Raphael Lee Cass, Byron Bay
Around 1769, some people walked on a pristine beach, eating pipis and fish. Years later some people arrived who caught a whale and wanted different food, clearing land for cows and chickens. Nobody protested. They wanted pigs for their bacon and eggs, and a butter factory for their bread, so drained the swamps. The yellow-eyed bunyip perished. Nobody protested.
They needed sugar for their tea so moved inland, bulldozing koala trees, forcing the cockatoos to fly to Sydney to feast on polystyrene cladding. No-one protested.
Four hotels were built so they could have a cold beer after working all day. Nobody protested. Then people arrived from everywhere so locals chopped down a million trees and built houses with large garages for tourists. Nobody protested. Some people wanted to sell hamburgers. Everybody protested. The hamburger people ran away.
The next day, clothing, sandwich, ice-cream, pizza, and yoghurt franchises opened everywhere. Nobody protested. An international hotel complex was proposed for an old caravan park. Everybody protested. An Aussie bought it and built an international hotel complex. Nobody protested.
Shops sprang up selling mined crystals, snake oils in omnivorous flavours, and coffee grown in rainforests. Nobody protested. Soon there were so many cars it was hard to drive to buy beer, crystals, and coffee. Everybody protested. A bypass would solve the problem. Twenty people protested, setting up camp to stop the work.
Tourists tweeted the free camping site and drummed every sunset. The bypass opened on schedule early 2020. Everybody cheered. There were multiple traffic jams the next day. Everybody protested.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
