two coaches from Mullumbimby’s Jiu-Jitsu athlete community were effusive in their praise after they heard news of her win.

Her coach in Mullum, when she took up training in the sport in October 2016, Adam Ryan, said, ‘Sula came to Jiu-Jitsu a bright, bubbly and energetic young woman,

with the appropriate amount of white-belt naïveté’.

Her mum, Rennie Johnston, of South Golden Beach, told The Echo she had ‘thought how being the youngest of four would have had an effect on Sula’.

Her brother, Rennie said, ‘We used to wind her up a lot and wrestle with her.

‘She probably felt like she could never win against them’.

State grabs more planning powers from NSW councils

Hans Lovejoy

The peak body representing NSW councils, LGNSW, claims that the government have removed councils’ input and community consultation around new major housing developments.

LGNSW President Darriea Turley AM says the NSW government announcement last week will enable a Rezoning Pathways Program, which ‘allows developers to nominate rezoning proposals for more than 1,000 dwellings on sites in metropolitan NSW and at least 300 dwellings in regional NSW’.

‘These proposals would bypass councils [planning powers] and instead be assessed by the state’s planning department’, she says.

Turley questions ‘what, if any, consideration will be given to existing local plans and policies when major housing developments are being assessed’, and says, ‘Despite the major implications of the scheme, the NSW government has failed to detail how local provisions will be considered

when these residential developments are assessed and what community consultation, if any, will occur’. The new program ‘was the latest example of the NSW government cosying up to property developers at the expense of councils and the communities they represent’, said Turley.

The Echo asked the Department of Planning and Environment (DPE), ‘If correct, how do councils and residents have input into the future of their communities with the Rezoning Pathways Program without a voice?’

A spokesperson for the DPE replied, ‘It is not unusual for the NSW government to take carriage of larger, more complex proposals like those identified under the Rezoning Pathways Program’.

‘Any sites that are

selected for the stateassessed planning proposal pathway are identified based on a strict set of criteria with the best chance of delivering additional housing, supporting infrastructure and other public benefits, if the rezoning is approved.

‘Respective councils and the community will be consulted at multiple points in the planning process, and infrastructure will be a key consideration in the department’s assessment of each proposal. Other proposals will continue to be assessed by councils or the department, as they always are’.

Cr Turley adds that building delays are from ‘infrastructure delivery issues and other hold ups from a multitude of government agencies’.

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Sula-Mae Loewenthal. Photo supplied

‘What, if any, consideration will be given to existing local plans and policies when major housing developments are being assessed?’

– LGNSW President Darriea Turley

Justine Elliot MP Federal Member for Richmond Assistant Minister for Social Services and the Prevention of Family Violence

Authorised by Justine Elliot, ALP, 107 Minjungbal Dr Tweed Heads South

Gryffyn Pelling

In Australia, especially in regional areas such as the North Coast, there is a severe lack of funding and support available for children with specific learning disabilities.

A specific learning disability (SLD) is when the affected person has difficulty in a certain learning process, and they are often categorised into three main groups: dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. People with dyslexia struggle to interpret and read words, people with dysgraphia find it difficult to write clearly and coherently, and people with dyscalculia struggle to perform mathematical calculations.

These conditions affect a surprising number of people – according to the Australian Dyslexia Association, 10 per cent of Australians have dyslexia.

And while there are several non-profit organisations dedicated to supporting children with SLDs, government support has been lacklustre at best, according to locally-based literacy

support specialist, and a tutor experienced in supporting people with dyslexia, Melinda Marshall.

‘Children with dyslexia and dysgraphia need a structured literacy approach in order to learn to read and write successfully. Unfortunately, this sort of approach hasn’t typically been available in schools,’ Ms Marshall told The Echo

‘Early identification of reading and writing difficulties is so important’, she says.

‘Sadly, many people with dyslexia and dysgraphia grow up with poor selfesteem, because their difficulties were not identified and addressed. But the truth is, these difficulties have nothing to do with intelligence, and people with reading and writing difficulties can learn to read and write well, with the right educational approach and enough time.

‘As students get older, it’s important that they

are encouraged to access [help] to level the playing field – like extra time for assignments and access to technology.

‘Students also need to have the confidence to ask for the accommodations they need and persistence to get the technology to work for them.

‘People with learning difficulties deserve recognition for the fact that they are often working twice as hard as everyone else. They deserve the right support so that they can demonstrate their talents and achieve their goals.’

According to Sonic Learning, an Australian group of ‘health and education professionals working to bring you the very best research-backed learning programs available’, no state or territory government in the country provides funding specifically for people with dyslexia.

Local NSW MP, Tamara Smith, suggests that a major part of this issue is a general lack of resources for teachers, citing a drop in the number of specialists able to support children with learning

disabilities in public schools.

‘Teachers are overworked and underpaid, and they simply don’t have those experts to rely on any more.’

The NSW Greens education shadow spokesperson, and former teacher, told The Echo, ‘I don’t believe that you can possibly become skilled enough to adapt your teaching plans to support all needs without that extra support.

‘So, I believe what you have now is that for students with diverse needs – their needs are just not being met.’

She says the cost is ‘devastating’ to society with an entire cohort not being adequately supported to achieve their life goals.

She says, ‘What a terrible failure, as a society, in terms of the lived experience of people with a disability’.

Dyslexia tutor, Melinda Marshall suggested visiting www.codereadnetwork.org for those seeking assistance with dyslexia.

Gryffyn Pelling is a year 10 work experience student from Mullum High.

Valiant Music in Brunswick Heads say they have acquired a one-of-a-kind mint collection of 3,500 blues, soul, jazz and rock vinyl records.

According to owner, Martin Jones, the quality, early USA pressings have a remarkable background. ‘They were brought to Australia by music industry identity, Phil Tripp, back in 1981’, says Jones.

‘Heavy on blues, soul and funk artists, Tripp worked as a sound engineer and artist manager, and the collection features everything from the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, to Stevie Wonder

and early Fleetwood Mac, to Muddy Waters and BB King’.

Jones describes it as the ‘Holy Grail’ collection… ‘just things you rarely come across in Australia’.

‘There are stories behind nearly every title in the collection’, he says, ‘and the story of how the records made it to Australia is just as interesting’.

According to Tripp, the record cases had been in the living room of a house for ten years, had been exposed to ‘a lot of marijuana and hashish smoke’ and upon arrival into the country, ‘the drug detector dogs went crazy’.

No pizza is safe with Kai and Ashton about. These guys were among the many to enjoy the frivolities of food, song and games at the Habitat Chrissy cookout street party, held last Friday. Photo Jeff ‘Pizza Face’ Dawson

from Cape Byron

After 27 years of teaching at Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner School, Marlis Griffiths is retiring. The school’s Principal, Paddy Innes-Hill, said, ‘Marlis has been the learning support teacher in the primary school, and a longstanding member of the leadership team, and she will be greatly missed’.

‘Marlis embodies the ideals of Steiner education: she “receives the children in reverence, teaches them in

love, and sends them out in freedom” on a daily basis.

‘Countless generations of children have benefitted from her care, commitment, and professionalism.

‘The whole community thanks Marlis for her hard work and constant dedication.

‘As one current student said, “We just love Marlis, because she’s kind and funny, and she makes reading fun”.’

Interstate tradespeople enticed for natural disaster recovery

Tradies from across the nation are being incentivised to work in NSW, following the recent floods which devastated countless residents, businesses, farms and schools.

In a joint press release, NSW Treasurer Matt Kean and Minister for Small Business and Fair Trading, Victor Dominello, said that licensed and registered interstate workers of various professions will be recognised if they notify the NSW regulators.

Accommodation?

Yet there was no mention of how an influx of tradespeople would be accommodated, particularly in the Northern Rivers, where rentals are in high demand

and scarce.

The government say they have implemented an exemption from applying for a NSW licence, and have also removed any further registration or renewal fees to further increase mobility across the borders of all participating states and territories, under the Automatic Mutual Recognition (AMR) scheme. Treasurer Kean says this is to ‘ensure that tradies from out of state can aid the response to natural disasters quickly’.

‘We’re making it easier and cheaper for interstate chippies, plumbers, and brickies to come to NSW and help with the flood recovery effort,’ Mr Kean said.

Mullum man, Harley Wearne, made his first ring in late 2015 as an industrial design side project. He then made some rings for himself and friends.

‘I wore them out to bars and put them on socials and got a few requests, so I made a website and cleared out the garden shed for a work bench,’ said Wearne.

‘It was all online to begin with, until a shop I worked at put them on the shelves. Then, a few stores from around the country contacted us. Sue The Boy was meant to be

a temporary name until I thought of something else, but everyone seemed to really like it, so I decided to stick with it, and I’m glad I did. Olivia and I decided to open a store, as we had been working from home since covid started, when we gave up our studio. We wanted a place to go to work, have a proper workshop and office, and a showroom people could come visit when they were visiting the area’.

And so, Sue The Boy, the shop has now opened to the public in the Mullum Industrial Estate. Visit www.suetheboy.com for more info.

Photo & story Jeff Dawson

Retiring Steiner teacher, Marlis Griffiths. Photo supplied

Harley Wearne and Olivia Lord.

The greatest ring story, yet

News from across the North Coast online www.echo.net.au

Tweed Council secures environmental water sharing during drought

Two items at last week’s Tweed Shire Council meeting highlighted the commitment of the council to sharing water with the environment even during low-flow and drought periods.

Refusal recommended for North Lismore Plateau DA

The development of 742 residential lots, two neighbourhood business lots (super lots), one residue lot (future residential) and 45 new roads on the North Lismore Plateau (NLP) has been recommended for refusal by the Lismore City Council (LCC) assessment.

There is no affordable or social housing component within the development.

Tweed locals asked to save water

Tweed residents and visitors are being asked to save water as new figures show water use has increased in the past three weeks to 187 litres per person a day – exceeding Council’s target of 160 litres per person a day.

Locals join the call to reverse NSW antiprotest laws

Around 150 people braved the rain on Saturday at Lismore’s Peace Park to highlight the harsh sentencing of Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco for stopping a lane of traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in April this year and call to reverse the NSW anti-protest laws.

Don’t remove the concrete barriers say Tweed Council

The removal of concrete barriers at Reserve Creek Road landslip are putting the community at risk say Tweed Shire Council.

Cumbalum shops and affordable homes one step closer – by car Cumbalum is one step closer towards having some local shops and five new officially affordable homes in perpetuity thanks to council approval of preliminary planning requirements.

Back in the swim of things for Murwillumbah’s TRAC

The outdoor pool at the Tweed Regional Aquatic Centre’s Murwillumbah complex, that has been out of action since sustaining damage in the massive downpour of 28 February, is now open.

Ballina Shire Council has approved construction of a new Lennox Head Rural Fire Service (RFS) station, after noting a dire biodiversity impact report on the site in September.

The staff report showed the relatively small and fragmented parcel of littoral rainforest is next door to land with rare native trees.

But a lack of viable alternative sites and the public interest in a new fire station had led staff in the planning department to recommend the DA’s approval.

Staff notes on the matter’s inclusion in November’s ordinary meeting agenda said they had regarded ‘differing professional opinions’ about ‘likely environmental impacts associated with the proposed development’, including Council’s technical

officer’s conclusion that the proposal was likely to have ‘a significant impact’ on the site’s ecological attributes.

The project includes earthworks, vegetation management works and infrastructure servicing, as well as car parking and vehicular access at 9 Byron Bay Road, Lennox Head, and an adjoining road reserve.

Newton Denny Chapelle is the applicant on behalf of Ballina Shire Council.

Independent Councillor Eva Ramsey moved for the approval, with Independent Cr Rodney Bruem seconding.

Councillors present voted unanimously in favour.

Mayor Sharon Cadwallader and Cr Jeff Johnson were absent.

Eve Jeffery

Last week, the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP), a NSW government body that overrides local Council decision making, approved the Bentley Quarry to the dismay of many of the local farmers and families.

Located just outside Lismore, the small town of Bentley became national news in 2014 after gas company Metgasco was met with strong protests that led to their plans being abandoned.

Dr Roslyn Irwin, who opposed the project, said the approval is to extract 300,000 tonnes a year, for the next 30 years, ‘blasting every month, and leaving a hole that is ten storeys in depth on over 6.5 hectares’.

Bentley farmers, Rosemary and Ross Joseph, said that those of the Bentley community who are opposed to the quarry were not surprised at the decision.

‘It will have devastating consequences in our valley and the wider region,’ said

Mrs Jospeh. ‘It is the end of our quiet rural farming area and the beginning of largescale industrialisation’.

Mrs and Mr Joseph spoke to the panel about their many concerns, including that a peer review of the Land Use Risk Assessment (LUCRA) had been undertaken, rather than an Independent LUCRA, as requested by the NRPP.

‘Alarmingly, it contains many inaccuracies and misrepresentations. I refer the panel to page 17 which raises the original LUCRA’s acknowledgement that there is likely to be some conflict owing to objections from neighbours. The review glibly dismisses this by saying that the predicted impacts are a “worst case scenario” and therefore unlikely to occur and, if they do, it would only be for short durations’.

Dr Irwin added the locals were disappointed but not surprised by the decision, as Planning Panels approve 98 per cent of the DAs referred to them.

The NSW government-run Forestry Corporation has released its 2021-22 Sustainability Report, which shows that native forest logging has increased in the past financial year.

Nature Conservation Council CEO, Jacqui Mumford, says, ‘Every product

type saw a marked increase, with total wood harvested jumping from 272,499 cubic metres in 2020–21, to 477,460 cubic metres in 2021–22 – a 175 per cent increase’.

‘This comes off the back of Forestry Corporation’s 2021-22 Annual Report, showing the hardwood division

lost another $9 million over the past financial year.

‘These figures show a complete disregard for the decline of our unique forestdependent wildlife’, said Mumford.

‘In a year where some of our most iconic forest species, like the southern greater glider, koala and gang-gang cockatoo were listed as endangered, rates of native forest logging almost doubled.

‘Under the current government, nature is sadly in sharp decline. The NSW Environment Minister could make a huge difference by ending this loss-making native forest logging’.

Mia Armitage

A series of new half-size multipurpose sports courts could be built across the Ballina Shire, after councillors agreed to receive a report on options.

The vote at last month’s ordinary meeting was a unanimous response in favour of Councillor Eva Ramsey’s motion, seconded by Cr Stephen McCarthy.

Council has agreed to explore options for basketball, handball and multi-use

courts as well as outdoor volleyball courts throughout the Shire.

It’s unclear what sort of budget would be required for the project or how it would be funded.

Cr Ramsey’s motion called for the courts ‘to provide low maintenance, free, facilities to encourage higher active outdoor participation by children, youth and adults’.

Lennox Head, Skennars Head, Ballina, Alstonville and Wardell are included in the list of sites to be examined for the courts.

Mia Armitage

The Lennox Head Rural Fire Service Brigade. Photo supplied

Music concert supports refugees

Bruns Primary School wins NSW titles

Micozzi scoops SAE best audio project

Music producer, DJ and SAE Creative Media Institute student, Marcos Micozzi, has been honoured for his immersive audio virtual reality (VR) project, in partnership with industry heavyweights Sennheiser and Dear Reality.

According to SAE, the collaboration recently won Best Audio Project at the SAE International Awards

in Berlin, Germany, which recognises the outstanding work of students from 48 campuses worldwide.

At SAE Byron Bay, Marcos has been able to build on his craft as a DJ over the past three years, and develop his production skills, as part of his studies for the Bachelor of Audio.

For more information, visit www.sae.edu.au.

Congratulations to the Brunswick Heads Primary School (BHPS) team, who won the softball state titles last week. Mel Currie, the BHPS girls softball team coach, said it’s a first ever for Brunswick Heads. ‘We won our semi-final 16–9 against Toculmwal, who are a team from Riverina. We won our grand final 17–10; it was a close game, and we really came home strong. We have a big trophy, and kids proudly slept with their medals last night’. Photo supplied

Bruns Marine Rescue help out in Brewarrina

Members from Marine Rescue Brunswick have recently returned from assisting in flood rescues in Brewarrina, western NSW.

According to Unit Commander, Jonathan Wilcock, crew members Phil Bailey and Dion Georgopoulos flew

in on November 28 to assist the local State Emergency Services (SES). He says, ‘The main work consisted of operating the local SES vessels to either ferry people and supplies around flooded roads, or to take locals from their work places in Brewarrina

to their homes across the flooded Barwon River’.

‘The operation enabled the Bruns crew to gain valuable experience in working with other agencies, and in operating totally different types of vessels in fast flowing flooded river conditions’.

A major fundraising event for Ballina Region for Refugees (BR4R) was held recently in Brunswick Heads. Musical director Janet Swain partnered with BR4R to raise funds which support the settlement of refugees in the Ballina and Byron shires. The concert included the Big Voice Community Choir, the Pocket Kids Choir, drummer and singer Cindia Luz and The Songbirds. Photo Jeff ‘Sing From The Same Songbook’ Dawson

Marcos Micozzi. Photo supplied

Ambitious targets to be ignored again?

The sense of déjà vu is overwhelming. An international conference to tackle the already known causes of the ecological disaster unfolding around us.

Two weeks of wrangling, as governments make insincere pledges to change direction; corporations spend up big merely to greenwash their crimes; environmental NGOs realise that they have been lied to again. Perhaps it will be different this time.

Certainly the aims of the current COP15 biodiversity summit in Montreal are ambitious.

Among more than 20 draft proposals are the ‘30x30 plan’ to protect 30 per cent of the planet by 2030, the elimination of plastic waste, the redirection of $500bn in corroding agricultural subsidies, and the reduction of pesticides in the environment by at least two-thirds.

Lobbying against these proposals will be intense. Nestlé, for example, steals public water and sells it back to us in plastic bottles.

Dozens of big corporations encourage deforestation and species extinction by using palm oil from Indonesia and the Amazon.

Monsanto makes the carcinogenic pesticides sold in Australia.

The fossil fuel industry is the worst of all, producing most of the atmospheric pollution of the last half-century.

If you were the head of any of these companies, what would be your reaction to the Montreal conference? Let’s assume you are bright enough to know that science is not a left-wing conspiracy, and that the facts are irrefutable.

What you can learn from COP15, if you didn’t know it before, is that your pursuit of record levels of wealth is contributing to a planetary cataclysm. Failing drastic worldwide action, this will happen in a generation or two at most. Or for thousands of animal species, right now. You know your actions today are making the world uninhabitable tomorrow.

Yet all the evidence says you don’t care. You don’t care about the extinction of animals, you don’t care about the warming of the earth. You don’t care

about the survival of our children and grandchildren. Perhaps you think your own offspring will be safe, coddled in the bunkers of your extravagant riches. More likely you don’t care about them either.

There is no genuine doubt about the reality of a human-induced catastrophe in the biosphere, there is only antiscientific propaganda in the mouths of bought-and-sold politicians and in the words of news media owned by rightwing billionaires.

Nevertheless, you are behind the anti-protest laws that most countries are enacting in order to stifle dissent and maintain control.

Your insane greed is the reason our captive economy rewards ecological destruction, and by intimidating protesters you aim to keep it that way.

You are taking away from us clean water, breathable air and a stable climate, all for the sake of an insatiable lust for wealth, to stay in power at the top of the human pyramid, to remain part of the one per cent of humankind which owns nearly everything.

In the face of such calculated evil, the least we can do is call it out. We are dealing with liars and psychopaths, and we should stop being civil.

All of you are less valuable to the world than a single honeybee.

It is hard to remain optimistic in the face of corporate corruption, government hypocrisy and the barrage of disinformation from most of the media, but let this be the lowest point of the earth’s darkness.

The draft proposals are the minimum conditions for recovery, and there is no more time left.

Let this be midnight, with dawn not far away. COP15 will end on Monday. It cannot fail.

David Lovejoy, Echo co-founder

Corrupt politics in the climate era

As the world now knows, Violet Coco parked a truck on a lane of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, stood holding a flare, representing a distress symbol to highlight the climate emergency. She blocked traffic on a single lane for about twentyeight minutes before she was arrested.

For this non-violent protest she was jailed for 15 months with a non-parole period of eight months, and was denied bail, even after her mother offered a $10,000 surety.

She will remain in prison until her appeal is heard in March.

Even if her appeal is successful, she will have spent months in jail.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet welcomed her jailing saying, ‘If protesters want to put our way of life at risk, then they should have the book thrown at them and that’s pleasing to see.’

The premier fails to see the irony in his comment about putting ‘our way of life at risk’. Nothing puts it at risk more than the climate crisis.

No doubt, the fossil fuel industry who make huge donations to the Perrottet government will also find the jailing of Violet Coco ‘pleasing’.

It’s exactly what they would have wanted.

Australia is still an international pariah when it comes to addressing the climate crisis. We are the largest exporter of coal, selling $47 billion worth around the world, and the fourth-largest coal producer, way behind China in first place.

The fossil fuel lobby owns Australian governments. According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, the fossil fuel industry gave $2.1 million to the major parties in 2020–21, $1.3 million to the Coalition and $794,880 to Labor. There’s dark money slushing around too, 37 per cent of total income declared by political parties had no identifiable source.

The Coalition and Labor think they can’t operate or run campaigns without this dirty money. They have been hopelessly corrupted. The multi-million-dollar donations by fossil fuel lobbyists are not given out of the goodness

of their hearts. These corporations are not charities, they are hardnosed totally ruthless businesses. These donations are simply investments.

Directors of public companies are obliged by law to act first and foremost in the interests of shareholders.

Millions paid to the major parties pay handsome dividends

Of course, this corruption is not confined to fossil fuel interests. Why do you think no action is being taken on those ubiquitous poker machines draining the purses of so many vulnerable people and wrecking families?

Why is no action being taken in Australia to reduce sugar content and improve labelling on processed and snack foods consumed in vast quantities by young people in particular?

Two thirds of Australians are now overweight or obese and the percentage is rising inexorably year by year.

Preventable diseases like diabetes are taking an increasing toll. These multiple crises are symptomatic of a failure of government at all levels. We are not living in a true democracy where the people are fairly represented by the people they elect. Our governments are corrupted by vested interests who determine policy outcomes.

The Albanese government is making the right noises about the climate crisis, yet they still support the opening of new coal mines and gas fields, as though the government hasn’t changed. Of course, they are not going to say no to their donors!

Politicians and lobbyists say it’s the choice of people whether they want to have fun on poker

Richard Jones

machines, putting aside how addictive they are. Likewise, it’s the choice of consumers whether they eat healthy food or food and drinks loaded with sugar. We wouldn’t want a ‘nanny state’ telling us what to do, would we?

They can’t use the same spurious arguments about the climate disaster though. Try telling farmers they should have planted crops on higher ground. Try telling people they shouldn’t have bought or rented homes near a forest that burns or in low lying areas now subject to unprecedented flooding.

Violet Coco very bravely put herself at risk of being arrested to bring home the gravity of the climate emergency and the existential threat to our future.

Her sentence to any fair-minded person is excessive and denying her bail when she is a non-violent offender is draconian.

Violet Coco is like a modern-day suffragette. Women tried peaceful protests for decades to gain the right to vote. Eventually, they resorted to serious violence with bombings.

Famed suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst, claimed responsibility for bombing the house of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lloyd George, in 1913, and was jailed for three years. Five years later, when Lloyd George was prime minister, women finally gained the right to vote and stand for election.

Violet Coco didn’t want to have to stage such a protest. As she said, ‘I do not enjoy breaking the law. I wish there was another way to address this issue with the gravitas it deserves’.

David Attenborough agrees. He says, ‘We cannot be radical enough’.

Jones is a former NSW MLC, and is now a ceramicist.

CRYSTAL HEALINGS & READINGS

Richard

Dogs and more dogs

Council staff I have personally spoken to freely admit to a ‘dog problem’ in and around Byron Shire.

Having been bitten by a dog some 700 metres past a ‘No dogs’ sign on Brunswick Beach I can attest to the issue at hand.

In 25 years of regular visits to this area I have never seen a ranger on the beach, and no, the police are not interested in out of place dogs when they occasionally patrol at low tide looking for naked people.

The dog issue revolves around those owners who are ignorant, often abusive and just plain selfish tossers who will never do the right thing in the absence of real enforcement.

Meanwhile, what’s left of the native wildlife and other residents continue to suffer the consequences.

C Davies Mullumbimby

The ironic sparrow

Reading last week’s Echo, I was struck by the image of a sparrow apparently wearing one of those Santa hats, which have become ubiquitous during the season to spend (and for some) make money. I suppose from the perspective of an advertising agency this would be a palpable hit. But I found the photoshopped image ironic. I hear some now saying, ‘Get a life’, but here is why:

For years there were always numbers of house sparrows in the environs of Byron Bay. I always liked to see them, even though they can be pugnacious little birds that would grab nesting places from other

birds sometimes. I knew that populations were dwindling in Britain, and as far as I know no one could offer a conclusive explanation. But I felt that here at least they were still around in modest numbers. But over the last few years they seem also to be so reduced in their numbers I have not seen a single specimen, even where I would once spot them.

It is possible that other pugnacious interloper, the Indian Mynah, has replaced them; but I rather doubt it.

I knew a few years ago a colony roosted in a clump of bamboo. This was cut down during a development. But I felt the birds might find an alternative.

I am prepared to believe these observations mean little to many people; but to my mind they are part of the increasing warnings that the planet is demonstrating of the situation we are all facing. The drop in bird populations is not limited to the sparrow.

I am currently reading a book about the insect crisis, the huge (estimated) drop in all insect populations around the world. I do not need the experts to tell me of these changes. It is not just the honeybee that is in dire trouble, it is almost all the insect biomass. This includes other valuable insect pollinators, such as flies and wild bees and wasps. The intricate web of interrelations and knockon effects of all the ramifications are truly disturbing.

Of course, climate change, human populations, agribusiness etc. are all interrelated factors.

There is a certain irony in my mind in the humble

sparrow made to don a Santa hat. It is the whole extravagant consumer culture, while supporting capitalism that is a major contributing factor to the planet’s grave problems.

David Morris Byron Bay

Linnaeus again

In response to Linnaeus article (30 November). Thanks to the mayor for proposing the back zoning and councillors for support. It doesn’t rescind the zone change that allowed the inappropriate ecotourism facility and Community Title but may restrict future development.

Mr Duchen’s comments about being the target of accusations is misrepresentation. Community concerns have included the lack of compliance with prior consent conditions, particularly regeneration works and the recent inadequate biodiversity assessment. He states they have always followed best practice, but accountability is lacking. The prior zoning issue is a complaint against Council.

Also, his claim of leading the way in Broken Head is disrespectful. The community have delivered significant regeneration for decades, including covenants and agreements. Private regeneration of hundreds of hectares without commercial development trade-off is a reality. A major Coastcare regeneration project in the Broken Head Nature Reserve in the late 1990s was a communitydelivered initiative.

The biodiversity agreement for 50ha doesn’t appear to do more than

Letters to the Editor

to Letters Editor Aslan Shand, email: editor@echo.net.au, fax: 6684 1719. Deadline:Noon, Friday. Letters longer than 200 words may be cut Letters already published in other papers will not be considered. Please include your full name, address and phone number for verification purposes.

reflect prior approvals for protection.

Linnaeus hasn’t led the way on conservation, its focus has been on development creep. Mr Duchen’s support for the ‘downzoning’ is only after significant unwarranted development gain. If I’m incorrect, please make the details of the conservation plan and works and a comprehensive compliance audit publicly available.

Beginning and end

Is the Liberal Party finished? Are they now a dying refuge for a generation that is entering nursing homes and fading into obscurity? The era that championed capitalism, expounded the importance of neoliberalism and the free market has passed. We just need to look at the loss of the federal coalition this year and the triumph of the Dan Andrews Labor Party in Victoria recently to see that the tide has not just turned but is retreating beyond the horizon.

Australia has seen years of

Jan Barham Broken Head

Cartoon by Antoinette Ensbey

THE FALLS MUSIC

Bentley decision – when is a quarry a quarry?

Dr Roslyn Irwin

is being held at North

Parklands, Wooyung, on Friday 30th December (11am to 2.00am), Saturday 31st December 2022 (9.00am to 2.00am), Sunday 1st January (9.00am to 1.30am) and Monday 2nd January 2023 (9.00am to 1.00am). Please note, music will commence from 11.00am each day. Bands will cease operation at midnight each evening with the exception of New Year’s Eve at 1.00am. Audio testing will take place for the main stages on Saturday 3 December between 5.00pm and 8.00pm with a mandatory minimum one-hour sound check being imposed to test the system.

CHANGED TRAFFIC CONDITIONS INCLUDE:

•Reduced speed limits of 40km/h along Tweed Valley Way between Yelgun Road and Jones Road, and off-ramps from the Pacific Motorway at the Yelgun interchange.

•The majority of Festival patrons coming from the north to the Festival site will travel via Mooball using Cudgera Creek Road, Pottsville Road and Tweed Valley Way. The majority of Festival patrons coming from the south to the Festival site will travel via Brunswick Valley Way.

•Local Resident Only access checkpoints will be in operation for Yelgun Road and Jones Road at Tweed Valley Way.

•Traffic control personnel will also be in place at the intersection of Tweed Valley Way and Jones Road.

•Please be prepared for POSSIBLE SHORT DELAYS.

•Festival camping patrons will begin to arrive at North Byron Parklands from 8.00am Friday 30th December,2022, and depart by 5.00pm Tuesday 3rd January, 2023.

PARKING & ACCESS

There is NO PARKING along Tweed Valley Way or in the streets surrounding North Byron Parklands. Special Event Parking restrictions will be in place and Council Parking Rangers will be on patrol throughout the event. Fines will apply.

Camping or sleeping in vehicles within the Byron and Tweed Shires is not allowed. Maximum Penalty exceeds $1000. Council Rangers will be on patrol throughout the event period enforcing this regulation.

There is NO PEDESTRIAN access into North Byron Parklands. NSW Police will continue to issue significant fines to any persons trespassing and/or entering the event without a valid ticket.

Local residents wishing to drop off or pick up Falls Festival patrons are strictly required to use the event’s drop-off and pick-up zone located in the Southern Car Park via Entry Gate C. Use of the Yelgun Rest Area is prohibited for this purpose. There will be no inbound vehicle movement allowed into NBP between 6.00am and 1.00pm on Wednesday 3rd January, 2023.

COMMUNITY HOTLINE

An event Community Hotline will be in operation from 8.00am Friday 30th December, 2022, to 5.00pm Tuesday 3rd January, 2023. The Hotline will be attended during the approved event hours of operation.

THE COMMUNITY HOTLINE NUMBER IS 1300 899 440.

Local residents with parking, noise or litter concerns during the Festival should contact the Hotline and we will send our Community Response Team to assist you.

Residents can also email community@northbyronparklands.com

The impact of the approval of the Bentley Quarry on the people of Bentley is significant for those who have had the courage and determination to oppose this quarry for the past five years. This mega-quarry has now been approved to extract 300,000 tonnes a year for the next 30 years, blasting every month and leaving a hole that is 17 storeys in depth on over 6.5 hectares.

The quarry abuts the regional Lismore to Kyogle road, is located in regionally Significant agricultural land, allows up to 140 truck movements a day on a road that has had many serious accidents and will compromise any agritourism and sustainable agriculture developments within 1km of the quarry because of the blasting.

The quarry operator started quarrying on the site in 2018 without submitting a Development Application (DA) before doing so. Richmond Valley Council (RVC) determined that the quarry had existing use rights, despite the fact that there had been no quarrying, apart from for on-farm use, since the 1970s.

As a former councillor on Lismore Council, I am very aware that, owing to the lack of regulation of quarries, in 1993 State Environmental Planning Policy 33 was introduced to ensure quarries were regulated. Those who had quarries on their property were given two years to lodge a development application (DA), otherwise they could not operate. No DA was submitted by the owners of the property as they were farmers. Yet somehow RVC located a way around this and approved it for continuing use rights when Mr

Liberal governments since its colonial inception. Through a historical lens, we can view the evolution of a business/ management class that disabled the power of unions and scared the public away from socialism. It built its power through black-suited white men in boardrooms directing political discussion and economics.

Aspirational voters saw the possibility of individual wealth and bought the product. The environment was a resource to be mined and Christian values of seeing

Mackenzie asked them to do so in 2018. He was approved to extract up to 2,000 tonnes pa with four truck movements a week, which he has exceeded hugely, yet RVC continue to state, basically, that they have spoken to the operator and it’s all okay!

Penny Holloway, the Chair of the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP), said they were approving the quarry on the basis of being permissible in the zone and public interest. Yet in doing so the NRPP clearly accepted that the reports they had requested the proponent to provide after the first meeting were acceptable, despite the evidence provided by opponents that they had overlooked many things –including the location of a water bore and a house on the property 400 metres from the quarry, the impact on other residents and the risk of injury to school children who travel on the buses that use Bentley Road.

They also ignored the fact that the neighbour whose land will be impacted has already invested $2 million – far more than the less than $1 million investment by the quarry operator – with potential for up to 100 new jobs compared to the two additional staff the quarry operator will provide. And those positions will be in the agritourism and hospitality

heaven as off-the-earth surrendered the climate to the boardroom. Houses became real estate for investment, not homes as a basic requirement for living.

For the past few years a curriculum change in schools has started educating Australian students in sustainability and Indigenous issues. With growing awareness they have witnessed the change in the climate, the housing crisis, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

They are viewing politics in a new light. And they are voting; voting for progressive

industries, providing opportunities for other local farmers to follow suit, and will reduce carbon emissions.

Tourism Australia has said that agritourism is the fastest growing industry contributing $18 billion to the economy, so it’s a shame this potential in Bentley has been extinguished by this decision.

Were we surprised at the outcome? Disappointed, yes, but not surprised as Planning Panels approve 98 per cent of the DAs referred to them. And several examples of their decisions in this region are DAs at Yamba and West Byron, which were rejected by their councils and faced strong opposition. To us it’s now clear that provided an activity is permitted in a zone and can demonstrate some public interest, nothing else matters!

I notice the celebration by some in the community at the outcome. I imagine that they will never oppose a development near their property no matter how significant the impact may be on them and their futures. And I can only hope that there will be no loss of life on Bentley Road caused by quarry trucks. If there is, perhaps Penny Holloway and her two other panel members will reflect on their decision and regret not listening to the community.

policies, voting for justice, voting for the future. So conservative politics that don’t address or contemporise and prioritise these issues will assign said politicians to be relics of the past. An extinction of political dinosaurs that the future generations will be happy to leave in the past.

Janet Walker Goonengerry

Renewable energy

As a result of high energy prices and climate change, the transformation to clean and cheap renewable

FALLS MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL

& ARTS FESTIVAL

Byron

Bentley Quarry.

energy is occurring at an increasingly rapid pace. The thirty-five Renewable Energy Zones (REZ) planned in the eastern states will result in the most profound change to our landscape since land clearing and mining began. Although most Australians are supportive, both regional and city dwellers share concerns about the impact on communities, agriculture, the environment, and biodiversity.

Reports by Sydney University and the Clean Energy Council, however, reveal how most of these concerns can be addressed by adequate planning and local community engagement. Benefits can be shared by pooling funds within each REZ to create significant assets and programs, including training and employment.

Microgrids with community batteries improve reliability and reduce power costs. Solar farms can be screened by plantings and agrivoltaic design principles allow dual use of land combining agriculture and electricity generation. Curtailing wind generation during times of high bat activity, and painting one turbine blade black decrease bat and bird mortality respectively.

Going underground with

new transmission lines, as Germany legislated in 2015, is desirable and the Moorabool Shire Council’s work in this area is useful. Sydney University’s Renewables and Rural Australia report and the Clean Energy Council’s Guide to Benefit Sharing are excellent resources. City residents, who will benefit from the power generated, must support regional communities, and demand the highest standards of planning and consultation from government and companies at this critical time.

Ray Peck Hawthorn

Paid parking

The Bangalow Herald reported paid parking is coming to Mullumbimby and Brunswick Heads next year, but not Bangalow for some dumb reason. Might as well, because all ratepayers will have a parking permit for everywhere else, we might as well get some of that tourist dollar.

A Hunter Bangalow

Bioenergy plant

Ah, Council is applying its new Hokey Pokey policy to inform the bioenergy plant proposal: You put your bioenergy plant in, you take

your bioenergy plant out, you turn around and shake it all about. You put your bioenergy plant pollution out, you offset your bioenergy plant pollution in, you do the Hokey Pokey and you shake it all about, and that’s what it’s all about. Oops, the bioenergy plant, and its 2,200 trucks’ pollution doesn’t actually go back in. Bugger.

Councils proposed methane burning, 2,200 trucks bioenergy plant is a greenhouse and air particulate polluter. The false claims of it reducing Council’s green waste emissions is purely based on corrupted carbon bookkeeping and a dodgy carbon offset system. Unsatisfied with paying Council’s requirement to access Council’s ARENA funding rejection notice, I got the info, and ARENA’s meeting minutes reasons, directly from ARENA. While part of ARENA’s funding rejection was because Council’s alleged ‘First in Australia’ wasn’t a first, the other reasons were that it was unlikely to be financially successful, and that there would be a financial gap between income and costs. And Council states it only found out the reasons for the funding rejection via my ARENA FOI Response that I forwarded to Council – you’d think they’d

ask ARENA themselves (staff and councillors must be too busy doing the Hokey Pokey together in the corridors).

Council is now applying their Hokey Cokey policy to inform selling either the polluting bioenergy plant (after spending approx $1.5m), or selling the ‘no emissions, no trucks, five gigawatt’ solar farm. Council did provide me with the costs of sending green waste to the Lismore green waste facility – $365,000 per year, i.e. just the $25m methane burning bioenergy plant construction cost = 75 years of costs to have the Shire’s green waste composted and mulched.

Thousands of years of air samples trapped in ice reveal that our forested planet had not increased significantly its greenhouse emissions until the industrial revolution.

Aerobic composting of green waste has small CO2 emissions, which can be reduced 50 per cent with ground and compost worms, and become minus, and then draw down emissions, by growing plants on top. Aerobic composting does not create the level of greenhouse emissions created by Council’s proposal of a gas-fired electricity plant, burning methane artificially

Old Man Shouts At Cloud #5

One word leads on to another, and another...

Michael McDonald

While playing Word Chums with a friend the other day I accidentally invented a new word: ‘wordrobe’. This is how so many of the great discoveries come about.

‘Wordrobe’ is particularly pleasing because it is so close to the spelling of another word: ‘wardrobe’. A wardrobe is of course for the storing of clothes. Its origin can be found in the Old High German word ‘roub’ for ‘booty’ or ‘looted clothing’, and ‘ward’, to keep watch over, so essentially it’s a safe hiding place for the Chinese jeans you got with a five-fingered discount from Kmart.

Having invented ‘wordrobe’ I had to imbue it with meaning. It’s pretty obvious. A ‘wordrobe’ is a robe worn by mages and wizards and suchlike who use the power

▶ Continued from page 17

fermented from green waste.

Cr Pugh had a motion up for last week’s meeting – that Council ceases to accept sponsorship from gas, coal and petroleum producers. I emailed him my support for the motion, but raised the conflict with Council proposing to become, itself, a methane gas producer. He didn’t attend the meeting – you put the motion in, you pull the motion out, you do the Hokey Pokey and you shake it all about, and that’s what it’s all about!

John Lazarus Byron Bay

of words to befuddle, transmogrify and generally defy the laws of physics. These words are usually spoken out loud, and in most readings include ‘Maleficus!’, ‘Abracadabra!’ and ‘It fell off the back of a cart but you don’t

Going postal

The Echo reporting about ACP and Council motion

Thank you for your support of a postal bank, which could revitalise small business and farming areas and provide real competition among the arrogant big four banks.

They are closing regional branches at an accelerating rate, betraying their social licence, which is the trade-off for the immense privilege of issuing credit out of thin air, in return for serving the Australian economy.

These banks were shown to be gamblers

need to know that’.

A wordrobe could be any colour you like. It should cover the whole body right down to the magesandals (another new word) and collect mud about its hem whenever you go outside.

and profiteers at the Royal Banking Commission, yet no one was significantly punished, such is their political power. They continue to gamble in the derivatives markets, now 40 times the real-world economy. This could well cause an economic crash very soon.

Had the Australian Labor Party and other candidates bothered to read the Citizens Party’s excellent economic, anti-war and industrial policies, they might realise that smear campaigns, shooting the messenger, are unhelpful.

It can be decorated with symbols, if the wizard knows a handy seamsperson, because these, like the Nike logo, can further disempower the gullible.

Why the robe should derive from a word associated with robbery, I’m not sure. Perhaps some cunning lexicologist was having a go at certain priests.

So, I now entrust you with my new word ‘wordrobe’. Use it as often as you like and incorporate it into your games of Dungeons & Dragons, in which the wordmage keeps the wordrobe in a wardrobe before donning it to defeat a Shambling Mound, perhaps left over from the cat’s dinner.

As the wordmages would know, ‘dungeon’ derives from a Latin word for domination, and ‘dragon’ from a Greek word for serpent.

And so on…

The Labor Party is sadly in the thrall of the finance industry and the American war machine, unlike Labor’s noble prime ministers Curtin and Chifley – who correctly identified the ‘money power’ as the enemy of business and community.

A real postal bank is a wellspring of real prosperity, and I congratulate Mayor Lyon and other councillors who recognise the potential of such a service.

Dr Liz Elliott Bilinudgel

▶ More letters on pages 21 and 22

My battered copy of the 1980 imprint of Bedlam, Boudoir & Brouhaha, or Remarkable Words with Astonishing Origins, written by John Train and illustrated by Pierre Le-Tan, accompanied by an essential tool for reading.

Byron Council didn’t listen on Natural Burial Ground

Diane Hart

The news that the Natural Burial Ground (NBG) on the Vallances Road site had been rejected by Council at their last meeting came as a complete shock and surprise to everyone in the community who has been working hard to make this happen, including our NBG steering group. We were not informed by anyone at Council that this was on the agenda so were given no opportunity to address the issues or have a voice in public access.

This was going to be the first ‘stand alone’ NBG in NSW, that is, one not connected to a cemetery where the death aesthetic is all-pervading and undesirable. This is one of the reasons why the uptake at the Lismore NBG has not been great. It is why the Clunes and Mullumbimby sites were originally rejected by Michael Matthews when he was head of Open Spaces at BSC. Mullumbimby cemetery was rejected because of limited space and the cost of restoring the site –it’s full of camphors.

I know the sites well.

I’ve walked and talked them with Council staff and our local experts for a year before Vallences Road was seen to be the most ideal.

Soil condition

With community donations we purchased from Rebecca Lyons (Natural Death Advocacy Network) – the national expert on all legal and technical aspects of preparing an NBG site from scratch – a Policy and Procedure and Operating Manual as a guide for Council to work with so they didn’t have to reinvent the wheel.

I don’t think Council has ever opened it. If they had they would realise that their soil expert was working from a false premise. The testing sites that they dug were 2.2m. An NBG plot is between 1.2 and 1.5m, depending on whether it is a shroud or casket burial with a 900ml clearance above it. Lo and behold they hit clay and subsequently gave a negative report to Council.

They talked about the poor condition of the soil, difficulty in digging the holes that deep, limited topsoil and limited root penetration of vegetation cover.

What are we talking about here? A degraded useless site? Nothing could be further from the truth. This site is a rare and recognised biodiversity hotspot within the Shire, supporting more than 150 bird species with important habitat planting along the river and in the gullies.

The proposed burial area has been covered in exotic pasture grasses for decades that have poor root growth and offer little opportunity for the build-up of organic matter. In spite of that, it thrives – the birds, butterflies and insects love it.

Regeneration

With the help of local environmental and geoscience experts we were proposing a plan to regenerate the site with better soil-penetrating native grasses and wildflowers in the burial areas, and ultimately a nature reserve in perpetuity – enhancing its bio-diverse importance and increased carbon capture.

Limited space for burials? Council does not know this because they did not take our advice, when they were doing the survey at Vallances Road, to do a contour grid referencing. That approach would

have plotted all of the suitable burial site potential based on contour, slope and flooding. Guidelines from the experts state that, on a site like this, it is usually 500–600 per hectare of the suitable land.

NBGs allow for burials on sloping sites that would not normally be possible in a conventional cemetery. The irony, and some intense pain, was not lost on me that news of Council’s rejection of the NBG site at Valances Road came on the second anniversary of my husband’s death. He is buried on a steep slope in Mullumbimby Cemetery in a hole of solid clay that was extremely difficult to dig.

The Vallances Road, Coolamon Scenic Drive turnoff is a potentially dangerous corner. It always has been and will be. So fix it. Don’t use it as an excuse to dump the NBG.

I get regular phone calls from people, who are nearing the end of their life, and wanting to book a spot in the NBG. It’s heartbreaking talking to them and I am most upset about letting them down and all of the other 513 people in the queue. This is not a want in our community, it’s a need

We have a huge array of pots, planter boxes, bird baths, plants, water features and so much more.

Take advantage of our FREE COFFEE on a Saturday morning. Bring the family and pick out the perfect gift for the garden lover in your life.

Gift Cards also available.

We’re open every Saturday right up until Christmas eve, but don’t leave it till the last minute… come in this Saturday!

(02) 6788 1234

14 Kays Lane, Alstonville, NSW, Australia, New South Wales.

Cosmos Magazine

Australia appears to be already experiencing the worst-case climate scenarios that were projected to occur eight years from now.

It’s a sobering finding, revealed by world-renowned climate scientist David Karoly’s analysis of how closely projections released in 2015 by the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO align to actual temperatures and rainfall experienced by 12 major Australian cities, including the capitals.

He presented his data titled ‘Evaluation of near-term climate change projections for selected Australian cities using recent observations’ at the recent Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society conference.

‘Unfortunately, things like temperature extremes – days over 35 and 40 degrees Celsius – and decline in rainfall in southern Australia… were tracking at or above what was projected for the 2030s,’ Professor Karoly tells Cosmos Cities further north were also seen

to experience climate changes consistent with 2030 projections, though not worst-case rainfall scenarios.

Climate models simulate plausible climate futures.They are the most accurate and useful tools available to anticipate and estimate the Earth’s future climate, and extend the calculations used by meteorologists to predict short-term weather.

In this way, climate projections look beyond this week, this month and even this year.

Models use complex data inputs and mathematical calculations to simulate possible climate outcomes. To give a sense of the effort to ensure accuracy, hundreds of scientists and substantial supporting resources are required to build a model.

Not all models are the same, but each use mathematical equations to represent complex processes and interactions in the atmosphere, oceans and land surface.

Basically, lots of time, money and brain power go towards making these incredibly useful models.

‘There are multiple representations of those ‘plausible futures’, and typically the projections don’t look at just one – they look at range of plausible futures,’ Karoly says.

‘Coordinated experiments have

been run with these global models to evaluate their performance and to allow their results to be combined for future climate projections.’

To determine their precision, climate models are run over historical periods to see how closely their simulations align with past weather records.

The closer the alignment, the greater confidence in the model’s ability to simulate future scenarios.

Climate futures are uncertain, and scientists are quick to emphasise there are many variables that will influence the climate. But these uncertainties are small, and have become smaller and smaller as the reliability of climate models has improved.

Once models are verified, they’re then used to project forward scenarios. In simple terms, this process is repeated by climate scientists around the world to inform decisionmakers, businesses and individuals

on what changes might look like years into the future.

‘In the most recent decade, it’s hitting us faster and harder.’

Farmers are one group particularly interested in the changing climate.

They rely on having accurate data to inform their operations –when and what to plant – based on expected temperature, rainfall, storm activity and more.

And it was discussions with farmers that prompted Karoly to look back on how accurate the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO’s past climate projections were.

These farmers and others who rely on accurate weather had noticed their climate expectations hadn’t married up with reality.

‘I thought I’d better evaluate,’ Karoly says.

‘For many people, they’ve been noticing climate and weather changing around them.’

Karoly’s findings are troubling: already, 12 Australian cities are experiencing climate conditions that were projected to occur a decade from now. While specific to these locations, the findings could be considered broad indicators for the rest of the nation.

‘Many businesses and many people who are looking at climate impacts tend to look at the mid-range projections for the future,’ Karoly says.

‘What I’ve been finding is that the mid-range climate projections for

2030 already significantly underestimate the magnitude of the likely climate impacts in terms of extreme temperatures.’

‘These sorts of events that were projected to be much worse in the 2030s, and 2050s, are happening already. What we’re experiencing in some sense, for many parts of Australia, is the weather of the 2030s, or the worst case of the 2030s, now.’

One thing that Karoly did not review was extreme short-term rainfall, making it difficult to consider recent events like the recent triple La Nina, which incidentally saw 2022 become the wettest Sydney year on record.

Karoly says his results may mean experts need to revise their use of climate models. At the very least, he says, worst-case scenarios using existing simulations need to be given greater consideration.

‘Maybe the issue is we haven’t actually got high resolution, or high enough resolution to represent some important [climate] processes,’ he says.

‘It’s potentially a risk with using coarser models… using a simple downscaling approach. We’re usually tracking within the full range, but experiencing the worst case.’

You can read more Science Goes Viral on The Echo online: www.echo.net.au/category/articles/ science-goes-viral.

Data analysis by climate expert Professor David Karoly shows a concerning trend.

So, how do these climate models project possible futures?

Myall Creek Black Summer fires November 2019. Photo Ewan Willis

Violet Coco received a 15-month jail sentence for blocking one lane on Sydney Harbour Bridge. No bail was granted until the appeal in March next year (election month). The premier was pleased and the ALP leader supported it. Both are equally odious.

As an activist for 15 years I had protested for what I believed in. After 40 arrests I lost count. I knew many people had my back in an Australia who defended the right to peaceful protest.

Bereft of other job prospects I was elected to the New South Wales Parliament as the first Greens MP and served for 16 years.

In 1982 I was the first to be arrested under new forest closure laws during the Nightcap campaign. But we won. All charges were dropped.

Only later I found out that a potential prison sentence of 12 months disqualified a person from becoming an elected representative. That’s a lot for holding up traffic in one lane.

Neville Wran stated at the 1983 ALP Conference: ‘When we are all dead and buried and our children’s children are reflecting on what was the best thing the Labor government did in the 20th century they will come up with the answer. That we saved the rainforest’.

Street protest is a reflection of poor political leadership. Read your Labor history Mr Minns.

Ian Cohen Broken Head

Dear Premier, I am shocked and saddened to hear of your support for the jailing of Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco. She blocked traffic in Sydney for a short time in an attempt to highlight the threatened disruption looming from climate change.

I am 76 years old and I worry about the future we are facing. I worry for my adult children and my grandchildren.

In February this year my house flooded in the floods which went on to devastate Lismore. I am still repairing the damage and wondering whether I will have to abandon my home. The experts have stated that these floods were exacerbated by global warming.

I can understand a young person today feeling powerless and despairing in the face of the apparent refusal by governments to take the threat of climate change seriously.

Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco does not need jail time. She does not need counselling.

What she needs is to see those in power acknowledging the risky future facing us all and taking steps to limit the damage of burning fossil fuels. Every time a new coal mine is opened, or an existing one expanded, it is another blow to future survival. Another blow to the next generation’s chances of survival.

Release Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco – on a good behaviour bond maybe? But do not punish her for her attempts to highlight this desperately important issue.

Hugh Nicholson The Channon

Absolutely outrageous decision by a Sydney court as peaceful climate protester Violet CoCo was sentenced to fifteen months jail, eight months no parole, for her April protest that saw her block one lane of the Sydney Harbour Bridge for 25 minutes.

It’s clear climate protesters in Australia are being targeted for disproportionate punishment. Human Rights Watch reported on Violet’s case in June. We found that climate protesters like her are being increasingly and disproportionately subjected to vindictive legal action by Australian authorities who are restricting the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression.

Violet was led away today in handcuffs. Her lawyer, Mark Davis, is applying for bail right now and will appeal ASAP.

As the UN Chief, Antonio Guterres, said in April: ‘Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries increasing the production of fossil fuels. Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness’.

Boyd Kellner Newrybar

FAR DOES THE ECHO GO?

Calls on Byron Council to improve ‘Dogs in Public Spaces’ strategy

Aslan Shand

A group of community members from across the Byron Shire has come together asking Council to ‘make further amendments to clarify and improve the [Dogs in Public Spaces] Strategy and re-exhibit it’.

Unique biodiversity

They highlight a range of issues that need further clarification including the ‘unique biodiversity values of Byron Shire’. They explain ‘the potential for negative impacts’.

Compliance

However, it is in the area of compliance that they highlight the specific areas of attention required.

‘The submissions and community consultation highlighted the need for a more proactive compliance

approach but this has not been reflected in the Strategy,’ they say.

In particular, they emphasise the importance of dog owner responsibility.

‘This should be the primary information made available with the QR code and should include the fines currently applicable for

breaches of the Companion Animals Act.’

They point out that roads and pathways in urban areas are also public land and that these should be free from ‘threats from irresponsible dog management’.

‘Residents can experience anxiety from unwanted interactions with dogs and

that disrupt their sense of place and safety in their neighbourhood, including the stress of the potential to disturb or injure wildlife,’ they point out.

Funding

Three are ongoing issues of negligent dog owners which lead to injuries to other dogs, wildlife and people in the area (see Letters p.13) . The importance of funding for compliance is therefore key.

‘The funding of compliance is raised as a constraint but we believe that the council has a responsibility to fund its commitment to the community and believe a more robust approach to the issuing of warnings and fines for breaches will result in outcomes and change the behaviour of those who don’t show respect.’

Rail Trail remains a polarising proposition

The consultant’s report by Burchills Engineering Solutions (October 2021) to inform Byron Council on options for the Mullum-toBruns cycleway makes the following points (page 29) when summarising Option A (the Rail Trail): ‘…the rail corridor north from Brunswick Heads to Billinudgel is identified as a priority route in the Council’s 10-year Bike Plan. The railway line north of Byron Shire is identified-from Crabbes Creek to Murwillumbah – as now formally closed’ and ‘using the rail corridor will possibly create some further momentum

and open possible funding opportunities to further develop a rail trail north to the shire boundary’.

In my view these other ‘opportunities’ should be actively pursued by Byron Council.

Gaining funding to extend the rail trail from Wooyung to Billinudgel immediately opens up the rail trail north for local residents.

Having ridden on rail trails overseas and interstate the advantages for money and tourism coming into the Shire are clear.

Ron White Brunswick Heads

How or why should we close The Rail Trail down? It is clear now ‘due procedural process’ was not followed.

The federal government Department of Infrastructural Assets personally decided not to ask for approval for the rail trail from the Department of Infrastructural Assets in case it was rejected. So they themselves signed off on it, thus denying us any opportunity to oppose their decision.

Would you fight and join The Resistance?

I know where I stand, but where would you stand?

The latest international ranking list, released on December 1, shows that, despite the prodigious deeds of Uzbek and Indian teenagers of late, the oldsters still retain a grip on the top places.

World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who recently celebrated his 32nd birthday, remains in a league of his own, almost 50 points clear of China’s Ding Liren and the Norwegian has now completed a dozen years at the top of

Carlsen is about to abdicate as official World Champion, but whether his replacement is Ding or Russia’s number three Ian Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen will be regarded as the people’s champion for some time to come. He has hinted that he will return if the world body FIDE changes the World Championship into a hybrid classical-rapidblitz format. Despite FIDE also hosting World Rapid and Blitz Championships – the next to start on Christmas Day in Kazakhstan – it seems as if FIDE is moving towards accepting Carlsen’s idea

The so-called rail trail was supposed to represent one of the pillars of our democracy, a clean example of how a majority of residents make a decision. But it has been white-anted by the deliberate avoidance of complying with ‘due procedural process’.

A local here, ex-Scotland Yard in England, once told me the hardest people to catch are those who act alone and never tell even their friends of their exploits! Learn from it.

Vive La Resistance!

Mike Yarrow Byangum

and ending almost a century and a half of tradition to convince Carlsen to take part in the World Championship cycle again.

What is truly remarkable about the top 10 is that it contains only one player below the age of 28, 19-year-old Iranian-Frenchman Alireza Firouzja. 27 or 28 is supposedly the peak age for a chessplayer and such an old top 10 –including evergreen 53-year-old Viswanathan Anand – has not happened for decades.

The situation on the Australian list is rather more promising, with half of the top 10 aged under 28, including the top four.

The battle between Perth’s Temur Kuybokarov and Sydney’s Anton Smirnov continues to rage, with Kuybokarov edging ahead by a tiny margin on the December numbers. However, after some excellent results in Europe, number three on the list Bobby Cheng has closed the gap between himself and the top two considerably. Whether Cheng can reach the top before returning to his job as a financial analyst in Sydney next year remains to be seen.

CHESS by Ian Rogers

Longtime local Steve Medcalf rescued a bush wallaby from a historical dog attack on the beach near Elements Resort. Photo David Hancock

These are the words of Gandhi, the man who led nationwide campaigns in his country to ease poverty by creating a movement of resistance that contributed to ending British rule in India. We celebrate the acts of resistance by the civil rights movement and by the suffragettes, who broke the law to change it. Historically, creating meaningful change when nothing else has worked has been the job of people’s movements. Members of those movements have become heroes of history. Their sacrifice paved the way for generations to follow. It’s happening now.

Climate activists are our new heroes. They are the people whose peaceful resistance shines the light on the corrupt relationship between fossil fuels and government. They have been breaking the law to do it.

Thirty-two-year-old Violet Coco just got sentenced to 15 months jail with a non-parole period of eight months for blocking a lane of the Sydney Harbour Bridge with a truck. Under NSW protest laws it’s illegal to block public roads, rail lines, bridges and industrial areas. The NSW government declared it illegal to wreak ‘economic chaos’ on Sydney.

Which is ironic. Those who live in Lismore and the Northern Rivers recently experienced catastrophic flooding which created economic and social chaos beyond measure. The government’s love affair with fossil fuels is costing the people of NSW billions of dollars. And if you block a road to ask them to stop, you go to jail.

I am in awe of the courage of climate activists, who stand in defiance, knowing the cost is their incarceration. These are regular people like Daisy Nutty – a registered nurse who lives in Lismore. She has taken her patient care one step forward and committed her life to being a full-time activist.

Most recently Daisy was in Melbourne as part of an international action. She glued herself to a Picasso at the National Gallery. No artwork was harmed in these protests. Activists glued themselves to the perspex covering the painting.

‘There was talk of criminal damage,’ said Daisy, ‘but we didn’t want to damage the art, we wanted to make it a platform. People have to stop coal and gas. People don’t like us blocking roads so [instead] we had a non-violent action focused on artwork.

‘It was to get people thinking: why are they more concerned about a picture on the wall that is just accessible to the elite than what is happening to the planet?

‘I want people to say: I am outraged by this! Why aren’t I outraged by the Amazon being on fire, about things going extinct? About catastrophic floods? About an unlivable planet?’

No planet, no art

Daisy has a point. There’s no point saving art if we can’t save the planet. That action was very divisive. The activists were criticised for being polarising. For taking things too far. But they got media attention all over the world. They pulled media and thus public focus to climate. They made us uncomfortable.

Daisy joined Extinction Rebellion in 2019. She says, ‘I was looking for a revolution and I didn’t know how to make it happen. When I found out there was a group of people who were going to rebel against extinction and collaborate with other groups to work for the planet I was interested. They had a big meeting at the city hall in Lismore, there were about 500 people or more and we practised doing a “dying” and did one at the square. Then the bushfires hit, the air filled with smoke, then we went to Canberra, and did an Extinction Rebellion citizens’ protest and I glued myself to a chair outside Parliament House.’

Daisy says she is not an extremist. She says she is the kind of person who always did what she was told.

‘I was just trying to have a nice life, I love my job and my friends. But now we have to fight for everything we believe in – these are the people we need on this planet – people like those who protested Bentley and

Terania Creek. They just want us to fuck off and be quiet. That’s just not going to happen.’

Daisy, like many of her climate activist friends, is prepared to go to jail for her beliefs.

‘We want people to see that we are regular people; we aren’t wanting to break the law but it’s the only thing that has ever changed anything in history.’

The media love painting climate activists as radicals. But they’re ordinary people: teachers, academics, cafe owners, and nurses. And these are not actions of self-interest. This is public interest. They are raising awareness for generations to come.

‘Australian media painted this picture that if we stop traffic, if we stop oil, gas, and coal we are taking food out of the mouths of their babies. The Murdoch media pushes this,’ said Daisy.

‘I went to Adani [the Adani mine] – there’s not that many jobs – it’s all fucking machines. Where are these jobs they think they are protecting?’

Daisy’s work has been impacted by her climate action and she faced charges for chalking the pavement outside Kevin Hogan’s office. She is currently on a good behaviour bond for blocking roads in Sydney as part of another climate action.

Her conditions are ‘twoyear non-association with the co-accused and a community corrections order which means they can call on you at any time and arrest you at any time.’

Daisy continues to protest. ‘We all know we are facing prison. They pushed those [NSW anti-protest] laws through overnight, those laws are aimed at climate activists. The activists who were violent in anti-vaccination marches didn’t suffer under the same laws, they didn’t get months in jail, they get fined – they didn’t get the nonassociation – we get treated like a violent bikie gang or like we are sex traffickers.’

The bail conditions around non-association are designed

to break them. Many people are removed from friendship and support networks. Others have had to relocate entirely. Some can’t associate with their own husband or wife. It’s cruel. But it’s what government is prepared to do to protect big fossil fuel corporations. Break people to fund profits. The human and environmental cost is climate change.

Daisy is part of Stop Fossil Fuel Subsidies Australia.

‘Fossil fuel companies receive $22k a minute from our taxes in subsidies,’ says Daisy. ‘For that money right now here in Lismore, we could re-house people.’

Daisy is right. When will we wake up and see these laws are there to protect corporations and not us?

When it comes to climate action, a movement of peaceful blockades might just be the catalyst for change. Look at Bentley – people power in action. We don’t have corporate power. We don’t have political will. But we do have bodies. Lots of them. We can gather. We can join together. And we can rise.

Read full article on The Echo online: www.echo.net.au.

Mandy Nolan

‘Nonviolence is an intensely active force when properly understood and used.’

The Rocks Brunch

6.30am–2pm, every day 16 Lawson St, Byron Bay 6685 7663

Menus at therocksbyronbay.com.au @therocksbyronbay

KARKALLA

Byron Bay

Native Indigenous Restaurant  Cnr of Bay Lane & Fletcher St, Byron Bay 5614 8656

Barrio Eatery & Bar

1 Porter Street, North Byron

Mon–Tues: 7am–3pm

Wed–Sat: 7am–10pm www.barriobyronbay.com.au @barriobyronbay 0411 323 165

Supernatural

9 Bay Lane, Byron Bay 0477 629 271

@supernaturalbyronbay

Wahlburgers

Byron Bay

American style burger restaurant & sports bar Upstairs at Mercato on Byron, Jonson Street. www.Wahlburgers.com.au

The Rocks is back in business!

We have a range of freshly sourced dishes, Reverence coffee, and hand-made juices and smoothies at locals prices. Fully licensed, all-day brunch and happy hour from 11am. Check out our new dishes on Instagram!

Food with history, story & connection DINNER, THURSDAY–MONDAY

Early sitting from 5pm | Second sitting from 7.30pm Bookings highly recommended, via our website www.karkalla.com.au | @karkallabyronbay

Barrio brings together the local community in a relaxed environment for all-day dining. The wood-fired oven and open-flame grill is the heart of the restaurant.

Keep an eye on socials for daily specials. Now open for Sunday lunch from 11.30am–3pm

A Slice of Paris in Byron Bay

Come find us down the laneway for delicious share plates, natural wines, cocktails and potions.

Open from 5pm Tuesday to Saturday.

American & local sports played live Family Offer Buy 1 kids meal, get 1 free. $8 after 8 $8 drinks from 8pm Thur–Sun. Live music Fri–Sun. Open 11am to 9pm daily – dine-in or takeaway.

6680 9183 Book online: www.loftbyronbay.com.au

Good Life

It was Saturday night and we hadn’t booked. Despite the full house we were treated like royalty as staff sat us up at the bar. The vibe was jovial – a crowd of mixed ages from three generations in one family, to groups of four and six and some couples.

From the bar we enjoyed a fascinating insight into the focus that makes Pixie Italian what it is – a friendly, intimate restaurant serving breathtaking Italian cuisine. Under normal circumstances the staff would be a credit to the restaurant owners.

In these challenging times the service was particularly impressive – every cocktail was a collaboration, checked by senior staff. Our menu choices were discussed and approved.

The Roasted wattleseed tart (the wattleseed had a coffee flavour), blue swimmer crab, fermented pumpkin was my husband’s favourite dish. And we are not short of crabs in our household, with his family regularly dropping off their catch.

I can still taste the Lobster tortellini, saffron, buttermilk, caviar. Each tortelleno expertly crafted as a biteful.

Created in deference to excecutive chef Matteo Tine’s Roman mother, the ethically raised Stone Axe Wagyu rump cap was paired with globe artichoke alla giudia. This ancient style of cooking artichokes sees them pickled then crumbed in rice flour and fried. It came with a fava bean puree cooked with onion, garlic and lemon

zest and a jus blended with horseradish. It was, really, a sensation.

The meringue was everything I want in a dessert. It was sizeable (perfect to share), gooey with brittle chunks – and there was toffee.

I later spoke with Matteo Tine on the phone. ‘I’m

The stylish interior at Pixie Italian, with its inviting bar for latecomers – if there’s room!

Roast Moreton Bay Bug with oyster, fennel and fiori di zucchini.

Sydney Rock Oysters from Wallis Lakes, best served with a glass (or bottle) of champagne

trying to do a really cool coastal cuisine that pushes the boundaries when it comes to what you would expect from Italian food,’ he said. ‘We have a lot of influences from all over Europe. Plus, I have my own take on things. Everyone is welcome here. I don’t want to be one of those restaurants that is stuffy. You can come in and have a bowl of pasta and a salad. Or you can come in and have the whole shebang’.

Set within the Jonson Lane precinct at the southern end of Jonson Street, Pixie exudes vintage sophistication. Red-trimmed cutlery is a throwback to 1950s picnicware. Sea green

tiles reminded me of early butcher shops. Evening summer light streaming in highlighted the bartop Shogun Lamp and our glassware, which paid homage to 1970s Italy.

We had chosen the most expensive dishes and the bill was $202 for two main courses, one shared entrée, one shared dessert and five individual glasses of wine. We left inspired and will return.

pixiebyronbay.com.au Jonson Lane, 139 Jonson Street Byron Bay

The writers visited anonymously and paid their own way.

Bob used ‘trial and error’ to get his coffee plantation established at Myocum.

Bob’s been saying ‘I’ll give it away soon’ for years now – and yet there he still is. Myocum Coffee has been a stalwart of three local farmers’ markets since their inception: most would be familiar with his set-up, the van and the machine and the solitary taciturn figure doggedly dispensing his very own coffee.

Because – and this is the great thing – the coffee Bob James sells at the markets is that rarity up here, it’s his own beans. Despite the plethora of coffee-growers/ producers in the region, most of them rely on beans grown elsewhere, including overseas, for creating their own blends. No blends in Bob’s coffee: it’s the beans he has grown on his 2000-odd trees at Myocum for nearly thirty years.

In 1994 he acquired some beans and transplanted them to Myocum. ‘No one told me how hard the beans were to pick!’ Or indeed to cultivate. It took Bob six

years before his coffee had any reasonable flavour. ‘It was trial and error’, he tells me. ‘In those days there wasn’t much research. The seasons were better then. Eventually we got going, getting a pick after five years.’ That first ‘pick’ didn’t have a lot of flavour, but by the following year he was up and running, doing everything except the roasting (still done by a woman in Rosebank).

Bob was brought up on a dairy farm at Tyagarah and ‘always had to be up to milk early, before school. There were always bits and pieces to do in the dairy.’ I have this moving vision, as Bob submits patiently to an order for a lukewarm Chai on Soy by a plump spikey-haired woman in a jumpsuit, of a very small Bob milking cows in the dark before heading off to school. Let’s hope he keeps deferring this retirement!

Myocum Coffee can be found at New Brighton on Tuesdays at 8–11am and Mullumbimby on Fridays at 7–11am.

Ink Gin is always enjoyable, and right now I am awaiting the imminent arrival of the new ‘Art Series’ Ink Gin, in its attractive ‘arty’ bottle. In fact, last week I purchased a few different types of tonic water, just to test which one tasted best with the new gin. I’ll let you know once I get my hands on an actual bottle, as my nearby bottleshops were still awaiting stock this week. You can, however, buy it online at www.inkgin.com.

In the meantime, Husk (the people who make Ink Gin in Tumbulgum, along with their range of agricole rums) have released a fizzy

and refreshing Ink Gin and Tonic RTD, with the multiaward winning Ink Gin in a convenient, low-sugar, pre-mixed serve. The Ink Gin people say, ‘The taste is full of vibrant citrus notes complemented by warm native pepper berry and soft butterfly pea blossom paired with a tailor-made tonic. It even has the iconic, all natural, blush pink colour of your regular Ink Gin and Tonic.

Made famous by Margot Robbie in 2017, Ink was also recently featured in George Clooney and Julia Roberts’s film Ticket to Paradise

‘We are incredibly proud

of our gin and wanted to make sure we came up with the best RTD possible,’ says head distiller Quentin Brival.

‘We didn’t rush the process, working for over a year to perfect a recipe which is delicious, easy to drink, bright and clean. We put a healthy dose of gin in every can to create the perfect balance between the botanicals and our tailored tonic.’

Ink Gin & Tonic RTD are available from all BWS & Dan Murphy’s stores and online from www.inkgin. com.

Ah, those words take me back! The scurrying of servants preparing the Christmas feast, the sound of elephants trumpeting the arrival of yet more guests. If only those pesky investors hadn’t started asking Mother for proof she’d actually invested their money…

Those of us who, sadly, have no army of servants on hand over Christmas can outsource everything from fiddly side dishes and desserts to the entire fully catered meal to ‘Dinner is Served’, who make chef-prepared selections of fresh local produce delivered to your door in time for Santa. All you need to do is heat, serve and enjoy. But, better be quick, as orders close at 10pm on Friday 16 December.

dinnerisserved.com.au or see their new cafe at 11/4 Ascot Rd, Ballina

Victoria Cosford

Camilla Reynolds – Mullum Newsagency

Most eco glitters are made from biodegradable plastic and need to get composted. If they reach the ocean, they will not break down for many years, endanger sea life and accumulate toxins.

Mullumbimby’s EcoGlitz® is Australia’s first completely plastic-free glitter. It is an organic cosmetic suitable for everyday use, even on sensitive skin. Easy to apply, it makes no mess and washes off with water. Handcrafted with certified organic Australian plant ingredients and shimmering quartz crystals. If EcoGlitz reaches our precious ocean it is like adding sand.

EcoGlitz enables glitter-loving big and little people alike to sparkle up their lives responsibly!

Stocked in shops selling organic products in Byron Bay, Brunswick Heads, Mullumbimby and at ecoglitz.com.au @dr.ecoglitzs facebook.com/dr.ecoglitz

Don’t let your sunnies go to waste!

Over a billion pairs of sunglasses are thrown away every year, usually because of a simple scratch. The good people at The Sunglass Fix don’t think that’s right.

They believe that we are all ‘what we do’. That ordinary people and small actions can change the world. What they do is fix sunglasses. Custom cutting lenses to order for any style and brand.

They are global leaders in their field.

Pioneers in precision made replacement lenses. With over 250,000 lens options you’re sure to find a pair to revive your favourite sunglasses. Through one small and simple action, you keep your sunnies and lend a helping hand to the planet.

Sunglass Fix. Ordinary local people, doing one thing extraordinarily well.

18 Mogo Place, Billinudgel NSW 2481

Order online at www.sunglassfix.com

It’s time to relax and take a bit of time away from your screens. However, when you’re ready book in for a free technology class with Mark-if you’re over 50. He’ll go through things in an orderly fashion, have a cup of tea with you and keep you safe online.

Max class size three. Bookings essential. Choose your spot: Wednesday and Friday 9:30am–11:00am, Thursday 1:30pm–3:00pm

If you need private tech support or tuition Mark is available for that too. Parking is free, still no potholes. Call Mark on 0431 122 057 or pop in and see him at 1/53 Tamar St, Ballina

He’ll be closed 23 Dec 2022 until Monday 9 Jan 2023 – meanwhile have a wonderful Christmas!

0431 122 057

1/53 Tamar Street, Ballina mygeekmate.com.au

Simon and Michelle are locals of over 25 years and are passionate about community, chemical free living and providing a relaxed and functional space to get clean and be green. Using commercial grade machines saves water and energy, getting your largest loads done with ease and saving you time!

They offer free ECO soap from Simply Clean and encourage people to really pay attention to the hidden toxins in detergent and softener, because when we know better, we DO better. For ourselves and the planet.

The washers and dryers are almost as big as their smiles, so pop in to say “Hi”.

Shop 5/20 Bayshore Drive  – tucked between Munch and Baked @ Byron www.freshlaundrette.com.au

FB: Ocean Shores and Sunrise Fresh Laundrette

If you are motivated to reduce your carbon emissions, where do you find professional guidance and support? Sebastian Crangle is an accredited energy consultant who lives in the Northern Rivers.

Seb can assess your home or business and provide tailored solutions to meet your goals for saving money on energy bills and reducing carbon emissions. He provides a broad range of affordable services, from informal home and business walk-throughs, appliance monitoring, energy data/bill analysis and solar appraisals, through to

Scorecard energy assessments and business energy audits. All result in advice and recommendations tailored to your energy goals and budget.

Seb was the Lead Energy Coach at Enova Energy and is a board member of Zero Emissions Byron.

www.homeenergyadvisor.com.au seb@homeenergyadvisor.com.au

If you need some retail therapy, you can’t go past locally owned Wallace & Co, in the heart of River Street, Ballina!

Offering expert advice and good old-fashioned customer services, they specialise in men’s and ladies’ clothing and footwear. Shop the biggest and most sought-after range of linen and bamboo clothing from Industrie, Kingston Grange, Gazman and Blazer, as well as Birkenstock and Doc Martin shoes and famous Australian brands like Akubra and RM Williams.

Shop their great range now for the perfect Christmas gifts.

Open seven days for your shopping convenience or shop online.

109 River St, Ballina 6686 2081

wallaces.com.au

Study fee free in 2023!

Did you know that Byron Community College has career-changing course offerings that are nationally accredited and funded? Making learning a new trade or upskilling even easier and more accessible for those in the Northern Rivers region looking for a new start!

They have training in Massage Therapy, Permaculture, Horticulture, Individual Support and Community Services. Enrolments are now open for 2023 courses so what are you waiting for!

This training is subsidised by the NSW Government. Fee free and subsidised places are available for most NSW residents.

6684 3374 visit www.byroncollege.org.au / RTO 90013

Wards Landscape Supplies is the Shire’s largest bulk landscaping supplies yard. Not only do they have a huge range of aggregates, roadbase, mulches, soils, composts, organic products, sands and decorative pebbles, they also stock a huge range of leading products including ADBRI and National Masonry pavers, timbers, Wagners and Sunstate cement products, FormBoss and LinkEdge garden edging, DTA and RLA Polymers tiling products, QPro concrete sleepers, pots, statues and much, much more.

They have loads of great Christmas gift options available, including new season pots, plants, gardening tools and much more! Gift vouchers also available.

Open and delivering to the Northern Rivers region 6 days a week. Mon to Fri: 7am–5pm, Sat: 7am–2pm 6684 2323

wardslandscape.com.au

1176 Myocum Road, Mullumbimby

Festive Season

Ninbella

Ninbella Gallery exhibits a fine range of work by First Nations Australian artists alongside paintings by Northern Rivers artists.

Bolt + Buckle

When it comes to buying gifts for the men in your life, you’ve probably uttered the words “men are so hard to buy for”. Well, that problem is solved with Bolt + Buckle in Murwillumbah, they’re the self-proclaimed “men are so hard to buy for” store. A great range of the latest casual men’s fashion from brands like Industrie and Levi’s, and some pop for the festive season from John Lennon shirts will have you covered. Will+Bear hats for up top, and Wild Rhino footwear for down below and your outfit is complete from head to toe.

Add to that an incredible array of gift ideas and leather bags and your men’s Christmas list is complete. Say hi to the team at Commercial Rd Murwillumbah. Cnr Commercial Rd & Proudfoots Lane, Murwillumbah

They represent highly sought-after, award-winning artists and work directly with wholly Aboriginal owned art centres in remote communities such as Ampilatwatja, Yuendumu, Yirrkala and the Tiwi Islands. Collectable Western and Central Desert artists include Willy Tjungarrayi, Makinti Napanangka, Mitjili Napurrula, Naata Nungurrayi and Dorothy Napangardi.

Among their other contemporary Indigenous artists are Kurun Warun, Gloria Gardiner, Ethan-James Kotiau, Gabriella Possum, and Melissa Ladkin.

Local artists Vlad Kolas, Hilary Herrmann, Lae Oldmeadow, Tanith Kershaw, Beryl Miles and Leah Anketell are also represented.

The gallery is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Fair Trade Association and stocks a range of Better World ethical giftware. ninbella.com grant@ninbella.com

19a Byron Street, Bangalow 02 6687 1936

19a Byron Street, Bangalow 02 6687 1936 www.ninbella.com

Festive Season

Pop Up Festive Market Evening

Byron Bay Chocolate Co

The Byron Bay Chocolate Co. was founded in 1985 by husband and wife team David and Carole O’Connor and for more than 30 years their family has poured their hearts and souls into every single chocolate made, using only the highest quality, freshest ingredients. The quality of their product has ensured their longterm success. From humble beginnings, the Chocolate Co. has grown rapidly over the years, enjoying sweet success and a loyal customer base locally and globally. From the very beginning, all chocolates have been, and continue to be, handmade with love at their small family factory in Byron Bay. 'Chocoholics' throughout Australia and all around the world look forward to the next time they can indulge in these delicious sweet treats!

6685 8062 | byronbaychocolateco.com.au | @byronbaychocolateco

This pop-up market will showcase a vibrant collective of unique gifts, art, wellbeing products, jewellery, clothing and ceramics – all in one cozy alleyway market. Drinkies, dumplings, music and hopefully an elf or two!

Stalls include @thestonery – gems and handhammered jewellery, @meld.studio. byronbay – wellbeing products, ceramics and vintage wares, @liveyourloveofficial –luxe body care, @marso_so_art - bespoke hats, @idisdesigns – streetwear, @oceana. pearl – paintings & drawings, @byronbaytraders – arts collective Hosted by Meld Studio & The Drive Thru 17 Banksia Drive Byron A&I estate.

Friday 16 December, 4–8pm Makers & creators, if you'd like to have a table to sell some wares, contact Meld. Email: studio.byronbay@gmail.com Bring your friends along to this one off pre-Xmas market event. Shop local and keep our Byron small business creative community thriving!

Australia’s Finest Chocolate Coated Fruit & Nuts

Festive Season

The Brunswick Heads Record Fair

Matt the Vinyl Junkie is back with another 5-day mega record sale in Brunswick Heads. With close to 30,000 records in stock the Vinyl Junkie fairs are some of the best in Australia, filled with amazing tonnes of wax in every genre. There will be DJs on the decks most days so come and have a listen and have a dig. The fair starts on Wednesday 28 December and runs till Sunday 1 January. Open 10am–6pm every day.

Brunswick Heads Memorial Hall Fingal Street, Brunswick

Byron Bay Camping & Disposals

and your next outdoor adventure.

If you need sleeping bags, tents, work boots, knives, lighting, kitchenware, stoves, mattresses, rainwear, snorkelling and fishing gear – they have it! They are a locally owned and operated family business of over 40 years now located in brand new premises in the Byron Bay Arts and Industry Estate, with plenty of parking available.

Go in and meet the team. Their staff will give you friendly, expert advice, no matter whether your next adventure is a campout, bush school, fishing trip, multi-day hike, or you need Christmas present inspiration.

1/1 Tasman Way, Byron Bay Ph 0439 212 153 www.byron-camping.com.au theteam@byron-camping.com.au

Festive Season

Mullumbimby Newsagency

Mullumbimby Newsagency would like to thank customers who supported their small business throughout the challenges of this last year and to wish everyone a very happy holiday season.

They’re currently taking part in the Mullum Shop Local promo, so don't forget to fill out a coupon when you're shopping in store.

There are plenty of Christmas gifts for all ages in store now. Jenelle, Helen or any of the friendly staff can help you find what you need. It’s your one stop shop for all school needs, with educational and School Zone products, and they also stock a wide range of gifts, cards, toys, trading cards (Pokemon) and puzzles for all ages.

Now accepting Service NSW back to school vouchers. 44 Burringbar St, Mullumbimby PH: (02) 6684 2127

The Book Warehouse

"2022 has truly been a year like no other. After two years of Covid disruptions the flood has taken the devastation and challenge faced by our community to a whole new level. Our Lismore store is open again and despite the current footpath works out the front you can get into the shop! The main reason we continue to survive and prosper is down to you, our wonderful customers. A bookish community is a strong and resilient group and we are so grateful to all who continue to support us through these challenging times. Thank you!

We wish you a joyful Christmas and look forward to your custom in 2021. Sarah Morrow and all the staff of the The Book Warehouse Lismore, Coffs Harbour, Ballina and Grafton."

6686 0917

165 River Street, Ballina 107-109 Keen Street, Lismore www.thebwh.com

Merry Christmas!

Festive Season

Go Vita Byron Bay

Go Vita Byron Bay are back at 2/69 Jonson Street and have loads of wonderful Christmas gift ideas, with beautifully boxed gift sets and Christmas hampers, beauty products and essential stocking fillers. With a great range of health food products they can help you create your own selected Christmas hampers too! Online shopping is also available, with click and collect or delivery options.

Introducing Water by nature.

Go Vita know there is more to water filtration than just purity and the right type of filtered water may promote better health. They have upgraded their Wellness Water system, the world's leading volcanic mineral filtration system, which replicates nature’s own spring water process. Buy a bottle instore or bring your own bottle to the refill station.

2/69 Jonson Street, Byron Bay www.govitabyronbay.com.au

We’re back

Our renovations are almost wrapped up and our brand new store is now open!

We’ve got your Christmas gift ideas wrapped up too!

From beautifully boxed gift sets from some of your favourite brands, to Christmas hampers, to beauty products for him and her and essential stocking fillers. With a great range of health food products like teas, sauces, nuts and other recommendations we can help you create your own selected Christmas hampers too!

Or shop online!

Simply go to www.govitabyronbay.com.au click and collect or have your shopping delivered straight to you.

Meaningful & Mindful Gifts for Everyone

At Linen House’s Mullumbimby store, discover the new brand TEMPL – mindful living products and practices for the body and home.

Create beautiful physical and energetic spaces with objects and tools that help you unwind, relax, and go deeper within.

With the festive season upon us TEMPL has a beautiful selection of products for every person on your gift list this year.

From wild-harvested and sustainable Palo Santo incense sticks to handmade brass incense holders to ceramic essential oil burners, or locally made botanical mists, and rose body oil – the list goes on, and on!

Every product has been designed to bring more presence and harmony into your life.

Visit them at 33 Burringbar Street, Mullumbimby. (02) 4334 4876

New to Linen House Mullumbimby Outlet

Byron Bay

Byron Bay

Festive Season

Byron Twilight Market

Are you looking for a handmade local gift for your loved ones this holiday season? ‘Tis the season for festive shopping and Byron Twilight Market on Friday 23 December is the place to head for all kinds of Christmas goodies.

This vibrant night market right in the heart of Byron Bay is perfectly timed to sort out late Christmas gifts, or just treat yourself to a bit of festive cheer. Come and support local with unique products that are made, grown and baked by Byron artisans.

This special Twilight Market, usually held every Saturday over summer, is being held on Friday to eat, drink, shop and be merry.

Grab some festive nibbles, browse the artisan stalls for local gifts and stocking fillers, and enjoy live music.

Railway Park, 4pm–9pm www.byronmarkets.com.au

Mullumbimby Ex-Services Club

Christmas raffles are in full swing. Wednesday 14 and Friday 16 December will be the hammiest ham raffle ever with 100 hams on the Wednesday and 50 hams on the Friday. Tickets will sell from 5:30pm, drawn at 7pm. And don’t forget the random members draw between 6 and 8pm.

The club is planning one hell of a party for the annual local community Christmas get together, Saturday 17 December kicking off at 8pm, featuring local north coast band Reloader belting out classic rock covers. Come join the party!

New Year’s Eve presents a double header: Shybaby with special guests Them Culprits. Two free bands on one night. Them Culprits kick off at 7.30pm with Shybaby seeing the new year in. 58 Dalley St, Mullumbimby Ph: 02 6684 2533

23:22

1.70

1.12

0.60

Festive Season

men,s underwear

Reer Endz, underwear makers of eco-friendly men’s underwear crafted from GOTScertified organic cotton, are based in Lennox Head. They are an underwear label that cares about you and the planet. Their goals are simple. They want to eliminate waste, conserve energy and water, avoid chemicals, and wear organic cotton as much as they possibly can.

Organic cotton is a natural, biodegradable and renewable resource. Organic cotton is grown without the use of harsh chemicals and requires less water than conventional cotton.

The Reer Endz team are committed to making the least negative impact on the planet possible, learning more every day, and making as many positive changes as they can along the journey.

#COVERYOURZ www.reerendz.com.au

Holy Joe Coffee

It’s smooth, it’s rich and can be enjoyed over ice on a hot day.

Show your office who’s really the boss with a bottle of Holy Joe.

Organic cold drip coffee, brewed for 12 hours and combined with Australian native functional mushrooms to support your health.

Hot or cold; whether you’re making a latte or espresso martini – give the gift of a perfect coffee.

Find your nearest stockist at www.holyjoecoffee.com Follow @holyjoecoffee on Instagram

Balloon Aloft

Spring into summer with family and friends this season on a special morning adventure! Hot air ballooning is a great way to celebrate the region, drifting aloft with the vast hinterland and treetops below. From above, you will get to see the rolling hills of the Northern Rivers and the first rays of Australia’s sunrise. Enjoy a breakfast after the flight at Three Blue Ducks restaurant, The Farm. www.balloonaloftbyronbay.com

Festive Season

Toyworld

For children, toy stores are magic places. At Toyworld you’ll find everything you need to make your child’s Christmas truly magical, with a huge range of highquality toys that are made to endure, from beautiful rattan dolls’ furniture to organic soft dolls and Jellycat Rabbits in all the colours of the rainbow. Toyworld has all of your favourite brands. It’s hard to go past the range of beautiful wooden infant toys or the extensive range of walkers, ride-ons and scooters to keep kids active.

For the games buff you will find all of your childhood favourites, along with hard-tofind games and quality puzzles for the whole family. For the creative child there are art and craft and science kits to fuel the imagination and teach while they play.

Shop 2, 103 Jonson Street, Byron Bay 6680 8811 64 Woodlark Street, Lismore 6621 3473

Mytoykingdom.com.au

Festive Season

Love Byron Bay

Elevate the joy with the finest selection of divine chocolate this Christmas. When it comes to exploring chocolate varieties suited to connoisseurs, vegans and devotees of cacao this is the place to venture.

For eight years, Byron Bay has been home to this unique little business dedicated to igniting the imagination with exquisite chocolate encounters. Love Byron Bay Creperie & Chocolate Boutique has been voted by chocoholics as their favourite sweet spot for gifts, treats and dessert.

Serving French inspired crepes, (L’Ultime) cakes, pastries and offering artisan collections of divine chocolate, every taste preference, artistic whim and dietary requirement is catered for.

This is Byron Bay’s own chocolate boutique, an essential Festive service! Shop in store or purchase online to have your gifts delivered in time for a Merry Christmas.

love-byronbay.com

2 Lawson St, Byron Bay

Virtual Golf Centre Ballina

Looking to try something new and different in Ballina?

Golf stat

Come along and visit this state-of-the-art-indoor, air-conditioned virtual golf facility, with an amazing atmosphere.

Fully licensed and ready to cater for your next work or family function.

Family friendly.

Great for the seasoned golfer, the beginner, or those just wanting to have some fun with mates.

Come play some of the best golf courses in the world, like St Andrews and Augusta.

Also plenty of virtual golf games for the non-golfers, like putt putt and target golf games.

They welcome you to bring your own clubs. If not, they have clubs for you.

Gift vouchers and lessons available. Open from 10am till 10pm, 7 days a week.

14 Ascot Rd Ballina www.virtualgolfcentre.com.au

Byron Bay Pork & Meats

It’s that very merry time of year again and the butchers at Byron Bay Pork are preparing the finest cuts of Christmas meats and selections for customers. Your local family-owned business in Mullumbimby and in Byron Bay, they source premium quality pork, beef, lamb and goat from their family farms. All meats are antibiotic and hormone free.

They have locally-sourced and smoked leg hams along with free range chickens, ducks and turkeys. Their specialty sausage range includes a gluten-free variety, salami and they stock a range of locally produced smallgoods, sauces, spices and products.

Come in and see the friendly staff, or place an order on the phone, for all your festive season needs.

Open Monday to Saturday.

70 Dalley Street, Mullumbimby or 130 Jonson Street, Byron Bay 6684 2137

The Department of Simple Things

Like clothing and accessories inspired by vintage workwear, military surplus and sportswear? Visit them in store to see an eclectic collection of skateboards, hot sauces, books, eskies, clothes, and even a barbershop.

Their clothing is made with premium fabrics, such as organic cotton, sustainable hemp and linen. The Mr Simple collection focuses on cut, fabric and quality. Logos and branding are kept to a minimum so your personal style can say it all.

Get Up To 80% Off Storewide* in Mr Simple’s Mega Warehouse Sale from 15th to 18th December.

The Habitat Byron Bay Suites 39-41, Building C3

248 Bayshore Drive, Byron Bay

Call to book a haircut: 8215 0723

Mon - Fri: 8:30am - 4:00pm

Sat: 9:00am – 4:00pm

Sun: 10:00am – 2:00pm

OUS E S ALE

Festive Season

business to No Bones in Byron, which opened its doors in April 2018 with a mission to change the way people think about vegan food. Now after the past few years, they want to do better for our community and planet. Their goals are to become 100% carbon neutral across their businesses and to make sure they’re using as much Australian made/grown produce and products as they can, to reduce their environmental impact.

As you may know, a plant based diet goes a long way towards fighting climate change and every meal counts.

Ocean Shores is open Tuesday – Sunday.

Lunch 12–4pm Dinner from 5pm Join them on their expedition to save the Earth one brussel sprout at time. #brusselsnotbeef noboneslittle.com 82 Rajah Road, Ocean Shores 0422 355 928

Byron Community College

Easily start a new career that will change your life and those that you work with, forever!

2023 enrolments are now open for the CHC33015 - Certificate III in Individual Support course, a nationally recognised qualification where you’ll develop invaluable skills offering physical and emotional support as a Disability Support Worker. Empower individuals in community facilities, private homes or residential accommodation with independence, social inclusion and quality of life. Certificate courses are also available in other life-changing and fulfilling industries such as Massage Therapy, Community Services, Horticulture and Permaculture. Fee free and subsidised places are available if eligible. This training is subsidised by the NSW Government.

For more information visit www.byroncollege.org.au or call 6684 3374. RTO No:90013.

Dispensing musical medicine

Son of Drum is a candy store for adults – alive with the sounds of musical instruments you can try out and taste with your ears! They have musical instruments and accessories for all ages and skill levels and to suit any budget. Their range is constantly evolving and improving, so it’s worth swinging by regularly to keep up to date with what’s new. They also carry out instrument repairs and arrange tuition. They pride themselves on their helpful and intimate local knowledge. Oh yeah, and their prices are pretty competitive too! Drop in and see what they can do for you before you buy anywhere else, including online. You may be pleasantly surprised! They’re fully stocked for Xmas. Shop 1 / 31 Burringbar St, Mullumbimby 6684 1742 www.sonofdrum.com.au

No Bones Little in Ocean Shores is the sister

Festive Season

Byron’s Santa on the Beach

Good vibes and fun times are guaranteed with Santa on the Beach.

Santa is landing his sleigh on all your favourite north coast beaches this year to create stunning Christmas photos you will cherish forever. These awesome photos never fail to impress, as kids young and old can hang loose with Santa on his surfboard.

Don’t miss your chance to create one of these Christmas photos celebrating beachlife in Byron Bay, Brunswick Heads, Pottsville, and Cabarita. Bring your grand folks and fur babies!

Santa on the Beach is pet friendly and professionally photographed. A variety of packages are available to cater for all Christmas photo needs including large groups and extended families and private bookings. Make Byron Beach Santa your new Christmas tradition Bookings essential.

ByronBeachSanta.com

Di Vino

Di Vino has been a staple in Byron Bay since 2019. Locally owned and operated, they deliver an authentic Italian experience in the middle of Byron.

Head Chef/Owner Lucio Grassi, who hails from Napoli, brings the Italian fire mixed with the Northern Rivers produce, which truly is a recipe for la dolce vita. Not only known for their delicious food, they pride themselves on looking after each and every customer, guiding you through the night to ensure the perfect amount of attention.

They are proud to support local sports groups, not-for-profits and fundraising events. Get in touch www.divinobyron.com (02) 66 808 424  hello@divinobyron.com

Festive Season

The Oracle

Ever since I can remember, I have been able to see, sense and know energy. At 15 I was reading Tarot professionally and even now my passion for it has not dimmed.

I absolutely love it.

I love the interaction with the client, the way the patterns inform and impart wisdom.

I love to witness the confusion or cloud people come in with dissipate and defuse over the session.

I love to see a sense of purpose and direction renewed and inspiration ignited from within.

If it presents, I will also remove any blocks, patterns or bad juju in the way of the positive outcomes that appear as potentials in the reading coming to fruition.

– Vicki Veranese

Gift Vouchers Available www.i-of-ra.com/readings Text: 0412 400 085

Ocean Shores Happy Herb Shop

"It’s the festive season again at Ocean Shores Happy Herb Shop and we are overflowing with an abundance of stock for your gifting needs. What a year it has been, and it has been an honour and a pleasure to have served our wonderful community throughout, with the deepest appreciation and gratitude from the team here for your support, suggestions and loyal custom," they say.

Besides offering a wide range of natural herbal products to support optimal health, vitality and wellbeing physically, mentally and spiritually, they also have a wonderful and eclectic collection of gifting ideas – natural incenses, intriguing books, tarot/oracle cards, clothes, jewellery, natural perfumes and body oils, children’s toys and delights from their felted fantasyland, ceremonial tools, singing bowls, musical, fire and circus gear. Come explore!

Ocean Village Centre Rajah Rd, Ocean Shores 0468 853 774

20% off remedial massage at

BOMI this summer

BOMI (short for Body & Mind) is a community health hub of practitioners, health ambassadors, athletes and leaders who believe our whole lives matter. Their service list continues to expand, currently offering specialised services in the realms of osteopathy, massage therapy, exercise physiology, dietetics, and pilates. As a local business they want to treat the community this Christmas with a duo of special offers. If you purchase two gift cards you’ll be able to get 20% off any remedial massage with Annabel, Chiara & Mercedes – think $120 for 60 minutes, $135 for 75 minutes, and $160 for 90 minutes. Plus they’ve just welcomed Pilates into their list of services, with some special introductory rates available in celebration.

Reach out today via www.bomi.com.au, 0449 254 140, info@bomi.com.au

Festive Season

The Anglican Parish of Byron

The Anglican Parish of Byron is excited to offer worship in each of their five churches at a variety of times this Christmas. After so many challenges it will be good to gather as community together. For the third year, three of their church buildings, All Souls Bangalow, St Martin’s Mullumbimby and St Paul’s Byron Bay will be lit with the message of Hope, Peace and Love. The uplighting began as an encouragement to our communities during times of lockdown. The positive response has encouraged them to continue again this year.

‘However we choose to form community, our prayer is that we are able to share a sense of hope which fosters peace and love for all. With every blessing, Byron Anglicans.’

The Cork Shop

Cork is harvested from the bark of the cork oak tree. It is 100 per cent natural, sustainable, recyclable, durable and waterproof. Cork is also hypoallergenic, microbial and is not prone to stretches or tears. It is an amazing, organic raw material.

Cork is also very soft, smooth, flexible, and incredibly lightweight, which makes it comfortable to wear. Cork is a great vegan alternative to leather. The cork oak tree is unique in that its thick bark can be harvested every nine years or so, and cork oak trees can live up to 250 years.

Cork is used to make many beautiful items such as handbags, shoes, wallets, jewellery, sunglasses, homewares, toys and more. Choosing cork is great for our environment.

thecorkshop.com.au

Byron Arcade, 13 Lawson Street, Byron Bay 0422 262 675

Anglican Parish of Byron CHRISTMAS SERVICE TIMES

23 December Friday

6pm St Thomas’ Brunswick Heads

Holy Communion, Christmas Eve Worship a day early.

Family worship and Holy Communion 21 Fingal St, Brunswick Heads

6pm St Columba Ewingsdale

Holy Communion, Christmas Eve Worship a day early.

Family worship and Holy Communion William Flick Lane, Ewingsdale

24 December Saturday

Christmas

Eve

6pm St Paul’s Byron Bay

Family Worship, Holy Communion 14 Kingsley St, Byron Bay

6pm All Souls Bangalow

Family Worship and Holy Communion

1 Ashton Street, Bangalow

8.30pm St Martin’s Mullumbimby

Family Worship, Holy Communion 38 Stuart Street Mullumbimby

byronanglicans.org.au 66 843 552

25 December Sunday

Christmas Day

7.30am St Thomas’ Brunswick Heads – Holy Communion

21 Fingal St, Brunswick Heads

9am All Souls Bangalow –-Holy Communion

1 Ashton Street, Bangalow

9am St Martin’s Mullumbimby - Holy Communion 38 Stuart St, Mullumbimby

9am St Paul’s Byron Bay - Holy Communion u 14 Kingsley St, Byron Bay

Editorial/gigs: gigs@echo.net.au

Copy deadline: 5pm each Friday

Advertising: adcopy@echo.net.au

P: 02 6684 1777

W: echo.net.au/entertainment

BURN BYRON BURN

It’s about to get dusty, as a night of radical selfexpression, set against a backdrop of Burner-style entertainment comes to Byron Bay.

The Portal, presented by Flow Music and Burn Byron, was born out of a need to connect with the Nevada-based gathering in a time of great world angst. Co-creator Effi Shwintarsky said he wanted to create an event that embodied the magic of the Burn for the local community – music, exotica, dance, wonder and mayhem.

Shwintarsky says, ‘in the midst of everything that was happening in the world, and a fear that we may never get to experience such an event again, I was determined to get together the musicians, magic and design of the Burn

to give to my community a taste of that freedom’. Guests can expect to have all their senses awoken, with an expertly curated night of music, featuring the likes of German heavyweight Dave Dinger, intersected with three mind-bending performances from the likes of Burner alumni such as Zoe L’amore, and Stella Kinesis

Also appearing are Chayne Hultgren – The Space Cowboy – who is not only MCing the event, but also creating a one-off show about our liberty just for The Portal: Friday, 30 December at 7.33pm.

Tickets are available now at byron.sales.ticketsearch. com/sales/salesevent/92684, so get your outfit, bike and goggles at the ready!

LIL NAS X TO RING IN THE NEW YEAR AT FALLS BYRON

Falls Festival Byron have released set times – and the genre-smashing, culture shifting Lil Nas X will bring in the new year from the main stage.

Lil Nas X is a rapper, singer, songwriter, and media personality who gained his fame in 2019 with the release of his country rap single, Old Town Road. He was the most-nominated male artist at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards where he won awards for Best Music Video and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Old Town Road earned him two MTV Video Music Awards, including Song of the Year and the American Music Award for Favourite Rap/Hip Hop Song. He is also the first openly LGBTQ Black artist to win a Country Music Association award. British superstar band, The Arctic Monkeys, will close up the festival from the main stage on 2 January. The dress up theme for New Year’s Eve is ‘Falls Formal’ so don your schmick suits and tasteful taffeta to join Lil Nas X for a massive midnight countdown.

Find all your ticket and artists info for Falls at: fallsfestival.com.

Upcoming Events

Last chance for a crack at the Mac!

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DAVE DINGERLIL NAS X

CAPTURING NATURE

The Tweed Regional Museum’s exhibition Capturing Nature: Early photographs at the Australian Museum 1857–1893 travels back to a time when photography was revolutionising science, art and society.

These images, reproduced from the Australian Museum’s collection of glass plate negatives from 1857 to 1893, are some of Australia’s earliest natural history photographs. They tell the story of pioneering natural history and science research, as well as the advent of photography in Australia.

Capturing Nature brings to life a fascinating array of early images and reveals the 19th century Victorian obsession with classification, and a deep enthusiasm for all things in the natural world.

The exhibition also features natural history specimens from Tweed Regional Museum’s collection, alongside a special installation of giant diprotodon puppets created by Dead Puppet Society.

On exhibition at the Tweed Regional Museum Murwillumbah until 18 February 2023. Find out more: museum.tweed.nsw.gov.au.

CONNECT WITH YOUR TRIBE

Summer Wiggle – Solstice Tribe Connect is happening on Saturday, from 6pm till midnight at the Durrumbul Hall, with DJs: Jason Lewis, Ria, Halo, Camila Rosa and Kayo Alves, Pob and Nick Taylor

The Summer Wiggle event will be an epic AV wonderland woven in with next level sound, lights and visuals by Crystal Grid and Spectacle Art

Feel free to dress fancy, get some face and body paint, check out live art – created by Rady J Blackcrab, try some Yummify food and drinks, hang by the fire, catch up and wiggle with friends.

Limited tickets $45 + bf are available from Humanatix: events.humanitix.com/ summer-wiggle-solstice-tribe-connect.

7 DAYS OF ENTERTAINMENT

IT’S A SHOWDOWN

Fallen Broken Street, in conjunction with Hometown Artist Management, bring you The End of Year Showdown featuring co-headliners Andy Golledge Band and DJ UONE with support from Luke Morris & The Heavy Hitters, Karl S Williams Band, and Gimmy & The Spring Rollers at The Northern Hotel, Byron Bay.

Andy Golledge Band arrive in Byron Bay on the back of their mirrorball ponies with their debut album Strength of a Queen announced as ABC country album of the week, an ARIA nominee for best country album and best alt country album for the upcoming golden guitar awards at the TCMF 2023.

Andy Golledge is a livewire and a gentle soul trapped in a fisherman’s body. He looks like your old man, back in the day; he sounds like Neil Young but with the energy of Springsteen, and has a vulnerability all of his own. His last gig sold out an extended capacity Eltham Hotel, so you will not be disappointed. Equal billing at the Showdown is Melbourne DJ UONE who brings his Relaxo Rancho desert dwelling electro beats to the home of rock ’n’ roll in Byron Bay. Drawing on Morricone influenced deep house, ’60s psychedelia fused with tribal rhythms, dusty

trooper DJ UONE takes you on your very own spaghetti western journey. UONE will keep your feet moving between the bands and then non-stop from midnight to 2am. Luke Morris has traded in his solo indie folk musings to form Aussicana outfit Luke Morris & The Heavy Hitters; a collaboration with four members from Ocean Alley, who have been holed up in the Byron Bay Hinterland laying down tracks for their debut album Long Desert Highways Karl’s Williams’ music is steeped in the swamp water of the cane country of Northern NSW, the landscape of his childhood. His songs are the distillation of life, love and the human condition; they are timely and deeply rooted in tradition, yet ever conversant with the present.

Also on the bill is Gimmy & The Spring Rollers – Gimmy, a solo female artist, brings a diverse flavour to the table; with notes of folk, indie-rock and sways of garage. With her heavily lyrical songwriting and vibrato vocals, Gimmy delivers a raw authentic sound that captivates crowds with her expressive stage performance.

A showdown to remember, get yourself to the Northern on Friday, 23 December from 8pm.

ANDY GOLLEDGE

WEDNESDAY 14

RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, DAN HANNAFORD BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 2.30PM YAZMINDI, 5PM LUKE BENNETT, 9.30PM DJ SOPHDEXX FOXY LUU’S, BYRON BAY, 6.30PM TONY AND THE THIEF

THURSDAY 15

RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, JOCK BARNES

BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 2.30PM NOY BEN AMI, 8.45PM WINTERBOURNE

HOTEL BRUNSWICK 7PM ALLY PALMER

BRUNSWICK HEADS PICTURE HOUSE 7PM CHEEKY CABARET ELTHAM HOTEL 7PM ELTHAM HOUSE BAND

THE QUAD, LISMORE, 3PM VERY MERRY (THURSDAY) MARKETS – FT. NORTHERN RIVERS CONSERVATORIUM MUSIC

FRIDAY 16

RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, PHIL & TILLEY, 8PM SOUL’D

BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 2.30PM YHAN LEAL, 9.30PM DJ GENE ENGLISH

SECRET GARDEN, BYRON BAY, 6PM DIMITRI FROM PARIS

HOTEL BRUNSWICK

7.30PM FRIENDLY ENEMIES

BRUNSWICK HEADS

PICTURE HOUSE 7PM CHEEKY CABARET

WANDANA BREWING CO., MULLUMBIMBY, 4.30PM DJ XUJA

MIDDLE PUB, MULLUMBIMBY, 5PM BALCONY BEATS WITH DJ RIA LISTIC, 8PM KRAPPYOKEE HOOPERS, MULLUMBIMBY, 6PM BEN MITCHELL CLUB LENNOX 7PM MANDY HAWKES

LENNOX HOTEL HOTEL STAGE 8.30PM JORDAN MACBALLINA BALLINARSL BOARDWALK 6.30PM DONNY

CINEMA

& THE THIEF, MANDY HAWKES, HUBCAP STAN & THE SIDEWALK STOMPERS

FOXY LUU’S, BYRON BAY, 5PM MARK CHAPMAN HOTEL BRUNSWICK 4PM THE FERAMONES

BRUNSWICK HEADS PICTURE HOUSE 4PM CHEEKY CABARET

WANDANA BREWING CO., MULLUMBIMBY, 4PM SARAH GRANT MIDDLE PUB, MULLUMBIMBY, 3.30PM OPEN MIC WITH THE SWAMP CATS

MAIN ARM GENERAL STORE 3.30PM IMPERIAL BLUES REVIEW

CLUB LENNOX 3PM JOE CONROY

SHAWS BAY HOTEL, BALLINA, 2PM SABOTAGE UKI MARKET ROSIE MISSCHIEF BAND, LUNASEA & SHADY AND THE FRADY CATS

REGENT CINEMA, MURWILLUMBAH, 3PM SUNSET SESSION WITH M.E.BAIRD

COOLANGATTA HOTEL 5PM THE BILLY GUDGEON BAND

MONDAY 19

RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, ANDY JANS-BROWN BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 2.30PM SHENOA BALLINA RSL LEVEL ONE 11AM MAGIC MANIA

TUESDAY 20

RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, FELICITY LAWLESS

BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 2.30PM ADAM HARPAZ BANGALOW HOTEL 7.30PM BANGALOW BRACKETS OPEN MIC TWIN TOWNS, TWEED HEADS, THE SHOWROOM 11AM DEANA PEHER COOLANGATTA HOTEL 5PM STEVEN MICHAEL

WEDNESDAY 21

RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, OOZ

BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 2.30PM KARUAH FOXY LUU’S, BYRON BAY, 6.30PM TONY AND THE THIEF TREEHOUSE, BYRON BAY, 6.30PM BEN MITCHELL

AVATAR: THE WAY OF THE WATER

It’s been a long wait for Avatar fans and now it’s over with the epic sci-fi follow-up Avatar: The Way of the Water screening in cinemas this week.

The highly anticipated return to the spellbinding world of Pandora is set more than a decade after the events of the first film. The Way of the Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Worthington as Jake Sully, Saldaña as Neytiri and Sigourney Weaver as Kiri, Jake and Neytiri’s adopted teenage daughter), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive

and the tragedies they endure, once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started.

The family must leave their home and explore the regions of Pandora – Jake must fight a difficult war against the humans as he Neytiri and the army of the Na’vi race to protect their planet.

As the title would suggest, there is a lot of underwater action, and most of the cast learned free-diving for the film and filmed scenes underwater.

Avatar: The Way of the Water screens at Palace Cinemas Byron Bay and Ballina Fair Cinemas this week.

~ Audrey Hepburn

Cryptic Clues

ACROSS

A hundred rodents follow a funny dog – and they’re all rolling in it! (10)

Cool music, but rubbish (4)

Shelter is free of moisture, noted Spooner approvingly for Poseidon’s weapon (7)

Give royal titles to Noel and Ben, an innovation (7)

Comes back to harvest fruit (9)

Weariness that’s back around unhappy nun (5)

Monastery chief before… (5)

…attentive assembly – but hesitant (9)

Setter running salad vegetable – or high tech astronautics! (3,6)

Grass around soft line, perhaps (5)

Colonial outsiders set their sights on a mining application (5)

Sorry, no pets etc – ScoMo’s order! (9)

Advertising song that’s part of the American plain! (7)

Second queue, they say – but at east it’s straight! (7)

Journalist with directions for paradise (4)

Idiot, mess around with a specialist –but it’s only an estimate (10)

1, 14 down. Dutton, a royal scion nursing a split lip, is an example of being promoted above his competence (5,9)

Single item with a pitch to Fleming. Who does not believe in the Trinity (9)

Balls to actors – but they do better than expected (14)

Take back about the religious pamphlet (7)

Treachery from crooked senator (7)

Hood for a bird (5)

Prices collapse over the cathedral city – exactly! (9)

Unheard service revealed – could be a result of 1,14! (14)

See 1 down

Demon to wander around the islands – ad lib! (9)

Fish sleepers? (7)

X can be defended (7)

STARS

BY LILITH

As this week digs in, gets intense, then distracted, and you keep plugging away at the never-ending ‘to do’ list – remember to look up...

A Better Way

Last week I shared stories about two women who experienced rape and sexual abuse who found the system so traumatising they couldn’t go through with a court case.

I talked about the need for judicial reform. About the urgency for a legal system that prioritises victim care. That system isn’t a pipe dream. It’s operating successfully in New Zealand. As someone who has been through the NZ courts, Shelley Oldham is a woman who knows this firsthand. She believes that fundamentally how the courts treat victims is not isolated, it is ‘a core reflection of what is important in your society.’

was never a moment of doubt or of not being believed. The accused was arrested within 30 minutes’ of me turning up at the police station.’

Next, Shelley was transported to a forensic facility.

‘In New Zealand these are in concealed locations, I was taken to what looked like a factory, but was a lab. Every step was constructed to support and believe the victim.’

The care continued throughout the reporting process. Shelley remembers the social worker taking her home and spending the night.

‘The next day I was booked to do my evidence statement. Still in a daze, as you so often are after trauma, I stupidly went to work the next day. The police picked me up and took me to another discreet facility. I was there four to five hours where I gave my statement. There were cameras hidden in the walls filming my evidence. The woman I spoke to slowly unpacked everything that happened. Then they took me home and the support worker made me food. That recorded material became my statement in court.’

MANDY NOLAN’S

‘There is a screen up so you can’t see the perpetrator,’ says Shelley.

‘There are no questions allowed about your sex life or character. They are only allowed to question what is in the video statement.’

Shelley’s rapist was convicted and received a long sentence.

One of the common criticisms of reforming our justice system to better protect victims of rape and sexual assault is that it will somehow undermine the presumption of innocence for the alleged perpetrator. As someone who experienced a more compassionate system, Shelley sees it differently.

‘The Australian system and many others are about protecting the integrity of the justice system. The New Zealand system is about protecting the integrity of the victim.’

Shelley was working on an international assignment and was raped on the way to work.

At the time she was a senior executive for an international company that employed 165,000 people. She was one of the top three female senior vice presidents in the company. As Shelley says, ‘I wasn’t a wallflower.’

Rape can happen to any woman. In fact one in five women experience sexual violence, with only 1.5 per cent of assaults ending in conviction.

After her rape Shelley went straight to the Wellington Police Station. ‘The whole way I was thinking “please let there be a woman on the front counter”.’ There was. Things progressed quickly and with enormous care.

‘I said: “I think I have been raped”. In a split second they wrapped me in a wooly blanket, I had a cup of tea, had my back rubbed – there was enormous kindness from two detectives sitting with me taking my statement. Behind me were two other detectives, both in action mode.’

‘As every piece of my statement was delivered they went in and out of the room creating an arrest warrant. There

ARIES: It’s perfectly normal to have doubts, it’s how you deal with them that matters. If this week’s celestial storyboard brings a challenging, yet necessary reality check, your smartest strategy would be to listen more than you talk, and when you do speak, keep it as neutral in tone as possible.

TAURUS: With the unfiltered, outspoken side of Mars up and running, even if you truly believe your constructive feedback’s positive, to someone on the receiving end it can have the unhelpful effect of sounding like you think there’s something wrong with them. Unless asked for your opinion, best not to offer it this week.

GEMINI: With Mars off-course in your sign, Geminis need to conserve their energy and apply it wisely. Use all the activation that’s available to you this week to think, do and say only what’s positive and constructive. If you feel yourself getting amped up, just stop. Breathe. Imagine slowflowing water...

CANCER: During Neptune’s confusing retrograde this year, savvy Cancerians will have done their soulsearching and learned important lessons about themselves. So, what not to do now? Play the victim or throw a pity party. Before the week wraps up, engage in a productive new dynamic by honestly acknowledging your deepest needs.

LEO: Communications may hit some unexpected speed bumps or stubborn standoffs this week, but this isn’t necessarily a negative thing, as it might actually be advantageous to adjust your current course. Just do your best not to put others on the defensive. Or, heaven help us, go on the offensive yourself, majesties.

VIRGO: During late week Virgo moon your perfectionista tendencies could definitely benefit from letting go of unreasonable, consumerdriven expectations and practising gratitude and appreciation for all you have. Because you aren’t what you own or buy: your relationships, and the way you live your life, are what define you.

Over the next two weeks Shelley attended a daily appointment with a government appointed psychologist. The support continued when she returned to Australia with a social worker touching base every few days.

‘It wasn’t a manipulated construct to use in evidence in court’, says Shelley,’ it was a genuine check I was okay.’

As the case unfolded, 13 other women came forward. Some made statements, some continued, and some withdrew.

‘I never once found information that was painful to me in any other way except from the lead detective. Everything was about protecting me.’

When the time came to go to court the level of care continued.

‘When you go to court you don’t go through the front door, you go through the back doors with a social worker. I was assigned a number and only referred to by the number. The only person who knew the number assigned to my name was the detective running the case.’

‘There is a ban on media disclosing who you are. The courtroom is closed for every sexual assault case.’

Instead of having to give her statement in such a highly charged environment, the court is played the video evidence, taken at the time of the reporting. This makes the evidence of the key witness authentic and compelling.

LIBRA: If weekend Libra moon’s mixed messages have you running hot and cold, tugging you in two directions, wondering which to pursue, your cosmic call is balancing your passion and pragmatism, finding that elusive sweet spot between me and we. The rest of this week strongly advises strategic use of your trademark diplomacy.

SCORPIO: With Mars retrograde scrambling signals and mixing messages, savvy Scorpions will check arrangements, reconfirm bookings and leave early when traveling. As this week’s take-charge Saturnian energies make it easier to cut complications and keep things simple, astrological algorithms suggest that intimate celebrations are likely to be the most successful.

SAGITTARIUS: If someone or something shoots an arrow into your Achilles’ heel this week, you may be justifiably fired up, but with rash Mars retrograde it’s advisable to focus on minimising mounting stress. Tune into prudent Saturn, whose job is to remind you to consider possible backlash before you react.

‘You’re not questioning the justice system by putting in frameworks to support the victim. What you’re doing is acknowledging you are not a patriarchal misogynistically-led society, and that what happens to women matters’.

As someone with lived experience of rape and sexual assault, Shelley believes, ‘We all have to stop Brittany Higgins being damned. From the place she worked in, to the way this has played out.’

Rape is traumatic, but it is not being believed that Shelley says causes lasting damage to victims.

‘Not being believed dismisses the greatest experience of violation a person can have.’

Brittany Higgins held a mirror up to the sexual culture and entitlement of parliament house.

‘It frightened the shit out of white Australian men who walk the halls of parliament. They don’t want to get caught. She had the courage to put it on the front page. She is so brave.’

If only we had a system like New Zealand. Then, a young woman like Brittany would have had the support, and potentially the justice, she deserved.

Many thanks to Shelley Oldham for sharing this powerful and important story. When we speak up we challenge the corruptions of institutions that have thrived on our silence.

I can hear the foundations rumbling. The silence has broken. We are telling.

CAPRICORN: Neptune’s retrograde through your communication sector’s ended, and now Mercury in Capricorn brings back the clarity and eloquence you’re accustomed to. While empathy’s easier to access for people who share your views, awareness is still needed this week about what you say, the way you say it and what you post on socials.

AQUARIUS: Tune into deliberate Saturn in your sign this week for guidance to the median strip between forward motion and caution. Also to access downloads about how to pace yourself, how to put the necessary checks and balances into place when you’re tempted to race; and for achieving a better balance between earnings and expenditure.

PISCES: With Neptune’s forward move and alignment with Jupiter in your sign, Piscean powers of discernment return to working order, with your personal operating system getting a reset and your antennae transmitting increased clarity on consensus reality. Just leave room for a little magic… better still, leave a lot.

There was never a moment of doubt or of not being believed. The accused was arrested within 30 minutes of me turning up at the police station.

PROPERTY INSIDER

to Byron Bay

‘My parents set the example and their success inspires me. It is commitment and tenacity which builds a reputation and ensures a happy client,’ says Kim Jones, of Kim Jones. Raised by Di and Bill Jones, in a family well known in the real estate industry, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Kim Jones is happy to be known as ‘a real estate powerhouse’.

Kim grew her own business exponentially, she says, running four offices in Sydney for over three decades and ranking in the top two per cent of highest earning agents nationally, before making a lifestyle change, with her four children, to the Byron Shire. She considers Byron was ‘the perfect choice’ for her family.

Kim always strives to be at the forefront in the industry; as a corporate leader, toptier sales agent and business owner with a wealth of expertise, leading clients to view Kim Jones Property ‘as a leading authority of prestige property in the Byron Shire’.

She thrives on the challenge of ‘doing the extraordinary’ whilst ‘delivering

next level service and results’, saying, ‘Byron Bay is an Australian treasure. To be given the opportunity to sell my clients’ properties is an absolute privilege. We are 100% committed to exceeding our clients’ expectations every time.’

With over $60 million worth of property sold since launching Kim Jones Property, and $80 million in property currently listed, Kim, along with Karin Heller and other team members, continues to grow, with an extension into property management now on the horizon.

As a testament to her record, Kim noted that a number of the most prestigious properties in the Byron Shire are working through her off-market database.

Kim says a factor in her success is ‘an extensive network of clients, both local and international, attracted to exclusive high-end properties’, built from her 30 years in Sydney. In addition, she has the resources of the entire Smile Elite and Sydney Country Living Group, affiliation with Christie’s International, and a nationwide

buyers’ network instantly available. ‘I felt I could make a difference here and connect my Sydney network of buyers to the best place in Australia’, she says. ‘Everyone that moves here wishes they had done it sooner.’

Kim believes in ‘always going the extra mile’ to provide the highest level of customer service with a personal hands-on approach. She firmly believes that, ‘if you want a job done, give it to a busy woman.’ As a busy single mother of four children, Kim believes that she understands what a family needs emotionally, and she is passionate about helping people find their ultimate property

destination.

Property is an exciting and vibrant addition to

real estate in the Byron Bay region; a boutique agency, focused on providing vendors with a six-star level of service and exceptional results.

• Main bedroom features ensuite, walk-in-robe and a private balcony

•

16 Omega Circuit, Brunswick Heads

Price Guide: Contact Agent

8 Sallywattle Drive, Suffolk Park

Online Timed Auction – Starting Bid $2M

•The kitchen features wooden cabinetry, a large island bench and storage

•Featured is a large undercover deck overlooking the inground pool

•There are multiple options for indoor dining with the conservatory offering beautiful views of the surrounds and an additional dining area

•Numerous fruit trees including banana, papaya, mango, avocado and more!

240 The Manse Road, Myocum

Online Timed Auction – Starting Bid $2.2M

17th December 11–11.30am

Myocum

is your opportunity to buy an iconic piece of the Gold Coast. An unrivalled and rare 12,148m2 corner block on Main River boasting 69m of prime water-frontage with a palatial traditional style English home. This unique property not only provides a slice of the ultimate Gold Coast lifestyle, but potential to look to the future with the potential to subdivide the estate into 7 parcels of landSubject to Council Approval. Designed by former architect to the stars, Roger Parkin, it features all

Some things never go out of style – like this blissful beachside sanctuary. Sitting pretty on a level 2.9 acre allotment and a mere 500 metres from the unspoilt sand and surf of South Golden Beach, it’s a heavenly pocket of paradise that restores your senses, soothes your soul and can even offer an enticing income. Featuring a charming primary reside nce with lush grounds, a sparkling pool, outdoor hot and cold shower, and many species of birdlife. It also spoils you with a cosy 3 bed, 2 bath selfcontained studio. Ideal as an Airbnb, it can be used in conjunction with the American-style barn with a wet bar - perfect for parties and functions.

Rural Lifestyle Opportunity on Byron Bay Outskirts

This expansive 111.64-acre* landholding known as ‘Kincora Farm’ is anchored by a large family house and offers an idyllic country lifestyle, with income potential. There are endless vantage points from which to take in inspiring views that extend to the ocean and showcase Lennox Headland in the distance. It is a scenic five-minute* drive into the quaint village of Bangalow, while the tourism hub of Byron Bay and its golden beaches are also close by. The property has the potential for agricultural or tourism ventures and currently runs 35 head of agisted cattle. The main house is built for entertaining and features multiple living spaces as well as a self-contained pool house. Surrounded by tropical gardens extending to grassy paddocks and natural bushland, the acreage has a freshwater spring-fed dam and comes with two all-terrain vehicles.

Lush undulating plains, tropical gardens and kilometres of pristine creek frontage form the basis of an exceptional lifestyle opportunity on this scenic acreage in the Byron Hinterland. Brimming with natural beauty, the 70.4-acre* property known as ‘Akubra’ was once a dairy farm and you can wake to the sound of roosters and chirping birds in the original characterful wood farmhouse. The acreage backs onto a 3.5km* stretch of Byron Creek and is complemented by natural waterholes, which are a perfect setting for a spot of fishing or swimming. Located within a 25-minute* drive of Byron Bay and Ballina, the acreage boasts some of the most picturesque and best fertiliser-free pastureland in the shire and is perfect for farming, agistment or tourism opportunities. It comes with DA approval to build a further large family home (and tourist and visitor accommodation subject to Council approval).

Atlas by LJ Hooker Byron Bay

• 10 Old Bangalow Road, Byron Bay. Sat 9–9.30am

• 61 New City Road, Mullumbimby. Sat 10.30–11am

First National Byron

• 2/24 Paterson Lane, Byron Bay. Thu 10–10.30am

• 1B Chinbible Avenue, Mullumbimby. Fri 10–10.30am

• 32 Argyle Street, Mullumbimby. Sat 9–9.30am

• 10 Tahra Crescent, Ewingsdale. Sat 9–9.30am

• 2/10 Corkwood Crescent, Suffolk Park. Sat 9–9.30am

• 1B Chinbible Avenue, Mullumbimby. Sat 10–10.30am

• 129 Stuart Street, Mullumbimby. Sat 10–10.30am

• 1/9 Sunrise Boulevard, Byron Bay. Sat 10–10.30am

• 42 Brandon Street, Suffolk Park. Sat 10–10.30am

• 6/26 Beech Drive, Suffolk Park. Sat 10–10.30am

• 240 The Manse Road, Myocum. Sat 11–11.30am

• 678 Broken Head Road, Broken Head. Sat 11–11.30am

• 16 Omega Circuit, Brunswick Heads. Sat 11.30am–12pm

• 8 Sallywattle Drive, Suffolk Park. Sat 12–12.30pm

• 12 Brunswick Street, New Brighton. Sat 12.30–1pm

LJ Hooker Brunswick Heads

• 72 Tweed Street, Brunswick Heads. Sat 11am–12pm

Mana Real Estate

• 34 Chevell Place, Smiths Creek. Sat 9–9.30am

• 51 Garden Avenue, Nunderi. Sat 10.15–10.45am

• 10 Flintwood Street, Pottsville. Sat 11.15–11.45am

• 1D Short Street, New Brighton. Sat 12.30–1pm

• 1/3 Haylard Court, Ocean Shores. Sat 1.15–1.45pm

• 4/2 Nunyar Court, Ocean Shoes. Sat 2–2.30pm

McGrath Byron Bay

• 35 Belongil Crescent, Byron Bay. Wed 4.30–5pm

• 5/133–141 Broken Head Road. Thu 4.30–5pm

• 56 Parrot Tree Place, Bangalow. Sat 10–10.30am

• 20 New City Road, Mullumbimby. Sat 10–10.30am

• 43 Main Arm Road, Mullumbimby. Sat 10.45–11.15am

• 5/133–141 Broken Head Road. Sat 11–11.30am

• 35 Belongil Crescent, Byron Bay. Sat 11–11.30am

• 58 Main Arm Road, Mullumbimby. Sat 11.30am–12pm

• 12 Brunswick Terrace, Mullumbimby. Sat 12.15–12.45pm

North Coast Lifestyle Properties

Mullumbimby

• 1/99 Moon Street, Ballina. Sat. 9.30–10.15am

• 6/2 Condon Drive, East Ballina. Sat 1–1.45pm

• 1/3 Boondoon Cres, Ocean Shores. Sat 11.30am–12.15pm

North Coast Lifestyle Properties

Brunswick

• 1 Mullumbimbi Street, Brunswick Heads. 10–10.30am

• 19 Grevillea Avenue, Mullumbimby. Sat 10–10.45am

•  6 Coonawarra Crt, Ocean Shores. Sat 11–11.30am

• 17 Robin Street, South Golden Beach. Sat 11–11.45am

Ray White Byron Bay

• 8/1 Wollumbin Street, Byron Bay Fri 3.30–4pm

• 5/18 Mahogany Drive, Byron Bay. Sat 9–9.30am

• 12 Old Bangalow Road, Byron Bay. Sat 10–10.30am

• 126a Stuart Street, Mullumbimby. Sat 11–11.30am

• 13/46 Old Bangalow Road, Byron Bay. Sat 11–11.30am

• 56/11–19 Cooper Street, Byron Bay. Sat 12–12.30pm

Real Estate of Distinction

• 454 Crabbes Creek Road, Crabbes Creek. Sat 10–10.45am

• 35–37 Edwards Lane, Kynnumboon. Sat 12.30–1.15pm

Ruth Russell Realty

• 54 Main Arm Road, Mullumbimby. Sat 11–11.45am

• 76 Orana Road, Ocean Shores. Sat 12.30–1pm

New Listings

North Coast Lifestyle Properties Mullumbimby

• 6/2 Condon Drive, East Ballina

• 15 Clifford Street, South Golden Beach

• Site 4/153 Huonbrook Road, Huonbrook

• 896 Main Arm Road, Main Arm

• 78–82 Burringbar Street, Mullumbimby

North Coast Lifestyle Properties Brunswick

• Site 82/2 Tweed Street, Brunswick Heads

• 3 Paldi Court, Ocean Shores

• 11 Coral Court, Brunswick Heads

• 172 Orana Road, Ocean Shores. Land

• 10 Strand Avenue, New Brighton

• 70 Helen Street, South Golden Beach

Auction

Ray White Byron Bay

• 8/1 Wollumbin Street, Byron Bay. Friday 16 December, 4pm

DISCLAIMER

Advertisements placed in The Byron Shire Echo do not reflect the views or opinions of the editorial staff.

The Byron Shire Echo does not make any representations as to the accuracy or suitability of any content or information contained in advertising material nor does publication constitute in any way an endorsement by The Byron Shire Echo of the content or representations contained therein.

The Byron Shire Echo does not accept any liability for the representations or promises made in paid advertisements or for any loss or damage arising from reliance on such content, representations or promises.

Wednesday and will have delivered all the papers by 6pm Wednesday. Suit mature or stable person. Commencing asap. Email simon@echo.net.au or phone/text 0409324724

1st SAT Brunswick Heads 0406 724 323

1st SUN Byron Bay 6685 6807

1st SUN Lismore Car Boot 6628 7333

2nd SAT Flea Market, Bangalow 0490 335 498

2nd SAT Woodburn 0439 489 631

2nd SAT Tabulam Hall 0490 329 159

2nd SUN The Channon 6688 6433

2nd SUN Lennox Head 6685 6807

2nd SUN Chillingham 0428 793 141

2nd SUN Coolangatta

3rd SAT Mullumbimby 6684 3370

3rd SAT Murwillumbah 0413 804 024

3rd SAT Salt Village Market, Casuarina

3rd SUN Federal 0433 002 757

3rd SUN Uki 0487 329 150

3rd SUN Lismore Car Boot 6628 7333

3rd SUN Ballina 0422 094 338

4th SAT Evans Head 0439 489 631

4th SAT Wilsons Creek 6684 0299

4th SAT Kyogle Bazaar kyoglebazaar.com.au

4th SUN Bangalow 6687 1911

4th

5th

FARMERS/WEEKLY

Each TUE New Brighton 0424 168 672

Each TUE Organic Lismore 6628 1084

Each WED 7-11am M’bah 6684 7834

Each WED 3-6pm Nimbin 0475 135 764

Each WED 4-7pm Newrybar Hall

Each THU 8-11am Byron 6687 1137

Each THU 2.30-6.30pm Lismore 0450 688 900

Each FRI 7-11am Mullum 0424 168 672

Each SAT 8-11am Bangalow 6687 1137

Each SAT 8-11am Duranbah Rd (Tropical Fruit World)

Each SAT 8am-1pm Uki 6679 5530

Each SAT 8.30-11am Lismore

Each SAT 8.30-12am Blue Knob

Each SUN 7-11am Ballina 0493 102 137

BIRTHDAYS

FUNERAL NOTICES

SIGLEY Stanley ‘Stan’

Ingva

is

Happy 12th Birthday Sol

y B

Passed away peacefully at Honey Bee Homes, Coorabell. Much loved husband of Elizabeth (dec). Loved father of Bernice, Sharon, Vivienne, Ross and Gavin. Loved by his 11 grand children, and 6 great grandchildren. Stan will be sadly missed by all family and friends.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend a funeral service to be held at the Uniting Church, Dalley Street, Mullumbimby on WEDNESDAY (21st December, 2022) commencing at 10.00am followed by burial at Mullumbimby Lawn Cemetery.

Michael Currie at BRUNSWICK VALLEY FUNERALS 6684 6232

WATSON, Edward Vincent ‘Ted’

Passed away peacefully at John Flynn Hospital. Much loved husband of Florence (dec). Loved father and father-in-law of Terry & Fiona, Jenny & Michael, Michael & Rachael and Alison & Shane. Loved by his grandchildren Aiden, Damian, Declan, Caleb, Harrison and his great grandchildren Logan, Angus, Ivy and Hunter.

“So dearly loved, so sadly missed” Ted, a World War 2 RAAF Veteran will be sadly missed by his family, friends and veterans.

Aged 97 years

DAWKINS

Grant John

Late of Rathmines, formerly of Byron Bay. 4 December 2022

Aged 63 years.

Family and Friends are advised that according to Grant’s wishes a private cremation has taken place. A memorial gathering will be held at a later date.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend a funeral service to be held at St Martins Anglican Church, Mullumbimby on TUESDAY (December 20, 2022) commencing at 11.00am followed by burial at the Mullumbimby Cemetery.

Michael Currie at BRUNSWICK VALLEY FUNERALS 6684 6232

desexed female English Staffy x Ridgeback ‘Nala’ is looking for a forever

loving, playful, big-beautiful-eyed Nala needs patience & stability due to past trauma and resulting mistrust. She’s good with children, cats and cows. She gets very excited around other big dogs and suffers fear aggression.

NAL A NALA

14W 5:41 19:3810:32 0040 1.00 1311 1.51 0609 0.49 1957 0.47

15TH 5:42 19:39 0:12 11:27 0137 1.00 1356 1.45 0704 0.55 2045 0.46

16F 5:42 19:39 0:42 12:21 0245 1.02 1445 1.39 0809 0.61 2136 0.44 17SA 5:43 19:40 1:10 13:16 0358 1.10 1541 1.34 0922 0.64 2224 0.39

18SU 5:43 19:41 1:39 14:13 0500 1.21 1638 1.31 1036 0.63 2310 0.33

19M 5:43 19:41 2:09 15:12 0555 1.35 1736 1.28 1145 0.58 2353 0.27

20TU 5:44 19:42 2:42 16:15 0645 1.50 1832 1.25 1251 0.51

21W 5:44 19:42 3:21 17:23 0734 1.65 1928 1.23 0036 0.21 1351 0.42

22TH 5:45 19:43 4:06 18:34 0823 1.78 2022 1.22 0119 0.15 1447 0.33

23 F 5:45 19:43 5:00 19:45 0912 1.88 2115 1.20 0205 0.12 1542 0.26

24SA 5:46 19:44 6:03 20:51 1002 1.94 2208 1.18 0252 0.10 1635 0.22

25SU 5:46 19:44 7:14 21:50 1052 1.96 2300 1.17 0341 0.11 1727 0.20

26M 5:47 19:45 8:27 22:39 1143 1.93 2355 1.16 0432 0.15 1819 0.22

27TU 5:47 19:45 9:38 23:20 1232 1.85 0527 0.22 1910 0.25

28W 5:48 19:45 10:46 23:57 0053 1.16 1322 1.74 0624 0.32 2001 0.29

AMBULANCE,

AMBULANCE Mullumbimby & Byron Bay 131 233

POLICEBrunswick Heads 6685 1277

Mullumbimby 6684 2144 Byron Bay 6685 9499 Bangalow 6687 1404

STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE Storm & tempest damage, flooding 132 500

BRUNSWICK VALLEY RESCUE Primary rescue 6685 1999

BRUNSWICK MARINE RADIO TOWER 6685 0148

BYRON CENTRAL HOSPITAL 6639 9400

BYRON COUNCIL: EMERGENCY AFTER HOURS 6622 7022

NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRE (Mullumbimby) 6684 1286

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 24 hour crisis line 1800 656 463

LIFELINE 131 114

MENSLINE 1300 789 978

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS 24 hours 1800 423 431

AL-ANON Help for family and friends of alcoholics 1300 252 666

NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS Meets daily 6680 7280

NORTHERN RIVERS GAMBLING SERVICE 6687 2520

HIV/AIDS – ACON Confidential testing & information 6622 1555

ANIMAL RESCUE (DOGS & CATS) 6622 1881

NORTHERN RIVERS WILDLIFE CARERS 6628 1866

KOALA HOTLINE 6622 1233

WIRES – NSW Wildlife Information & Rescue Service 6628 1898

Nala needs a loving but firm handler who can provide her with further training and socialisation. Please contact Shell on 0458 461 935.

MC: 991001000924234

Byron Dog Rescue (CAWI)

Lettuce Turnip the Beet on your birthday

Thanks for the laughs... Love the Echo crew

Community at Work

Regular As Clockwork

DEADLINE NOON FRIDAY

Please note that, owing to space restrictions, not all entries may be included each week. Email copy marked ‘Regular As Clockwork’ to editor@echo.net.au.

Mullumbimby District Neighbourhood Centre

Mullumbimby & District Neighbourhood Centre is open Monday–Thursday 9am–4pm and offers a range of services and activities. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy art, music, games, great food and more. Call reception on 6684 1286 and discover what is on offer.

MDNC services that are running include: Community support/emergency relief: Food parcels, meals, assistance with electricity and Telstra bills. Listening Space: free counselling. Staying Home, Leaving Violence program

Integrated Domestic & Family Violence program

Financial Counselling: outreach available Thursdays & Fridays

Financial Counselling: free service funded by the government, offering advocacy & assistance to find options to address debts.

Information, referral and advocacy. To enquire about accessing any of these services call 6684 1286 or fill out an online enquiry form.

Byron Community Centre

Byron Community Centre

The Byron Community Centre provides community services and programs including meals, advocacy and counselling for locals in need. Fletcher Street Cottage: A welcoming, safe and respectful space where people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness can come to get practical relief opportunities, find connections and access broader support. Fletcher Street Cottage services are open Monday–Friday. Breakfast: Monday–Friday, 7am–9am. Showers and Laundry: Monday–Friday, 7am–12pm. Office Support: Monday–Friday, 9am - 12pm. Support Appointments: Individual support appointments with community workers or specialist services. For bookings please call 6685 6807. Fletcher Street Cottage, 18 Fletcher St, Byron Bay. More info: www. fletcherstreetcottage.com.au.

Byron Community Cabin: Seniors Computer Club (school term only), 9–11am, Friday, Carlyle Steet. More info: www.byroncentre.com.au Phone: 6685 6807

Low-cost or free food

Food Box Thursdays 9.30–11.30am at Uniting Church, Mullumbimby. You may purchase cheap food, obtain free veges, and enjoy a cuppa. Free Food Relief Bags for anyone doing it tough, every Wednesday 10–12noon at The Hub Ocean Shores, cnr Rajah Rd and Bindaree Way. No ID or Concession Card required. NILs referral service also available. Check Facebook page The Hub Baptist Ocean Shores for details.

Liberation Larder Takeaway lunches and groceries Monday and Thursday 12 till 1pm. Fletcher Street end of the Byron Community Centre.

Respite Service

Byron Shire Respite Service Inc delivers high-quality respite care to a broad range of clients throughout the Byron, Ballina and Lismore shires. Donations welcome: Ph 6685 1921, email fundraiser@byronrespite.com.au, website: www.byronrespite.com.au.

Alateen meeting

Alateen meeting every Thursday at 5–6pm. Do you have a parent, close friend or relative with a drinking problem? Alateen can help. For 8–16-year-olds meet St Cuthbert’s Anglican Church Hall, 13 Powell Street, corner of Florence Street Tweed Heads. Al-Anon family groups for older members at the same time and place. 1300 ALANON 1300 252 666 www. al-anon.org.au

ACA

Adult Children of Alcoholic Parents and/or Dysfunctional Families (ACA) help & recovery group meets in Lismore every Friday 10–11.30am, Red Dove Centre, 80 Keen Street. Byron meetings are on Tuesdays at 7pm via Zoom – meeting ID 554 974 582 password byronbay.

Drug support groups

Call Alcoholics Anonymous 1800 423 431 or 0401 945 671 – 30 meetings a week in the Shire – www.aa.org.au. Are you experiencing difficulties and challenges because of the alcohol or drug use of someone close to you? Learn coping skills and gain support from others. Narcotics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem. We are recovering addicts who meet regularly to help each other stay clean. For information and meetings call 1300 652 820 or text your postcode to 0488 811 247. www. na.org.au. Are you concerned about somebody else’s drinking? Al-Anon Family Groups meetings held Fridays at 2pm by Zoom. 1300 252666 www. al-anon.org.au.

Support after suicide

StandBy provides support to people who have lost someone to suicide. They provide free face-to-face and telephone support and are accessible 24/7. Follow-up contact is available for up to one year. Find out more at: www.standbysupport.com.au or call 13 11 14. If you, or someone you are with, are in need of immediate support please call an ambulance or police on 000.

Carers’ support

Mullumbimby Mental Health Carers’ Support Group for family members and friends who have a loved one with a mental health issue. Meeting on 4th Thursday of each month 9.30am at the Mullumbimby Neighbourhood Centre. Info: Susanne 0428 716 431.

Rainbow Dragons

Rainbow Dragons Abreast (RDA) welcomes breast cancer survivors for a paddle at Lake Ainsworth, Lennox Head (and sometimes at Ballina) on Sundays 7.30am for 8am start. Contact Marian 6688 4058, mazzerati2010@gmail.com.

Language exchange

Byron language exchange club runs every 2nd last Friday of the month from 6pm (alternating Ballina/ Byron). Practise other languages or help someone with your English! Find us on Facebook. Contact byronbaylanguages@gmail.com.

Brunswick Valley Historical Society Inc

The Museum is on the corner of Myocum and Stuart Sts Mullumbimby, open Tuesdays and Fridays 10am–12pm and market Saturdays 9am–1pm. Discover your local history, join our team – 6684 4367.

Library fun

Baby Bounce and Storytime for toddlers and pre-school children are at: Brunswick Heads Library, Monday – Story Time 10.30 till 11.30am; Friday – Baby Time 10.30 till 11am. Mullumbimby Library, Monday – Story Time 10–11am; Tuesday – Baby Time 10–10.30 am. Byron Bay Library, Tuesday – Story Time 10:3–11:30am; Wednesday – Baby Time 10.30 till 11am

Exercise for older adults

Classes run by a qualified instructor, that feel more like fun than exercise, are held every Thursday at 10.15am in the Brunswick Memorial Hall. Cost $10. All welcome. Just show up or if you have any questions please contact Di on 0427 026 935.

Toastmasters

Byron Cavanbah Toastmasters meetings coaching in communication and self-development run on 1st and 3rd Mondays, 6.15 for 6.30pm at Byron Bay Services Club, Byron Bay. Online attendance allowed. Mullum Magic Toastmasters: Mullum Magic provides a safe and fun environment for members and guests to develop their public-speaking and leadership skills. Meeting 6.30–8.30pm every second and fourth Thursday of the month at the Mullum Ex-Services Club. New members and guests welcome. Contact Bruce 0418 515 991 or Ninian 0411 629 982.

Meditation

Dzogchen meditation and study group 2nd and 4th Saturdays each month at Mullumbimby CWA Hall. Didi 0408 008 769. Buddhist meditation and conversation with John Allan, Mondays 6.30–8.30pm, The Yurt, Temple Byron. No fees. John 0428 991 189. Byron yoga philosophy club free meditation classes Monday, 7pm, 1 Korau Place Suffolk Park. Go to www. wisdom.yoga or phone Kris 0435 300 743. Byron Bay Meditation Centre, Tuesday 6.30pm at Temple Byron. For more info: byronbaymeditationcentre. com.au or contact Greg 0431 747 764.

Story Dogs

Read with Story Dogs at Byron Bay Library every Wednesday 3–5pm. This is a flexible and inclusive reading program that gives readers the chance to practise reading one on one with the Story Dog in a calm and motivating environment. If your child would like to read to our Story Dog regularly or as a one off, come along or book a slot in advance on 6685 8540. Can’t wait for you to meet our Story Dog!

Brunswick Heads CWA

Brunswick Heads CWA Crafty Women meet Fridays 10am–2pm, cnr Park and Booyun Streets, Brunswick Heads. Join us for a chat and cuppa, bring along your craft projects including sewing, knitting, crocheting, or quilting. Beginners welcome. Gold coin donation for morning tea.

Lions Club

Interested in making new friends and helping our community? Lions Club of Brunswick Mullumbimby meets 1st & 3rd Tuesdays at 7pm Ocean Shores Country Club. Info: Joan Towers 0400 484 419.

Byron Gem Club

The Bryon Gem and Lapidary Club is open weekly to members new and old. Visitors welcome to view club facilities. Activities semi-precious and gemstone cutting, shaping and polishing, gem faceting, silver work, gem setting and jewellery making etc. Facebook @ Byron Gem Club. Club workshed located past Sky Dive Byron at Tyagarah Airfield. Contact 6687 1251 or 0427 529 967 for more info.

Craft group

The Uniting Craft & Social Group meets every Monday 9.30am–2.30pm at the Uniting Church in Carlyle Street, Byron Bay. Bring lunch and whatever else you need. Small cost. All welcome. Do you prefer patchwork and quilting? Come along on Monday evening same place at 6pm. Enquiries Tilly 6685 5985.

Op shops

Uniting Church Op Shop, Dalley St, Mullumbimby – open each Saturday 9am–12 noon. Byron Bay Anglican Op Shop opens Tuesday to Saturday 9am–1pm. Volunteers needed. Enq Cathy 0432 606 849. Mullumbimby Anglican Op Shop opens Monday to Friday 9am–4pm, Saturday 9am–12noon. Volunteers needed, enq to shop 6684 4718. Mullumbimby

Seventh-Day Adventist Op Shop opens Tuesday to Friday 11am-3pm. Companion Animals Welfare Inc (CAWI) op shop Brunswick Heads (next to supermarket) open Mon–Fri 10am–5pm, Sat 9am–1pm, Sun closed.

Mullumbimby Potters & Sculptors

Mullumbimby Clayworkers Gallery in the Drill Hall complex is open every Thursday to Saturday 10am–2pm with pottery and sculpture from community members for sale. Applications for studio membership open in January. All details at www. mullumclayworkers.com.

CWA Bangalow

Bangalow CWA has reopened and our hours are Monday–Friday 10am–2pm and Saturdays 8am-12 noon.

Toy Library

The Byron Shire Toy Library is open Mondays and Thursdays 9am–12 noon, at the Children’s Centre, Coogera Cct, Suffolk Park. Come and see the large range of preschoolers toys available for loan.

Landcare

Bangalow Land and Rivercare working bee every Saturday 8.30–10.30am. Email: bangalowlandcare@ gmail.com. Noelene 0431200638.

Bridge club

Brunswick Valley Bridge Club meets every Monday, seated at 12.15 to commence play at 12.30. Visitors welcome. See bridgewebs.com/ brunswickvalley/home.html or for partner ring Lesley 0468 807 306. Facebook Brunswick Valley Bridge Club.

BV scrabble club

Brunswick Valley Scrabble Club will meet each Tuesday afternoon from 1 till 4pm at the Brunswick Bowling Club. New members welcome. Contact Steve on 0407 844 718.

Bosom Buddies

Ballina Bosom Buddies Support Group meets the third Thursday each month 10am–12pm at the Ballina Kentwell Community Centre. Contact Karen 0439 438 576 for further information.

Emerge Australia

Emerge Australia Inc is a not-for-profit charity supporting those with myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. For more information see the Emerge Australia Website at http://emerge.org.au/.

Bruns tennis

Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays 5–7pm. $7, all welcome. Enquiries Linda 0449 825 108. Coaching available.

Bruns Progress

Residents, come and have your say at the Brunswick Heads Progress Association. We meet on the first Monday of every second month at the Brunswick Heads Community Centre at 6pm. Find us on Facebook.

Bruns CWA

Brunswick Heads CWA Crafty Women meets each Friday, 10am to 2pm. All women welcome to come along with craft projects or learn new skills, have a cuppa, biscuit and a chat. Saturday 9 April, Easter Stall: Cakes, jams, handmade clothes, plants and bric-abrac. Cash only. CWA Rooms, crn Park and Booyun Sts, Brunswick Heads.

On The Horizon

DEADLINE NOON FRIDAY

Email copy marked ‘On The Horizon’ to editor@echo.net.au.

Carers Coffee Club

Caring for someone with Dementia? We’d love to see you at our monthly Northern Rivers Carers Coffee Club on the third Wednesday of every month. Our December meeting will take place at 11am on Wednesday, 21 December in Brunswick Heads. Please call or message Emma White on 6685 1629 or email on; emmawhite@byronrespite. com.au. Bring your questions, suggestions and concerns, speak with other carers and meet new friends.

Red Dog:True Blue

Drill Hall Film Society presents a special Christmas screening of Red Dog:True Blue on 17 December at 2pm (doors open 1.30) at Drill Hall Theatre with complimentary bubbles and Christmas fare. Red Dog:True Blue stars Levi Miller as Mick, a young lad who has moved to Karratha cattle station to live with his Grandpa (Bryan Brown) and stumbles upon a puppy who would one day become the legendary Red Dog of the Pilbara. To book please contact drillhallfilms@gmail.com or ring Sonia 6684 2112.

End-of-Life Choices

Voluntary Euthanasia End-of-Life Choices are discussed at Exit International meetings held quarterly. Meetings are held at Robina and Tweed Heads South. Attendees must be Exit Members. Philip Nitschke will hold a workshop early next year on the Gold Coast, to discuss the ‘Voluntary Assisted Dying’ Laws, and how they may affect you, plus other important Information. For further Information www.exitinternational.net or phone Catherine 0435 228 443.

Mullum CWA

The Mullumbimby Branch of CWA is holding its monthly meeting on Wednesday 14 December at 10am at the Mullumbimby CWA Rooms, Cnr Gordon and Tincogan Streets,

Mullumbimby. All welcome. Please contact Jenny: 6684 7282. There will also be a CWA Christmas Stall out the front of the Mullumbimby Woolworths on Saturday 17 December selling handicrafts, baked goods and Christmas treats.

Questacon Byron

Byron Bay Library is hosting ‘Questacon’ in the Library these school holidays! Questacon is Australia’s National Science and Technology Centre, aiming to engage young people with science, technology and innovation. The mission is to motivate young people using STEM to develop attributes, skills and knowledge to thrive in the future. ‘Bytewise’ is the name of the travelling exhibition and will be in Byron Bay Library for six weeks (Dec/Jan). The exhibits are targeted towards students 8–15 years old, but can be enjoyed by all ages.

We invite everyone to explore code breaking and puzzle logic through the 24 exhibits in the Library these school holidays. No bookings required – The exhibits will be in the library until the end of January.

Amitayus Home Hospice

Our trained volunteer carers at Amitayus Home Hospice Service provide practical, compassionate, and quality palliative care to those who wish to die at home. To find out more about this free service, or to train as a volunteer carer, please contact us: 0468 483 857, info@amitayus.org.au, www.amitayus.org.au.

Mullumbimby Library

School holiday activities in Mullumbimby Library will be: Make your own Christmas decorations Thursday 15 and Friday 16 December 3.30–4.30pm. Bookings not required. Decorate a Moroccan-inspired jar Wednesday 21 December 2.30–3.30pm. Ages seven plus. Bookings essential. Phone 6684 2992.

$5 pilates classes

Come and join us for $5 Pilates classes every Thursday at 8.45am in the Memorial Hall, 22 Fingal Street, Brunswick Headsand Monday at 8.45am in Mullumbimby. It doesn’t matter what level you are, as beginner to advanced options are shown. Just bring a mat and water. My goal is to keep the shire active and feeling great one person at a time. No need to book just show up. For more information contact Di on 0427 026 935.

Prostate Cancer Support

We invite men who have had or are newly diagnosed to join this active prostate cancer support group at these meetings held on the third Monday of each month at 10am at Ballina Cherry Street Bowling Club –partners or carers are most welcome to attend – This is a great opportunity to share, learn and benefit from other people’s experiences. Meetings also held on Wednesday nights in Lismore. Enquiries phone Bob 02 6628 1527

Hearing Voices Group

Hearing Voices Peer Support Group in Mullumbimby. Anyone with present or past experience of voice hearing (or visions) is welcome. Offer your experience, gain support, knowledge and explore meaning in a safe accepting space. Every first Friday of the month. Info call 6687 1111.

Up your skills

Come to Upskill in Mullumbimby, a free introductory building and carpentry workshop at Shedding Community Workshop. Bookings Essential via shedding.com.au. Contact Sophie Wilksch via email at shedding.communityworkshop@ gmail.com.

Secondhand books

Friends of Libraries (FOL) Byron Shire, are calling for secondhand books in good condition for the annual Book Fair. The fair will be held in June next year. The FOL book fair has become a major fund raiser for the local shire libraries. All donations from the community are always greatly received and the fair itself is a wonderful place to browse though many hundreds of books looking for hidden gems. For collection information email byronbayfol@gmail.com.

AIRFNCB

The next meeting of the Association of Independent Retirees, Far North Coast Branch (AIRFNCB) will be held on first Friday in February, 2023. All enquiries to John Ritchie, President/Secretary, Far North Coast Branch: 0437 509 618.

End-of-Life Choices

Voluntary Euthanasia End-of-Life Choices are discussed at Exit International meetings held quarterly. Meetings are held at Robina and Tweed Heads South. Attendees must be Exit Members. Philip Nitschke will hold a workshop early next year on the Gold Coast, to discuss the ‘Voluntary Assisted Dying’ laws, and how they may affect you, plus other important Information. For further Information www.exitinternational.net or phone Catherine 0435 228 443.

Falls Festival tickets

Volunteer in exchange for Falls Festival Tickets! Join us at the ‘Taking Care of Bruns During Falls Festival’ project to help mitigate any negative impact of the festival on Brunswick Heads, from Friday 30 December through to Monday 2 January. In return, you’ll receive a three-day Falls Festival ticket. Or, you could volunteer and gift your ticket to a family member or friend. Call Belinda on 0435 228 443.

Play chess

Tireless chess promoter Peter Hanna, who has already started a successful group of players at the Byron Bay Services Club (Saturdays 2.30pm and Mondays 5pm), is now trying his hand in Ballina. The first meeting is due at 5pm on Wednesday 7 December at the Ballina RSL Club. All chess players, beginners or experts, are welcome.

Byron Beez basketballers win

Byron Bay Beez U/18 girls basketball team travelled to Coffs Harbour last weekend, and came away with a silver medal in the Bronwyn Vigors Tournament.

The team was only picked the week before, and this was the first time they played together.

The team took a little while to warm up losing their opening games. Firstly to Lismore, going down narrowly 41–38. Then losing to Coffs Harbour (red) 41–30.

The first win came when they took on Coffs Harbour (black) and triumphed 27–25. They backed this up with a avenging win over Lismore 41–21.

This got them into the final where they had a rematch with Coffs Harbour (black), but they could not back-up their early win and

went down 47–25.

The weekend was great preparation for the upcoming north eastern junior league.

BJJ champion to hold training day in Lismore.

Rekindling The Spirit will present a training session for the Indigenous youth and young people of Lismore

on Saturday 17 December featuring Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion, Thalison Soares.

The venue will be the Success Martial Arts. Contact wsm@rekindlingthespirit.org.au.

Local basketballer ready for top-level challenges

Local basketballer Harley Kent has been selected to represent NSW in the U/20 squad and is keen for the national titles that will be held in February next year.

Harley has played with state squads for the last couple of years, but is yet to win a major medal.

‘We have a pretty good tem this year, hopefully we can win it,’ he said.

Playing with some of the country’s best has helped him a lot, on and off the court.

‘Having experience at the higher levels is the best way to advance your game,’ he said.

Fresh out of high school Harley is adjusting to his new regime that includes playing

regulalrly for his Gold Coast club. He played his junior basketball with local club Byron Beez.

Harley has embarked

on a tour of America with a representative squad to get exposure to college coaches, with an eye to a basketballbased scholarship.

Byron Breakers are on top of the table

Despite strong performances from the locals and other contenders the Byron Bay Tri club has maintained its top place on the North Coast Triathlon League after the second event of the season held in Yamba earlier this month.

The Clarence Valley Stingrays made full use of home ground advantage to take 30 points from the event, but

the Coffs Harbour Rockets also matched this top score.

The Byron Breakers were just two points behind on the day with a score of 28.

They remain at the top of the overall ladder.

Jaime Cascajares shone for the Breakers as he claimed third place overall and first in his age category.

Peter Clarke, Nerida Clarke, Gracie Ritcher and

Jemma wins Lennox Head

Jemma Osmond was crowned Club Champion of the Lennox Longboarders Club at their Christmas presentation day held at the Williams Reserve clubhouse last weekend.

It is the first time a woman has taken out the top award at the club that has been running for 27 years.

‘Totally stoked and a little bit amazed to be awarded Club Champion,’ she said.

Results

Men’s champion: Will Petrieadies; Women’s champion: Jemma Osmond; Men’s second: Gary Alford; Women’s second: Mia

Deb Fuller also topped their age divisions at Yamba.

The Byron Breakers sit on 54 competition points just a breath ahead of the Clarence Valley Stingrays who are on 53.5. The Coffs Harbour Rockets are in third place ahead of the Hat Head Hammerheads, Grafton Bull Sharks, Ballina Seahorses and the Tweed Valley Volcanoes.

longboarding crown

Francis; Men’s encouragement: Gary Crawley; Ladies consistency: Khayla Spence; Men’s consistency (tied):

Tomomi Imoue; Club person of

Supported by Somerville Laundry Lomax

Matt Watts Kilgour, Craig Leete; Club Rookie:

the year: George Leslie.

Last year’s champions came third at the Yamba triathlon, but still lead the competition and could conjure another series win in the North Coast Triathlon League. Photo supplied

2022 Club Champion: Jemma. Photo Lolani Longhurst

Harley on the charge for NSW last year. Photo supplied

The Byron Beez U/18 girls squad after a succesful weekend in Coffs Harbour. Photo supplied

Funny how there appears a direct link between politicians who vote for repressive laws that jail people for activism, and their lack of interest in enacting a bill of human rights. Why is that?

Good to see the Suffolk Park Progress Association recognises that last term’s councillors failed to represent residents during the West Byron ‘locals’ court case (see page 1). The community was well and truly let down by those councillors – many of whom were re-elected. It’s up to the elected body to represent and communicate to the community, not staff. As TV’s Yes Minister’s top bureaucrat, Humphrey Appleby, said, ‘I am neither in favour of nor against anything. I am just a humble vessel into which ministers pour the fruits of their deliberations’.

If you believe www.dailymail. co.uk, (and why would you?), they are reporting a Spitify, oops a Spotify exec has bought a $9.5m house in Byron’s hinterland. That exec can presumably afford that luxury home because Spotify pays artists between $0.003 and $0.005 per online stream on average, according to www.dittomusic.com.

Just a gentle reminder, all of Ghislaine Maxwell’s best customers are still in charge.

Former US spy turned whistleblower, Edward Snowden, highlighted how ‘The EU is trying to outlaw any cash transaction over €10,000.’ Similar attempts are underway here, and so far, have been thankfully strongly resisted.

‘My pronouns are Prosecute/ Fauci’: Tweet by emerald mine beneficiary, Elon Musk, who seems high as a kite.

This is a quote from opposition monster, P Dutton, which clearly contains no sense of self-reflection, given he was in power for a decade: ‘The Government has had six months to develop a response to this [gas] crisis’.

The Australian Citizens Party say that banks have announced the closure of 72 branches in regional Australia in just the last six weeks. They are calling for the accelerated support for a national public post office bank. And because it’s their idea, federal Labor doesn’t seem interested.

Does the police watchdoggie that persecutes police for misconduct want community involvement or not? The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission held a ‘public directions hearing’ in Sydney on Wednesday, December 14 ‘regarding allegations NSW

police officers used excessive force during the apprehension of a young person in northern NSW on September 11, 2022’. The press release was sent Monday, which

isn’t a lot of lead time for the public. And why Sydney?

Psst: Huonbrook Road has re-opened..

Never one to pull his punches, artist Blak Douglas recently enthralled visitors to Byron’s Jefa Gallery where he and the Space Cowboy held a joint exhibition for the Caper Festival. Blak’s work is heavily ironic, usually with a chilling humour. He is considered to be one of Australia’s most thrilling and important Indigenous artists. Photo Jeff Dawson