The last meeting of the Ballina Shire Council saw another rancorous discussion about whether the local community awards ceremony should coincide with Australia Day.

Recognising the work, commitment and value that individuals bring to the community is an important and valuable part of celebrating Australians from all walks of life. 

Hundreds gathered in Brunswick Heads this morning to celebrate Country.

There are a few Australia/Survival Day celebrations in Byron Shire to choose from today starting at 8am in Brunswick Heads.

As 26 January approaches our communities are once more gripped by polarised views of the date.

On 26 January we celebrate 236 years. It’s like celebrating a single grain of sand instead of the entire beach. If we are going to celebrate colonisation we need to face up to the ugly stories of what our ancestors did. Not just about what was stolen, but how. Because some of us are the beneficiaries of what was stolen while others inherit generational trauma.

Nominated for not one but three separate awards in 2024's Ballina Shire Australia Day event is WardellCORE (Community Organised Resilience Effort), which has been instrumental in Wardell's ongoing recovery since the 2022 floods. The Echo caught up with Joel Orchard to find out more.

It was January 26, 2023 and Bulagahn was walking on country…

Peter Dutton's ongoing quest to bring the worst elements of American politics to Australia reached a new low this week with his social media post urging Woolworths to stop 'peddling woke agendas'. This was in response to the supermarket giant saying it would no longer be selling Australia Day merchandise, along with Kmart and Aldi, due to declining sales.

For this year's Australia Day Awards, Ballina Shire Council has received forty nominations across the seven categories of Young Citizen, Senior Citizen, Volunteer, Sporting Achievement, Environmental, Arts and Culture, and Community Event of 2023.