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Byron Shire
June 25, 2026

Film festival opens with Aquarius Festival doco

Latest News

Planets and weather align for Cape Byron Steiner Winter Solstice success

Last Thursday, in the days before the Winter Solstice, and after weeks of on and off rain that had more than a few parents nervously eyeing weather apps, Cape Byron Steiner School's annual Winter Festival went ahead.

Other News

Dancing and fundraising for our children’s future

The recent premeditated killings of several children in Australia by their fathers has raised the issue of filicide (the deliberate act of a parent killing their own child) alongside the issue of domestic violence (DV) and femicide (the intentional murder of women or girls) as key areas that need research to help understand why these things happen.

Cartoons of the week – 24 June, 2026

The Echo loves your letters and is proud to provide a community forum on the issues that matter most to our readers and the people of the NSW north coast. So don’t be a passive reader, send us your epistles.

Site confirmed for future high school at Pottsville

The NSW government says it has secured a site for a future high school in Pottsville, delivering on its commitment to future-proof public education for the growing Tweed community in the Northern Rivers.

Appeal to locate missing woman

Police are appealing for public assistance to locate a woman missing from the Kempsey area.

Community housing industry call for major expansion in upcoming NSW budget

The community housing industry are calling on the NSW government to use next week's State Budget to unlock a major expansion of community housing.

Tweed keeps rate increase below rate of inflation

Tweed Shire Council says it has adopted one of the lowest rate increases in the cross-border region for 2026/27, with the average household bill rising around 3.6 per cent once all charges are counted. This is below the current annual rate of inflation of 4.2 per cent.

Aquarius Festival in full swing. Photo Harry Watson Smith.

The opening night film at this year’s Byron Bay Film Festival (October 18–27) is a feature-length documentary that captures and celebrates a defining event in the history of the Northern Rivers – the 1973 Aquarius Festival.

Organisers say the film, Aquarius, directed by local filmmaker Wendy Champagne, follows around 10,000 ‘dreamers, tree-huggers and radical ratbags’ who descended on the sleepy hinterland township of Nimbin. 

‘The hippies didn’t so much “find” Nimbin’, director, Graeme Dunstan says, ‘As they were called there, into the heart of ancient initiation country’.

For more info, visit www.bbff.com.au.



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Kyogle bridge build completed in under three months

Kyogle mayor Danielle Mulholland says a new bridge on Gradys Creek Road, off Summerland Way and north of Kyogle, has opened to traffic. She says it took Council less than three months to build Methvens Bridge.

57 Station St, Mullumbimby amended DA on public exhibition

The development application (DA 10.2025.212.1) for the carpark at 57 Station Street, Mullumbimby is now back on exhibition for eight weeks from 22 June.

A Byron kickback with the Gimelli family

The Gimelli family ran a small Italian restaurant on Jonson Street from about 1995 into the early 2000s. It was a classy joint, ahead of Byron’s culinary curve, serving dishes from every corner of Italy.

12 winners at Byron Bay Herb Nursery

The Byron Bay Herb Nursery continues to create constructive pathways to achievement with 12 students from Byron Bay Herb Nursery’s disability support program recently graduating with a Certificate II in Horticulture.