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Byron Shire
July 11, 2025

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Editorial – ‘One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain’ – Bob Marley

There’s an old gag about being a musician:  what’s the difference between a musician and a pizza?

Editorial – Welcome to Mullumbimby!

It’s on – NSW government-run development corporation Landcom has lodged its development application for 28 tightly-packed ‘affordable’ units and commercial space, which would replace a very busy Mullumbimby carpark at the town’s entrance.

Editorial – Localisation and the media’s role

World Localisation Day is being celebrated through the month of June.

Fascism and journalism don’t mix

Attacks on journalists – whether by military forces in conflict zones or by law enforcement during civil unrest – pose a grave threat to freedom of speech and the health of democracy.

Editorial – Are you at a loose end?

Woahhh the grinding rubber wheels of progress will once again touch Byron’s potholed roads as councillors and staff meet this Thursday in their never-ending live streamed reality show called ‘local governance’.

Editorial – What would you do with $32?

If you are on the minimum wage, then get ready to celebrate with the extra $32 per week the Fair Work Commission has just awarded you.

Safer than falling out of bed

When we were looking to buy a house in Kyogle town, about nine years ago, one of the great attractions of one property we were interested in, was the large hoop pine in the backyard.

Editorial – Resonating voice of the week

In a world of disinformation overload, it’s sometimes hard to find sane voices that resonate. Scott Galloway, a wealthy American entrepreneur and academic, is one of those voices.

A councillor perspective by Cr David Warth

The journey so far: It's close to nine months now since the council elections took place and the current councillors were elected.  We all came to council with...

Ongoing Genocide: Children’s Silence as a Manifesto

Ongoing Genocide: Children’s silence as a manifesto By Alan Clements  Over half a million children in Gaza now wish for death. More than 25,000 have already...

Editorial – Fewer voices is our loss

Two well-known Byron Shire identities are moving, and say that the reason is in part from constant harassment for speaking publicly of their views around the genocide in Gaza.

Editorial – Diversity blooms after Voldemort

Congratulations, Sussan Ley, who has become the first federal Liberal leader with two X chromosomes.

Editorial – They work for them

Residents around Chinbible Avenue near the Mullumbimby Showground are right to feel disappointed by Council.

Editiorial – Woot woot, grant me this

With a sigh of relief, Bluesfest was a success. Yippie! And the weather was splendid (It’s been raining constantly otherwise for years, it seems).

The good, the bad, and the ugly: 2025 election senate voting guide

The unwieldy senate ballot paper can be a bit tricky to navigate with its many obscure political parties that may sound benign. The savvy...

Editorial – Vote for nobody. Nobody is perfect.

The federal electorate of Richmond (Tweed, Byron and Ballina Shires) apparently tops the nation for high-risk properties impacted by climate change.

Editorial – Destroying houses during a housing crisis is so 2025

The front cover of the NSW Department of Environment and Planning’s Low Cost Country Home Building, published in 1981

Editorial – More transparency, por favor

Psst: Executive Council staff at Byron Shire Council have quietly removed legal reports that were once included in Council meeting agendas, meaning the public are now uninformed around this important matter.

A dig into the Liberal policies on offer 

It’s only the first week – and if you thought Peter Dutton’s election campaign looks chaotic, dishevelled, and thin on policy substance, you’re right. 

Love Of An Icon: The Legend Of Crocodile Dundee – a review

There’s only a few movies that can be screened at any time throughout history and still be worth watching. A movie of that calibre...

Editorial – Humans needed at Mullum Community Centre

What is community, how can you support it, and why is shouldn't be left in uncaring hands.

Editorial – Trumpocalypse!

No one knows what is going on, or where we are going, or what will be there when we arrive.

Waiting for the Great Leap Forward

As I anticipate my first encounter with a tropical cyclone, I find it hard to sit still and thoughts swirl through my mind like the winds in the storm.

Editorial – All this precipitation is getting tedious

In the week of the three-year anniversary of the 2022 flood, residents are again preparing for Cyclone Alfred. 

What’s with the panic shopping? Are you an island?

The closer Cyclone Alfred draws to the coast, the emptier the shelves in the supermarkets are becoming. Things have been looking bare since Monday.

Editorial – The biggest little carpark in Australia

A packed house of residents turned up Monday night at the Mullumbimby Services Club to hear Byron Shire Council’s plans to plonk 32 units and shops over a busy Station Street carpark at the town’s entrance.

Editorial – Punching down

Losing one’s home would perhaps the worst potential event for any individual or family, apart from inevitable death.

Editorial – Whack-a-mole the crims

As a member of the small niche independent media landscape, The Echo is acutely aware that this job is not just being a journal of public record, but a reporter on how governments behave. And treat us.

Editorial – The uninformed state of NSW 

Asking a straightforward question of the NSW Labor government gets you conflicting non-responses. Yay. What fun!

Truth warriors of the fifth estate to the rescue

Before the revolution in 1789, France was divided into three estates. The first estate, the clergy, held great sway over society and the power to levy a ten per cent tax – the tithe…

Editorial – Aspirational vs legal

Further to the page 4 report on Byron Shire Council’s Draft Community Strategic Plan (CSP) 2025, let’s look a little closer at how such documents are incorporated into improving our wonderful life in the much envied Byron Shire.

New pharmacy vape regulations ineffective in NSW

A recent survey of pharmacies across New South Wales highlights the failure of the new regulations intended to make low-nicotine vapes (≤20mg/mL nicotine) available without a prescription as Schedule 3 medicines.

Editorial – It’s Hell, hey (LA)

It was shocking to learn from Elon’s vanity project X (formerly Twitter) that the ongoing LA fires were the fault of extreme environmentalists, the Democrats and trans people, who apparently now run the LA fire department and have infiltrated the deep state. 

Is land sharing the future?

Christmas is a time for visiting, and boy, did we visit. Up in humid hills around Nimbin, a few sunsets on a MO near Main Arm, long long lunch/dinner/breakfast at a grass castle at Wilsons Creek, dinner in strata-titled Billen Cliffs, then to a couple of long-established communities a bit south in sandy Clarence country near the coast.

‘Government is a disease masquerading as its own cure’ – Robert LeFevre

Do you care about ecological diversity? Many living in this region do, and we are lucky to live in a place where there is some of the highest biodiversity in the state.  

Editorial – 2024 in the rear view mirror

To get a sense of what happened in the past 12 months, I trawled through The Echo’s 2024 editions.

New Year’s revolution

Happy new year’s revolution! Another orbit of our beautiful Earth home around our life-giving Sun.

A prayer for children this Christmas

Our contemporary Christmas has evolved from northern hemisphere seasonal celebrations, including the pagan harvest festivals and winter solstice celebrations encrusted with Christianity.

What is gratitude and what should I be grateful for?

Gratitude has been a bit of a catch cry in the 2020s. A new age-y mindful-y, mindless, awareness, talking point.

Editorial – Advance Australia’s next big hit

Look out, you latte-sipping do-goody Greens, there is a movement preparing war against your party for the upcoming federal election.

Editorial – What’s that DA in your hood?

There were one pecuniary and eight non-pecuniary interests tabled at last week’s Council meeting, with independent Cr Jack Dods again winning the leaderboard, with five. 

Editorial – The biggest little town could do with a gurney

Oh Dear Lordess, if only there were some leadership around this place. Without any interest from councillors to make improvements, it looks set to just continue to deteriorate more and more. 

Partial approval recommended for DA at Dunbible for unauthorised dwelling

Following compliance investigations at 300 Bakers Road, Dunbible, Tweed Shire Council staff have recommended approval of stages one and two, but not stage three of the development application. 

Tribute to Paul ‘Campo’ Campton as police reappeal for information on the fatal hit-and-run in Bangalow

The Byron Shire Rebels Rugby will pay tribute to  Paul ‘Campo’ Campton this Saturday as they host Casuarina in Bangalow. 

Temporary road and bridge closures – Alstonville and Tintenbar Bridge

Road closures for Alstonville and the Teven/Tintenbar Bridge will be taking place next week.

Opportunities for drug diversion improvements demonstrated in the UK

The scientific evidence is clear, and has been for a long time, that drug issues need to be treated as a health issue not as a police issue.