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Byron Shire
March 19, 2024

Rail trail the way to go: just ask New Zealand

Latest News

Australia’s Environment Report card not looking good

2023 was a 'year of opposites' for Australia’s environment, but despite conditions fluctuating between wet and dry, overall conditions remain stable following a bumper year in 2022, according to the latest Australia’s Environment Report, led by the Australian National University.

Other News

Wallum Q&A with Clarence Property CEO 

Will digging frog ponds and installing nest boxes really make a difference to the damage that large-scale development will have on the rare and endangered Wallum heathland in Bruns? 

Sexual offence and fraud charges, Gold Coast

Detectives from the Gold Coast have charged two men with sexual offences that were arranged through an online classified advertisement.

Cost shifting excluded in Byron council’s financial review

An independent review of the financial model applying to local government in NSW would seem at first glance to be a welcome opportunity for councils such as Byron.

State of destruction

Tasmanians go to the polls next weekend, in an early election brought on by Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockcliff, whose party has fractured during its ten years in office but is currently warning voters not to elect a Labor minority government, which he's been calling a 'Coalition of Chaos'.

Floodplain Mullumbimby

Mullumbimby is a floodplain. Every time we have a heavy downpour I am up and down through the night,...

Veterans’ and Families’ Hub for the North Coast

The federal government has announced that a $5.445 million grant has been awarded to RSL LifeCare, working with RSL NSW, to establish a Veterans’ and Families’ Hub in the Tweed/North Coast region of New South Wales.

Gordon Hayes, East Ballina

At 82 years of age, I reckon that I’ve cycled several thousand kilometres in my lifetime. I ride regularly with a group of Byron seniors around various locations in the Northern Rivers. I have also enjoyed riding on rail trails in Victoria, where it is very popular, and overseas in Germany, Austria, Portugal, Belgium, Holland and New Zealand.

Riding the Goldfields Rail Trail in the South Island of New Zealand I spoke with owners of various retail outlets, cafes, restaurants, bike shops, B&Bs and pubs. I asked what the Rail Trail meant to their local economy. They were full of pride and answered that it had contributed an additional $40 million per annum to their region – $40M!

Schools that had closed – as parents had moved their children as local jobs dried up – were reopening. Some had converted to offer accommodation to the cyclists and walkers who trekked the trails and were flourishing.

There was a real sense of an old community spirit being reinvigorated in the small towns we cycled through. Rail trails (cycling and walking) are good for the local economy and a wonderful way to reengage a community livelihood – we need more of them.


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New tourism plan for Lismore region

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New charitable funding round opens

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