On Sunday, 6 September, at 5.15pm, I was sitting on my bike with a djembe [drum] in a case on my back, checking out Byron Beach near the fish restaurant. A man aged about 45, wearing dark clothes, a hat and scarf sitting on a fence in front of the public toilets, yelled, ‘Take your fucking bongos somewhere else!’
I ignored him and he repeated this, shouting it, then said, ‘I’ll fucking kill you’. I looked away from him. I didn’t know if he was mentally ill, drunk, or on ice. He said it again, and, taking that seriously, I moved about 20 metres away to call Byron Police. He came within a metre of me, shouted at me, and took my photo with his phone. I was nervously trying to select the right numbers for the police. He left, shouting, walking towards The Wreck.
Three people came over to me asking if I was alright. I said I was, albeit shaky, still trying to call the police.
I rode to the police station, told the attending officer the problem and asked for the police to go to the beach and investigate. The officer said ‘all the cars and staff were out on jobs,’ and it was ‘very unlikely anyone would attend’.
She put in a report and I heard it ‘go out’ on the radio. She said to select ‘4’ on the phone to get through.
This was in daylight on a Sunday afternoon. Imagine if this were at 2am in Jonson Street with bars still open, liquor being sold, and influxes of people on the street. Imagine some people behaving badly, drunk people fighting, aggressive drugs like cocaine and ice (crystal meth) affecting people’s rationality. Imagine if you’re being accosted by one of these people, or being sexually pressured. Who are you going to call? You may as well call Ghostbusters, because there won’t be any police ‘cars or staff’, to help you.
Byron Bay does not need more liquor outlets or late night bars. I forgot to add this to the Special Entertainment Precinct (SEP) survey, the SEP which wants to ‘support after-dark culture’.
Do our councillors understand the after-dark drug and alcohol cultures and associated safety issues?
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. 
