The 131-lot Wallum housing development application (DA), on precious ecological land in Bayside Bruns, has been a protracted battle for over 20 years.
In 2011, Byron Shire Council and National Parks wrote scathing reports against the development. However, the state government overruled by extinguishing the rights of threatened species and ignored other planning instruments designed to prevent inappropriate development.
On December 14, this week, Byron Shire councillors will vote to seal the fate for the ‘zombie DA’ at Wallum. Will they vote in favour of the money-centric, myopic Clarence Property land speculators and the pro-development state government’s Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP)? Or will councillors vote against the subdivision in line with community concerns and the NSW Director General’s assertion the Wallum development does not have federal government approval to destroy known endangered species habitat and threatened ecosystems?
Common sense tells us we must protect these important ecological refuges as we live in a biodiversity extinction crisis exacerbated by climate change. The most significant recognised threat to the 24 threatened species found at Wallum is habitat loss caused by coastal development.
If this DA is approved, Council is complicit in putting some of the final nails in the coffin for our endangered wildlife at Brunswick Heads.
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. 
