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Byron Shire
September 20, 2026
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Byron Echo

Philosotree

Karin Kolbe, Suffolk Park - 0
If a tree is planted on a dune, but there’s no social media post to announce it, did it really get planted? Karin Kolbe, Suffolk Park  
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Byron Echo

Just a thought

Anthony Plesko, Broadwater - 0
Once upon a time Billy Shakespeare wrote... ‘The world is a stage and we are all but actors playing a role.’ What would he write today? Today’s...
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Byron Echo

Olympics: a national event

John Dobinson, Brisbane - 0
The 2032 Olympics need to be managed by the federal government, a major financial contributor to the multi-billion dollar project, because the Queensland state...
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Byron Echo

Better stories

Trevor Syme, Bridgewater - 0
David Lowe, as always, tells it how it is. Clearly the Pacific Forum overlooked any number of things. Upsetting. The emphasis on military scenarios...
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Letters

More Than a Café: The Swampy Heaven Sofie Created at Highway Myocum 

Lizzy Sparels-Gill, Byron Shire - 0
What started as a roadside caravan on the way to the tip has become so much more than a place to stop for a coffee or mouth watering crumpet.  
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Byron Echo

Wallum III

David Gilet, Mullumbimby - 0
The Wallum decision is a huge shock and disappointment. It is also a lost opportunity for the state and federal Labor parties. At the...
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Byron Echo

Wallum II

Josephine Beams, Byron Bay - 0
The truth, the whole truth , and nothing but the truth. So help me God. That is what we swear on the Bible in a...
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Byron Echo

Wallum judgment

David Bannister, Mullumbimby Creek - 0
In The Echo online (8 September) a story titled ‘Wallum judgment – devastated, but not giving up!’ appeared. This article referred to a final decision...
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Byron Echo

Crossing overdue

Tony Jansen, Suffolk Park - 0
Calling the crossing ‘from nowhere to nowhere’ gets it backwards. It would serve people walking and riding between Byron Bay, Sunrise, West Byron and...
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Byron Echo

No traffic lights

Simon Alderton, Byron Bay - 0
As someone who lives on Ewingsdale Road, spends half my driving time on that road and when not driving crosses that road as a...
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Byron Echo

Immigration

Warwick Anderson, Suffolk Park - 0
I think migrants overall enrich our communities. I have an idea! For every new immigrant, we exile a bogan! Tata Pauline! Warwick Anderson, Suffolk Park
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Byron Echo

Byron rail trail a ‘gem’

Tim Shanasy, Byron Bay - 0
The section of the proposed ‘rail trail’ between old Mitre 10 and the Roadhouse Cafe, is one of the most incredible areas yet to...
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Byron Echo

Climate change: not a hoax

Mike Balson, Upper Wilsons Creek - 0
Living in Byron Shire I often encounter friends who believe climate change is a hoax – a deep state conspiracy (I wish!). This can be...
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Byron Echo

Student protest

Ciannait Low, Mullumbimby - 0
It is with a light heart that I respond to Margot Hay’s letter (2 September). Our children’s young years should be full of joy...
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Byron Echo

E-bikes

Chris Sanders, Melbourne - 0
I’m a regular visitor from Melbourne staying at Suffolk Park. One recent change puzzles me: the seeming lack of public recognition of recently-revised by-laws...
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Byron Echo

Byron’s character

Maxine Hawker, Byron Bay - 0
Protecting Byron’s character is not NIMBYism. The recent article (Echo, 2 September) on the increasing use of State Significant Development (SSD) and Housing Delivery Authority...
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Byron Echo

The golden egg of affordable housing

Patricia Warren, Brunswick Heads - 0
The following relates to the development application (DA) on exhibition for 3-5 Fingal Street, Brunswick Heads, but I understand the theme herein is currently...
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Cartoons

Cartoon of the week – 16 September, 2026

The Echo - 0
The Echo loves your letters and is proud to provide a community forum on the issues that matter most to our readers and the people of the NSW north coast. So don’t be a passive reader, send us your epistles.
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Byron Echo

Rates rise IV

Jennifer Hunt, Myocum - 0
Byron Shire Council (BSC) charge 29 per cent more in rates than Ballina Shire, collecting $30.7 million, despite having 10,000 less residents than Ballina...
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Byron Echo

Rates rise III

R McLellan, Byron Bay - 0
As a local business owner and employer, I understand better than most that every dollar matters. That’s why a proposed 35 per cent increase...
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Byron Echo

Rates rise II

Juergen Klein, Mullumbimby - 0
Is Byron Shire Council (BSC) actually serious about ‘affordable housing’? Looking at their rates policy, I have to say ‘no’. I’m not talking about the...
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Byron Echo

Manufacture dissent

Michael Balson, Upper Wilsons Creek - 0
An extract from the latest GetUp! mail-out about One Nation’s use and abuse of AI. ‘Earlier this month, The Guardian interviewed a woman in Indonesia...
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Letters

New poverty class

Terry Hand, Mullumbimby - 0
If George Orwell was with us today he wouldn’t be mingling with Wigan miners and Parisian plongeurs for his understanding of the poverty class,...
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Byron Echo

Dear Mr/Ms Developer

Riley Reynolds, Byron Bay - 0
Mr/Ms Developer, The people in our community are a creative, intelligent bunch who understand Byron is about so much more than just making a living....
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Byron Echo

Our dunes and beach

Jan Hackett, Byron Bay - 0
Is our self-glorifying ‘green’ Council really serious about environmental guardianship? They strongly support the land we occupy, the forests and the estuaries, and much...
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Byron Echo

The brumbies

David Rainbow, Mullumbimby - 0
Although the killing, the massacring of Australia’s brumbies in the Kosciuszko National Park is being done for presented environmental reasons, these reasons are completely...
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Byron Echo

Forest values beyond carbon

Jan Barham, Broken Head - 0
I wish I was full of hope and believed that protecting forests and biodiversity is a responsibility that the NSW government will honour without...
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Byron Echo

How to value forests?

John R Corkill, East Lismore - 0
No Jan, the Integrated Native Forest Method (INFM) is a disaster... Labor has broken its promise on the Great Koala National Park (GKNP). Thirty-one (31)...
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Byron Echo

Rates rise I

Emiliano Cataldi, Byron Bay - 0
I have been supporting Byron Shire Council’s (BSC) questionable spending behaviours for over 15 years now. During this time I can honestly say that not...
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Byron Echo

Trains on tracks

Roger Seccombe, Ballina - 0
Why, Cate Coorey? (Letters, 27 August) ‘why the Northern Rivers community is expected to accept that it never can return?’. Is the Byron Shire...
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Byron Echo

Education and Jonny O’Brien

Rod Conder, Alstonville - 0
More reckless criticism of the education in schools. As an ex-teacher I find these extremist comments about teachers being all left-wing agitators and not...
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Byron Echo

Support for rail

John Scrivener, Main Arm - 0
Support for rail in the Byron Shire is ideologically driven wishful thinking and sadly no amount of rational debate will reveal to these supporters...
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Byron Echo

Too much Minecraft?

Stuart Cooke, Byron Bay - 0
Byron Bay has always had a unique character with creative energy, a slightly rebellious streak, and buildings that, for the most part, feel like...
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Byron Echo

Arrest runners

Gareth W R Smith, Byron Bay - 0
Palestinian activist and poet, Bassem Tamimi had his visa cancelled just as he was about to depart on an Australian speaking tour. The government...
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Byron Echo

War in Iran

Peter Olson, Goonengerry - 0
The reasons given to justify the war in Iran are quite illogical and hence entirely false: in fact, it’s simply a war for resources....
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Byron Echo

Student protest

Margot Hays, Bangalow - 0
It is with a heavy heart that I comment on the student protest against Pauline Hanson reported in The Echo. When I was at school...
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Byron Echo

Shooting brumbies is inhumane

Dr Desmond Bellamy, PETA Australia - 0
People across the country have been outraged by the ongoing aerial and ground shooting of brumbies in Australia’s national parks. Killing these animals from...
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Byron Echo

Musical visionaries

Simon Alderton, Byron Bay - 0
Sydney is a funny place. When recently at Warringah Mall, I was randomly asked to take part in a poll on whether there’s too...
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Byron Echo

Flora, fauna, and funga

Mike Balson, Upper Wilsons Creek - 0
Last week, science added a new branch to the Tree of Life. Instead of just flora and fauna, the world of fungi (all 250,000 of...
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Byron Echo

Bird Lake begins

Kelly Minahan, Suffolk Park Community Association - 0
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,...
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Byron Echo

Save Byron’s farmland

BC Melville, Highland Park, Qld - 0
Doug Foskey (Letters,26 August) asks why the state government is taxing farmers for ‘services’ he never sees. Indeed, why? The traditional dairy, cane, horticultural, and...
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Byron Echo

Council: appoint an administrator

Hilary Bone, Federal - 0
Numerous letters have appeared in The Echo expressing grave concerns with regard to the administration of Byron Shire Council (BSC). I have monitored Council...
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Local News

Councillors split over withdrawing Council support for 57 Station Street DA

Aslan Shand - 0
The raw debate that took place over the 57 Station Street carpark development in Mullumbimby at the end of yesterday’s council meeting was enlightening, not only for the public, but also for the councillors.
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Local News

Medicinal cannabis driving reforms pass NSW Parliament

The Echo - 0
Medicinal cannabis patients in NSW will no longer automatically face penalties simply because THC is detected in their system while driving, after long-awaited reforms passed State Parliament.
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Local News

Wyrallah Road students put creativity on show

The Echo - 0
Paint, performance and plenty of young imagination will take over Wyrallah Road Public School next Tuesday when every student gets a place on the gallery wall.
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Local News

Bangalow black spot secures $1.6m safety upgrade

Paul Bibby - 0
A notorious Bangalow road safety black spot where much-loved local man Paul ‘Campo’ Campton was killed in a hit-and-run crash is set for a major upgrade after Byron Shire Council secured around $1.6 million in NSW Government funding.
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