There are times when a community needs to stop, acknowledge what has been achieved and simply say thank you.
For Suffolk Park and Bird Lake, 20 August was one of those days.
After years of community concern, reports and frustration, Byron Shire Council unanimously supported a motion to move Bird Lake towards practical action. For our community, that was an incredibly positive and encouraging moment and one for which we are genuinely grateful.
Council agreed to a scoping report on early interventions such as aeration, including consideration of a solar-powered pilot. The draft Baywood Chase Lake Management Plan will return to Council in September, with a further report due in December considering effectiveness, costs, funding pathways, and grant opportunities.
Most importantly, Council formally acknowledged its own evidence identifying Bird Lake as the number-one pollution source entering the Tallow Creek estuary.
Councillor Elia Hauge deserves enormous credit for bringing the matter forward. She described the opportunity as finding ‘things that we can implement to improve water quality in Baywood Chase before the adoption of the CMP’, ‘no-regrets, easy wins.’
Councillor Delta Kay, who seconded the motion, brought a deeply personal connection to Suffolk Park and Country. ‘Let’s clean up this lake with early interventions such as the aeration and the planting,’ she said.
Councillor Michelle Lowe spoke passionately about the bigger environmental picture, saying: ‘We are running out of time for our native species, and we are running out of time for a future for our children.’
And I particularly appreciated Mayor Sarah Ndiaye recognising the extraordinary enthusiasm of the Suffolk Park community: ‘We have a community that has shown how enthusiastic it is to make changes.’
Speaking on behalf of the Suffolk Park Community Association, I said: ‘We can do both.’ We can continue the Coastal Management Program while taking sensible, practical steps now. ‘Not against staff. With staff. Not instead of the CMP. Alongside it.’
The motion passed unanimously.
We are incredibly grateful to every councillor who supported it, to Council staff who will now help turn the resolution into practical work, and especially to councillors Hauge and Kay for putting Bird Lake firmly back on the agenda.
We are also grateful to the residents, volunteers and community groups who refused to let the issue disappear.
Bird Lake hasn’t been fixed yet.
But on 20 August, Council gave our community something precious: momentum, a pathway forward and genuine hope.
For that, Suffolk Park simply says: thank you.
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