The destruction by fire of the Rail Master’s Cottage prompts questions of social justice. Is this land still related to the legal deeds that supported such land (e.g. Railway Transport and taxpayer payers’ support for same) or has, or will its status change to aid further development in the Byron township?
We note that land nearby Woolworths (which is part of the old tip, contaminated with asbestos) is also in a derelict state. Is there a development plan for same?
It is noted that a debate on social media implies that the derelict cottage was used by ‘squatters’ .
Such a negative association implies potential culprits, and weaponises homeless people rather than addressing the actual structural paucity surrounding the stark and inhumane rise of homelessness in Byron Shire. The demarcation between social justice (e.g. the Human Rights Charter articulating the rights of all to be housed) is stark and inhumane.
Will Byron’s dominant ‘pleasure principle’ governing development continue whilst such a huge contradiction between capital and structural homeless trauma continues to exist?
Again it is necessary to ask ‘Where is the evacuation centre for the Byron population (tourist and local) situated? The NSW east coast is targeted, according the climate change literature to experience the full onslaught of flooding. How long will the climate denialist development position embrace the ancient proverb of ‘keeping the finger in the hole of the dyke, to prevent unwanted water’ prevail? Just asking.
Jo Faith, Newtown
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. 
