Way back in 1969, my girlfriend and I drove from Sydney to Darwin in our Mini Moke, (an open-topped off-roader built on a Mini Minor chassis). It was late at night as we drove through Byron township to where the road ended at The Pass and pitched our small tent.
Then we snuggled down to sleep, just in time, because it started raining heavily.
Half an hour later we were jolted awake by the thrum of a diesel ute with its headlights shining green through the tent fabric. A man’s voice boomed out: ‘If you’re not out of here in half an hour, there’s a $50 fine – and if you’re still here in the morning it’ll be another $50!’. A hundred dollars was a lot of money back in ’69, so in the pouring rain we packed our sodden tent and drove on to Stoker’s Siding, spending an uncomfortable night sitting up in the car trying to get some sleep.
Nowhere else on the entire six-week journey of free camping did we encounter the cold-hearted reception we got in Byron.
These days I sometimes walk my dogs near the Brunz sports fields. For months there have been four vans camped under the trees in the car park, where the van owners could use the toilet and water facilities of the nearby sports club.
One of the vans was the home of a really nice woman in her 60s and another was a wonderful old bloke who loved spinning yarns. I realised, with the present housing crisis, people are doing whatever it takes to find a place to call home, and I was delighted to see our Council were allowing them to live their lives in peace. But the same week The Echo reported on Byron Council’s proposed ‘compliance officer recruitment’, the vans had been moved on. Why? They were clean-living; there are no nearby houses. It was just the compliance officers ‘doing their job’!
In some ways Byron can seem so progressive, but sometimes it can be quite heartless.
The housing crisis is a bit like the climate change crisis – lots of talk, but not nearly enough happening!
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. 
