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Byron Shire
March 18, 2024

Car mania clogs Mullumbimby

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More infill, residential and tourist developments on rural blocks, and more housing in Mullumbimby’s proposed southern precinct will increase traffic congestion and reduce the amenity of the town. Photo Aslan Shand

Richard Hil

It was a fatal error – driving half a kilometre into Mullumbimby to pick up a carton of milk. My partner drove while I conducted reconnaissance for that elusive parking spot. 

Jenn: ‘There! – no, no, that’s for disabled’. 

Me: ‘What about there? Look!’. 

Jenn: ‘No, no, that’s for loading’. 

Me: ‘Christ! What about there? Quick! I think that bloke’s trying to muscle in! The f***** – he has!’. 

Jenn: ‘Calm down’.

Me: ‘Don’t tell me to calm down!’. 

And so it went on: round and round the potholed streets of downtown Mullum. Every parking spot was taken. A convoy of frustrated drivers snaked behind us, craning their necks, left and right. ‘Oh, sod it’, I say, ‘let’s just go to Woolies’. 

We sped off in the self-flagellating knowledge that we’d added to the traffic congestion and pollution levels. We also berated ourselves – quite rightly – for not walking into town. Lazy sods! Inexcusable!

The fact is it’s impossible these days to just ‘duck into town’ any old time for a sourdough – at least not by car. It’s chockers during week days, with growing clusters of 4WDs, open top coupes and what look like military Hummers clogging the byways. Cyclists are a rarity as are folk on electric scooters and mopeds. During daylight hours, and sometimes at night, downtown Mullum is as congested as any inner-city suburb. It’s noisy and occasionally dangerous. Drivers seem increasingly ill-tempered. 

Most people complain about this in private. Some old timers bemoan the days when the occasional beaten-up Toyota carrying a Jesus lookalike would trundle down the main street with every prospect of angled parking. These days you need to get up before dawn for such simple pleasures. My mate Gregory tells me that when he used to saunter through Mullum in the early 70s ‘you could fire a missile down the main street and it might hit a couple of parrots’. Nowadays you’d wipe out a fleet of vehicles and umpteen pedestrians. 

But is it really that bad? Well, yes; it really is. Now that Byron has been turned into Santa Monica on steroids, made worse by a so-called ‘bypass’ which is no bypass at all, Mullum and surrounds have become the new epicentres of tourist interest, amply serviced by dozens of cafes, restaurants, and boutique clothing stores. It’s Fitzroy in the bush, the only difference being the fading presence of ‘alternative culture’. The Indigenous presence, although resonant and very much alive, has been visibly overlaid with a faux rainbow agrarianism and legions of superannuated ex-inner-city dwellers in search of nirvana. Those who managed to buy up proprieties twenty years ago are doing just dandy, while the precariat can only stand by and hope (usually in vain) for that ‘affordable’ home. 

Tallowood Ridge and the Tallowood Estate. Image Google Earth.

Meanwhile, the ever-expanding Tallowood estate on the outskirts of Mullum has ensured that its several hundred residents (and rising) are obliged to make their way to town by car. And once there, they’ll likely rub shoulders with countless Airbnb-ers who have driven long distances only to encounter what they experience at home: congestion. 

I first became aware of this self-defeating phenomenon in the pretty but horribly overrun town of Berry, a few hours south of Sydney. This lovely enclave full of dainty weatherboards and prissy cafes festooned with hanging baskets attracts thousands of visitors each year who flock there in search of an aesthetic experience denied to them in city suburbs. 

Here’s an obvious point: why can’t people make the places they live in look just like Berry, then they wouldn’t need to invade such towns? Sadly, Australia’s reputation for drab architecture and ticky-tacky subdivisions that pass for domiciliary bliss means that nice is always somewhere else. Modern housing estates might be called The Haven, Bliss Vale, Oakville, Sunnyside – whatever – but many of these suburban gulags are bereft of any hint of simple beauty. Farmers sell off the land, developers move in, and the rest is history. 

Now I know what you’re thinking: what a snob! Alright for the superannuated self-involved to sound off about suburban aesthetics! And you’d be right, of course. But then again, shouldn’t all people be entitled, not simply to a roof over their heads, but to some sort of spiritual nourishment that comes with places that are pleasing to the eye? Or is that too much to ask? Cars, car parks, and drab housing tend to work against such things. They take rather than give. 

Gold Coast.

What’s worse? Well, you might take a closer look at the Gold Coast where houses have become walled fortresses with their residents invariably hunched over computers or huddled in hermetically sealed media rooms. This is part of the great migration indoors, where relationships are increasingly mediated by screens. Cars are an extension of this atomised culture that gazes at the world through a pixilated prism. Just think how these metallic carriages wreck communities, drive kids off the streets, endanger, and pollute. We let it happen at our peril. Is it happening in Mullum? I reckon. 

Maybe we should be looking at Barcelona where city authorities have managed to reclaim inner urban streets by banning/discouraging cars in favour of cycle-friendly pedestrian areas. In these ‘superblocks’ community life, the social vibe, have returned – gloriously. So, Byron Shire Council, yes to ‘green corridors’ but let’s do something about those metallic, polluting carriages. 


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40 COMMENTS

  1. The words written 45 years ago by Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the The Eagles in “The Last Resort”:
    “They called it paradise, I don’t know why
    “You call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye”

    • We are Nz parents of our daughter and family who live in tallowood mullumbimby. Yes agree about car parks but what astounded us was Byron bay . We have visited and loved it for many years but this time after 3 years due to Covid we found the parking terrible, meters everywhere so we have vowed not to bother to go there again

  2. Richard: “a pixilated prism”? I hope your drunken pixels don’t get a hangover! (pixElated)

    As to parking spaces in Mullum: Our hopelessly air-headed council is about to deprive us of even more parking spaces by “beautifying” Stuart St with plantings, FFS! When Council re-paved the Poinciana carpark a few years back they wasted about eight car spaces by planting trees, which do nothing useful – they’re not shady enough to keep cars cool – and drop leaves into ventilation grilles. Roads and carparks are for vehicles; parks and gardens are for trees. Function before form, please!

    • AIRHEAD COUNCIL is right.
      This AIRHEAD COUNCIL has completely recked, ruined a country friendly town called Mullumbimby.
      It is not a friendly place at all like it was once before.
      We have rude, arrogant people who live here now.
      This place is appauling, so untidy and one hell of an embarrassment

      • Did the ‘Council ” force or encourage these rude & arrogant people to move here … NO.

        So what exactly are you trying to state ?

        Exactly how did your Council achieve this apparent miracle of having ‘recked ‘ and ruined a country friendly town called Mullum ?

  3. Well, well, here we go again.
    Next BSC elections must be held on a platform of managing tourism, Air B&B and traffic in the shire.
    What we have seen in the last 12 months, courtesy of Corona, is a look into the future and it’s not pretty.
    We must have a review of bed tax, public transport (electric busses on popular circular routes) parking stations outside towns for day trippers and a lotto system during school holidays to keep visitor numbers to a sustainable level.
    If those who profit from excessive tourism get a foothold in the shire, kiss goodbye the lifestyle we all once enjoyed.
    Please lobby our State and Federal members about this issue as Council can’t act alone.

  4. I’ve been trying to move to Mullum from Suffolk for MONTHS now so I can go to the School of Art. My issue is my disabilities prevent me from driving so my choices are basically nonexistent. Something seriously needs to change – lock rent prices for 5 years and do proper inspections of all properties renting etc.

    There should also be a locals before city slickers rental policy. How else are we going to be allowed to live where we grew up? Some people don’t have a choice.

    Enough capitalism, time to start advertising Byron (and surroundings) as a burnt out wreck and boot out the parasites making a fast buck.

    I want my community back.

    • A relative of mine owned much of the land where Burrum Heads village is now situated, It was , then ,a large marginal cattle property .

      He developed a few building blocks and couldn’t sell them .

      In desperation . he then devised a ‘negative ‘ sales program which consisted of the Locals ( he and his family ) not wanting blow-ins.

      Then he followed it with the publicity , that the place is full of sand flies and who would want to live there !

      He made a fortune and just kept selling housing blocks from his farm for the rest of his life .

      Nothing can stop people shifting to ‘Paradise ” .

  5. one of those “metallic, polluting carriages” happens to be my home. unless i’m topping up my drinking water supply there is no need to drive into mullum cbd ever.
    many motorists are too selfabsorbed, idling their engine for 5, 10, even 20 minutes, while tickling their device in plush aircon, to consider aesthetics, community, or – shock! – even nature (trees drop leaves! how disgusting!).
    why should this rather ignorant & selfish civilisation, indulging in its species privilege, end up with a kinder fate than the mayas, the roman empire or any other human culture to date?

    • Focusing on decreasing the accessibility of mullum via motor vehicle will only serve to increase congestion, exacerbating the problem. Byron council needs to take a look around and invest in more parking spaces, and better roads, not trees in place of car parks and wasted space.

  6. Mullum is my home town. I was born in 1960 and remember what it use to be like growing up. Yes, parking was never a problem. I learnt to drive in Mullum in 1977, (thanks Dad for teaching me. You taught me well). I now live in Hervey Bay.

    • Was your father Keith who who taught many of us well , not driving but maths and science? Keith Morrow was one of the doxens of well qualifed teachers that made Jack Pearce’s Mullum High special .

  7. Byron Shire Council is to blame. Stop advertising the area to the world. Its to late now, the criminal council that wanted the gold coast to extend to Byron has got there way. The entire Shirley street development and the beach hotel and the development on the shore line has had foundations put in that will take high rise development, it was planned that way decades ago. The criminals are your fraudulent election’s that only allow their people to be elected. The law is the crime. We could have had self sustainable community development decades ago and been the shinning light for the rest of the country. But No, we got shafted by the council. And now we have so many City people that have moved in with there sold out mentality that there is no hope for Mullumbimby or the Byron Shire, you will have to look for a different shire to take up the fight against communism.

      • I don’t know what you mean. Most of the land available in Ballina Shire is full size 800m2+ blocks. Indeed a problem is the small number available for double occupancy and the lack of townhouse development for down-sizers and others not looking for large gardens to look after.

    • Fart – As long as u r not the very, very crooked financial advisor David Ronald Muir Murray now hiding in China. Update…hiding in Spain, now passing himself off as a ‘property developer’.

  8. Geeezzzz!!! ….
    For a pack of self proclaimed “old timers” and “locals born n bred” that think that alone entitles them somehow to “own”this town and want it back, I’m not hearing much or any for that matter of your peace love n mung beans attitude that you should be spreading upon all you come across!!!
    Talk about first world problems!!! “There’s noooo car parks booo hooo!!!
    I’ll tell you something …. please all do yourselves a massive favour, and I’m being quite serious here-take yourselves up the coast to a few major hospitals and have a bit of a wander through two or three ICU floors
    Honestly do it! I’ll bet a million you will easily find dozens of terminally ill or server burns victims, critically injured people that would would do anything to swap problems with you🙄🙄🙄

    • O I C, because there are worse problems somewhere else, definitely means we shouldn’t talk about our problems – makes perfect sense! So, you think it is totally fine to ridicule people for wanting to talk about the obvious problems in this town, but don’t see any problems in ridiculing people. What is this thing where if someone points out a problem or a difficulty, people can just say they are whinging and think that’s either OK or or in anyway helpful to anyone?

      🙄🙄🙄

    • We have first world problems because our ancestors worked themselves to death to build our civilization so we could have such a good life we can afford to complain about our little problems.

  9. (Pixilated prison, I thought I read there, for a moment). My commonly repeated refrain in the commonly repeated ‘hate on airbnb’ rants on local digi platforms is omitted above to explain Richard’s rejoicing at the success in Barce of reclaiming the village. They chucked out AirBnB from the heart of town! It was all wall to wall saturated with holidaymakers in previously locals’ homes. Paris has done the same. It’s easy to do. And the locals returned.

  10. Paradise paved and lost sometime in the 90’s. More parking in town will create even more congestion. Maybe the whole township should be treated like a parking garage with boom gates at the outer limits and entry only permitted when a space becomes available. Joni knew! I lived in Byron Shire from 1985 to 1995. I’m now in the Bega Valley. Keep safe everyone 🙂

  11. You drove 500 metres. It’s all on you, pal. It’s more than twice that far to my local supermarket and I haven’t driven there for years. Take a backpack, only buy what will fit, go back when you need more.

  12. I rode a bike into mullum and Byron from where I lived in the hills for 20 years.
    Almost got killed a number of times as no bike lanes.
    Byron Shire is not green…never has been.
    I watched for years how inaction on the part of council haa created a culture of car users in our shire.
    The railtrail was shovel ready…would have opened up a whole wonderful world away from cars and easy flat access connecting the towns ( good for electric bikes too)
    But a certain ‘green’ councillor stopped the proposed rail trail at the time because about a dozen old people wanted the trains back.

    • Agree. I’m amazed that Mullum doesnt have any bike lanes in and around the town. I rode my pushbike from Mullum to Bruns the other week and almost died a number of times. Won’t be doing that again. But definitely would if safe bike lanes were there. Pretty ironic isn’t it for a place that claims to be green.

  13. What’s the point of having your pride & joy sitting at home in the garage or carport, take it up town and show it off to other like minded capitalist consumers. Pushbikes are the way to go. In the early 60’s as 10 – 12yo’s boys (5) we decided to do the Mullum, Bruns .. beach ride to Byron and return. Well that adventure was not well planned. We thought we had conquered Everest on reaching Main Beach Byron. After resting and feasting on hot chips and strawberry milk we headed back to Brunswick. Well, we weren’t to know that a howling 25kt N/E wind would come up as well as a 1.8M tide. Kids strung out for miles.

  14. You don’t have a car park shortage, you have a milk shortage. Build a corner store / fish and chip shop. Make it a community co-op. Governments don’t solve problems, you do.

  15. Picky, Picky? Me picky, picking a parking spot? I tell you what, driving half a k into Mullum was a picky error to pick up a carton of bloody milk. My partner drove. I, in a huff looked out the window conducted high-examination reconnaissance for that elusive spot to park. Spots, spots, where are spots? God, if we go around this shopping block, chopping in here and chopping out there and changing down any more it will be dark.

  16. Yes,as proud Gypsy traveller,I finally understand why “keep on travelling” is the best lifestyle option,particularly after the Lismore floods and now the general gentrification of all the best places in the Northern rivers…I always wanted land…to grow veges n fruit trees but it seems the universe has protected me from “land ownership” and I’m of the opinion that the Origines were right about this too…

  17. It is very sad to see what has happened to the North Coast and is exceeding any normal pace that has been ‘normal’ around here always. Poor Mullum and Bruns. It is not enough for people to come here and impose on our communities to the point of destroying them, they have to go to the neighboring towns and do it there too. Mullum has always been known as ‘The littlest big town in Australia’. Our towns were never meant to be overpopulated, overbuilt etc. We are the country and small towns. We cannot sustain such over development. We are country, the environment, fauna and flora needs to be protected from being ravaged, ripped up and completely destroyed. Too much wild life is already destroyed with over development, over population, over exposure etc. The amount of four wheel drives who cannot drive to the conditions of the road and drive with their high beam at night. Wild life do not have a chance. The city mindsets that have come here have destroyed our communities and they have never integrated into ‘The Northern Rivers’ . They instead have imposed their own agendas on to our communities that were sustainable, peaceful and of good will. Yes you all wanted to come here because it was so nice, because the local people were so kind and accommodating, because they weren’t capitalist pigs and let you buy their properties for a song so you could sell it in a couple of years for tripple the price to the next city person who would do the same and push the prices up so nothing would ever be affordable again. Poor local people generational locals cannot afford to buy in the place they grew up and love more than the capitalism that has consumed this place. It is truly sickening and heartbreaking to watch. It wasn’t that long ago the peace and tranquility we grew up with here. The city people would come and say ‘There’s nothing to do here’ ,’ What do people do here’?. Well we have beaches sporting facilities, bush land, families, work and a lifestyle. We are not the city. We do not need hundreds of restaurants and cafes etc etc. The people we grew up here with, our families were good people, kind people. If you came to our door and ask for a couple of mango’s my Dad would give you a bucket and say help yourself. We knew our community and looked after it which ids why it was so beautiful when you all came from the cities. Bangalow was beautiful. The houses all had beautiful flowers and gardens as you drove into town. Sadly that beauty hardly exists since its been bought and sold so many times. Local people and families have their history well rooted and know this part of the world like the back of their hand. It is very sad the counselors who get in and strip this place until it resembles the city congestion everyone came from. The Byron real estate show is disgusting, the city mindsets that have no connection to anything this place is about, the greed is abhorrent. So sad to see in a place where the our deep rooted hearts feel so much love for. This place was always affordable. It did not matter if you lived at Byron Bay or out the back of Kyogle, it was all the same. As for the hippies who came from the cities who bought up Byron with their ‘weed cash’ from the locals and begun this never ending grab and consumptive sickness. Shame on you.

  18. I think people have to start seeing there are too many humans on the planet and these problems are a tiny snippet of the whole consequences . The Aussie population increased from about 20 million to 25 million in just a few years and probably the Mullum population is growing by a similar ratio. No one will vote for less humans and so the world we used to know is fast disappearing, and in a myriad of ways from trivial to very concerning if you believe the science

  19. Welcome to Australia, the greenwashing capital of the world.
    In this place you are entitled to have the footprint of a jumbo jet and blame everybody else.

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