We read that West Byron, formerly known within the oral history of Byron Bay as the ‘lungs of Byron’ by farmers and community. West Byron has now finally, developmentally, revealed itself as the Harvest Estate. Tower Holdings are proud to announce that this ’transformation of ‘a once degraded farmland is now a thriving eco-system’. This area, formerly and most recently existed as the most remarkable natural functioning wetland. It was and still is a floodplain. In its former natural state, it functioned magnificently revealing highly complex ecological systems created by the huge assortment of wetland species that attended to the health of the wetlands lungs. Acid sulphate soils exist but posed no ecological problem as native trees attended to deeper cleansing of existing ecological wetland water systems. The area was from time to time subjected to flash flooding.
When former Mayor Richardson reigned, Byron Council was responsible for the death of this wetland by legal means in the Land and Environment Court, by guiding the debate to the power of money ascending the rights of nature. Ignoring a huge community resistance to its destruction led by Councillor Cate Coorey and high-profile environmental activist Daillan Pugh.
No democratic policies were offered or legally addressed to flooding, traffic impacts, or impacts on the nearby residents/businesses in the industrial estate. The process was described as ‘woeful’ by civil engineers and experts. Over a million tonnes of ‘fill’ elevated the development site, thus the floodplain and waters now flow into the industrial site. No sentient survival or evacuation policy exists or has been addressed by Byron Council. Could it be said that this Council is so blind to bling $$$ capital that it now can be viewed as ‘unsound and unsafe’ for residents? Sanitising historical realities is a dominant technique in the current think tank ‘development narratives’. Beware folk, all that glitters is not gold!
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. 
