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Byron Shire
March 28, 2024

Friends of Feros

Latest News

Saddle Road group home DA decision this week

Plans to build Byron Shire’s first permanent group home for women and children in housing stress are moving ahead, with the development application for the project coming before Council this week.

Other News

UK court seeks assurances from US over Julian Assange

The UK High Court of Justice has released a 66 page judgement seeking more information from the United States relating to Australian citizen Julian Assange, which it says it needs before deciding whether to grant the WikiLeaks founder leave to appeal his extradition.

Breakfeast, Bluesfest weekend

Victoria Cosford Oh to be a cow with a four-chambered stomach system! Farmers’ market, Bluesfest long weekend, a spot of...

NORPA’s wild ride at Lismore Showgrounds

NORPA is taking audiences on an adventure outside the theatre once again, announcing it will stage its original work Wildskin in a warehouse space at the Lismore Showgrounds. A sensory, destination theatre experience, Wildskin inhabits an outrageous and unpredictable world that’s part bush-thriller, part road-trip and a whole lot of NORPA’s signature theatrical style.

Fresh air federal funds for Northern Rivers schools in need

Eighteen schools in the Northern Rivers division of Richmond have received $25,000 each as part of the federal government’s School Upgrade Fund, Labor Member for Richmond Justine Elliot said last week.

Community grants on offer

Ingrained Foundation is running its fifth annual grants program, with a funding pool of $150,000.

We just love him!

If you’re over 50 you might not be a fan of Tom Jones, but you can bet your mum is. If you’re under 40 you might not even know who he is, but your grandmother probably wet her pants at the mere mention of his name.

It is my understanding that an elderly person named Feros, noting that there was not an aged care facility in Byron some 50 plus years ago, walked the streets of Byron with a bell and a tin can collecting money for an aged care facility.

His persistence paid off. And without knowing too much about the land tenure on which the current village is built I am assuming that the land was gifted by local or state government for the purpose of housing a retirement facility?

A long-term friend of mine, architect Christine Vadasz, was commissioned to design Feros Village in the ’70s. An elderly environmentalist friend has lived in Feros for some ten years and I was able to witness the design and functionality of this place that my friend, and his parents before him, had called home. 

While my mother was looking for a care place some years ago I had the chance to review care places in Byron, Canberra and the Tweed and was impressed with Feros in terms of layout and functionality. As a landscape architect Christine Vadasz seemed to have captured the essence of living in, and with, nature.

As the land on which Feros is built was gifted for a specific purpose I would have thought that a change of purpose, in town planning terms, would have required considerable consultation with local and state government, as well as with the residents of the facility as it is.

Adding to my difficulty in understanding is the haste with which the Feros board has taken the decision to vacate the site and rebuild another facility – there appears to be little explanation for destroying what is existing.

Little explanation has been given as to why the existing facility does not meet current standards for care. What are the current standards and what other options are there? It seems from the outside that the board is justifying their lack of management of the facility to take some other course of convenience.

Maybe the present board could be dismissed and another board be chosen who might adequately interface between the residents’ needs and the required care standards?

Boyd Warren, Main Arm


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