The proposed development on 2 Jonson St, Byron Bay foreshore [former Quicksilver premises] is riddled with endless contradictions that are beyond surreal.
This proposed foreshore development does violate any climate justice for the Byron Shire community which continues to have to battle all proposed developments in the Shire, while the structural issue of growing homelessness remains a high NSW state statistic.
We note that public space for walking, parking etc. is also claimed by the proposed development which will exceed current height dictates and accommodate 674 patrons, plus staff. Indeed, one is entitled to ask why this proposed development appears to be so ‘Sydney-centric’ given that Byron Shire Council is now dominated by the NSW state government, and community-significant rights classification is not addressed by Byron Council?
Furthermore, one notes that ‘Patrons will be escorted ‘safely to transport’. There is a familiar ‘ring’ emanating from this phrase. We note that Justin Hemmes, developer and advocate of extending alcohol licences in a different development in Byron has offered a booze bus for patrons. Who is the proposed developer?
Acute moral injury mounts when one considers the issue of rapidly rising coastal ocean tides – Australia’s east coast within the next 50 years is anticipated to experience a three-metre rise.
‘Up to 75 per cent of ocean warming has occurred in the southern hemisphere, is in the crosshairs of climate change. These warming seas have had a devastating impact on the Great Barrier Reef which spans fourteen hundred miles off the northeastern coast of Queensland’ (M. Robinson, 2018, p.101).
Over a decade ago, I witnessed with friends the ocean roaring into Jonson Street. We went to The Northern pub as the water rose above the car wheels…an unnerving experience. Given this current development proposal the community/tourists etc must be informed where the actual evacuation centre is to be located?
The east coast community has never recovered from the 2022 floods, trauma abounds, corporate investors have the cash to spend on political parties to win influence.
Lobbyists abound and the North Coast region communities are kept in the dark and have to literally wade through all of the very dark contradictions… just to seek representation and justice.
The JALI First Nation peoples are currently in New York seeking the rights to return to Cabbage Tree Island. Mary Robinson, former prime minister of Ireland won an incredible case when she proposed am imperative charter, addressing climate change UN representatives fully endorsed ‘Realising Rights’ at the United Nations over a decade ago…when the US was withdrawing from the climate-change dictates in the Paris Agreement.
I cannot see east coast communities advancing for rights until a depth-respected representation with the NSW state government is created. There are just so many ‘players’ in the development club. Byron risks the ‘Atlantis fate’ for future generations.
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. 
