On the morning of June 26 at 4.30am I witnessed and documented around 50 security guards descending on the peaceful protest camp at Wallum in Bayside Brunswick Heads. In what can best be described as the actions of a private militia. What ensued was the coercion and intimidation of mostly women, many of them seniors, the tearing down of the Indigenous flag and the destruction of property by balaclava-clad standover men.
Subsequently I emailed Byron Shire’s Mayor Michael Lyon expressing my concerns, particularly in regards to the intimidation of women, along with the graphic footage I had recorded. With no response forthcoming I emailed Michael Lyon three times, rang him twice and sent him a text message over the course of six days, inviting him to respond and/or meet with us to discuss how something of this nature could occur in a small town in the shire which he leads, for the people he represents, and that a strong voice of leadership was appropriate.
Lo and behold on the sixth day, God was created in his image, and Michael Lyon responded informing me he ‘wasn’t across the events of Wallum’ and in any case he was busy in Canberra at a local government conference. Welcome to the Scott Morrison in Hawaii club Mayor Michael Lyon.
The mayor then completely ignored the concerns raised in my correspondence, instead launching into a disingenuous, opportunistic and irrelevant diatribe politicising the situation. He opined that what I had witnessed on the morning of June 26, in fact the whole Wallum campaign, was a direct result of misinformation spread by the Greens party at both local and federal level. A cause he stated which had ‘dim prospects of success’.
I subsequently reminded Michael of his role in creating the ‘Wallum situation’ and noted that the peaceful campaign was not centred around party lines and indeed featured men, women and children of all political persuasions from all walks of life, voicing their displeasure at the sanctioned destruction of an extant ecosystem. As is their right. Some divine justice then surfaced that evening with the high court injunction issued to Clarence Property to cease works at Wallum until a further hearing in August in the High Court of Australia.
In a time which cries out for strong leadership, and for the men of this world especially, to step up, Mayor Michael Lyon’s inactions and protestations are a woeful example of a lack of said leadership, are a complete misreading of the room, and ignore a community fed up with the ongoing coercion and intimidation of women.
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. 
