A localised community campaign against development on ecologically sensitive land at Brunswick Heads continues, with more than 300 protestors said to have been on site over the weekend.
Sunday’s Save Wallum Vigil was a ‘non-violent direct action’, organisers said, featuring a second ‘tree sit’ after the first one last week.
Protestors have taken to calling their comrades, perched in what they say are ‘ancient’ scribbly gum trees, ‘possums’.
They say they’re determined to defend the old-growth trees from being bulldozed.
Council to debate First Nations heritage investigation
Support for the local campaign appears to be intensifying, with nearly a thousand people said to have visited the protest camp in Brunswick Heads in the past week.
While the Arakwal Corporation, native title holders in the Byron Shire, is yet to publicly comment on the proposed housing estate, other Bundjalung nation traditional custodians have spoken out against it.
The Byron Shire Council earlier this month voted to defer a vote on support for an Interim Heritage Order on the site, which would allow for investigation of indigenous artefacts there, while advice is sought on how respond to the request since it didn’t come from the Arakwal Corporation.
Councillors are due to debate the matter at their ordinary scheduled meeting this week.
Protest organisers on Sunday quoted from Mindjinbal Traditional Owner Mark Cora.
‘It is truly heartwarming and inspiring to see so many people attending the peaceful walk-in today at Wallum,’ Mr Cora was quoted as saying, ‘standing beside the indigenous custodians of this area, the land and waters’.
Uncertainty lingers over ecological protection at Wallum
Protestors are also calling for an immediate federal assessment of the development’s impact under the Environmental Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999), Australia’s federal law responsible for managing threatened species, such as the 26 reported on the land in question.
Meanwhile, the council also voted last month for Mayor Michael Lyon to invite developer Clarence Property to meet within 28 days to discuss saving ‘as much of the habitat on site as is feasible’ and to allow for more ecologist advice.
Part of the council vote agreed inviting the developer ‘to work in good faith to resolve the anomalies identified in the expert reports in submissions to Council,’ meeting minutes showed.
Protestor camp set to stay
It’s understood the protest camp at the end of Omega Court in Brunswick Heads is to continue indefinitely.
Save Wallum spokesperson Svea Pitman said support for their campaign has left protestors overjoyed.
‘The sheer number of people who have come to camp this week and who came today demonstrates very loudly to the Byron Council, and the state and federal Ministers involved in this matter, there is no social licence,’ Ms Pitman said.
‘The local community vehemently opposes this ecocide and we will not let this incredible and sacred place be destroyed,’ she said.
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