Dailan Pugh seems to be absolutely correct about the functioning of the Belongil wetland system and outlet to the sea in former times. Unfortunately, the retention basin has been filled in for the West Byron development.
Had Byron Council not acted and opened the waterway, the large rain event that followed would have caused extensive flooding. It is a tragedy that despite almost the entire community, Council, independent planners, environmental consultants, and of course residents, being opposed to it, West Byron was pushed through by the state government.
Council is in an invidious position. Once upon a time, in fact before the year 2000, most rainfall that fell on the towns and suburbs around Byron Bay went down through the sandy soil into the groundwater and slowly progressed to the sea.
Now thanks to extensive concreting and the erection of so many buildings with sloped roofs feeding directly into the stormwater system, rain moves directly into overloaded drains at lightning speed. Due to decisions made elsewhere, serious flooding can occur frighteningly quickly. So as much as it is desirable to maintain the waterways in a more natural state, it is simply unavoidable to open the creek mouth whenever large rain events approach.
As it happens, there is a solution. West Byron could be dismissed as a bad idea, apologies issued, money repaid, and the wetland returned. Unfortunately this seems astonishingly unlikely to happen.
So we are stuck in a pattern. No one should be surprised.
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. 
