←Volume 35
December 23, 2020
In this Issue:
Strengthening the beginnings of a real local food movement
It’s wonderful to see the flowering of local food initiatives throughout the Shire today. I’d like to do everything I can to help strengthen what is the beginnings of a real local food movement.
A passion for Indigenous rights
Bronwyn Sindel, Mullumbimby I would like to pay tribute to Mungo MacCallum and his work and passion for Indigenous rights. I first met Mungo at one of our very first get togethers as Women for Wik, I would think probably in...
Water dreaming
Clive Quick, Rous For around 20 years my wife and I have tried to protect Marom Creek Weir and groundwater from pollution and destruction. Recent action included stopping the Water Bottling fiasco on the Alstonville Plateau with the help of...
Mung olives and other treats
Richard Hil, Mullumbimby Has six years passed since I rang the Mullum office and in the process, gave rise to St Mungo of Bethany? It’s been too long, but thanks for the hundreds of emails since from you lot, which...
A thank you note to a dead friend
I often go about my life and forget I am going to die. I forget about impermanence. I get caught up in the struggle of maintaining a mortgage, a career, a family. Stuff that feels permanent but of course isn’t.
Traffic light for Byron
Dean Chalker, Mullumbimby Creek I see installation of traffic lights on the western roundabout of the Ewingsdale interchange progresses apace. A little odd, don’t you think, that the Shire’s first traffic lights are on a roundabout which is intended for free-flowing traffic? The lights...
Is Jim confused?
Matthew Lambourne, Mullumbimby Jim Mangleson seems to be a bit confused about rising sea levels (Letters, 35.27). He is quite right to say the sea level in Sydney has risen around 65mm over the last 100 years, but that is...
Incisive journalist and a decent man
Melissa Lucashenko I have been to writer’s festivals all over the world for the past two decades, and have never met an author less inclined to bullshit than Mungo. He was a great, incisive journalist and a decent man, who...
Scottie’s backhander
Keith Duncan, Pimlico What a thoroughly deserved backhander the UN Climate Summit gave to the marketing guy (PM Morrison), by not allowing him to waste their precious time by peddling his usual marketing spin to world leaders who are actually...
O.F.F.S.
N Browne I am appalled at the use of four-letter words in two large headlines in this week’s edition. Yes, you warn about it on the front page, to draw attention I suppose. Yes, it is the 21st century, but this...
She was who?
David Gilet, Byron Bay When I was at school there was one teacher who was never permanent because she also worked for the UN as a translator, and was consequently often absent, usually in SE Asia. I remember she caused...
Puffing the bypass
David Morris, Byron Bay I was pleased to see in a recent Echo that it was noted that there had been considerable local opposition to the bypass. When I read the Council’s last emailed media release, it was puffing...
Dark and confusing
Beth Shelley, Booerie Creek It seems our world gets darker and more confusing all the time. Bushfires, floods and extreme weather suggests that climate change is real and yet our governments still hesitate to take real action. In America COVID...
Political insight and experience
Byron Bay Branch ALP Dear Mungo, our Wednesday Echo will no longer be the same without your column but we would really like to let you how much we in the Byron branch of the ALP have appreciated your brilliant,...
The ‘why’ of Christmas
Jillian Spring, Billinudgel Christmas time is upon us; parties, work parties, gifts – oh the clamour, gifts to buy – the joy, some people say ‘oh the hassle’ others feel they have to give gifts, often costly, and they begrudge...
The small conjunction
Sapoty Brook, Main Arm Some say 2020 is the year Globalisation ended. Yeah because the Globe is now becoming Local. Next year Starship will initiate Planetisation. Mars really does need a greenhouse effect and, the way emissions are not falling, Earth...
Hysterical to oppose?
Ian Cohen, Broken Head Byron closed its Main Beach testing station as it was under utilised. It didn’t fit our ‘Chill Out’ image. Not a care; sun shining and clean ocean. Recently a similar precinct, the Northern Peninsular in Sydney...
Water everywhere
Richard Swinton, Clunes I took a short walk down to the Clunes cafe this morning and vast quantities of pure clean rainwater was spilling out of every household stormwater pipe into the gutter to be joined with contaminated water from...
Marine Rescue training centre opens in Bruns
A new Marine Rescue Brunswick training and meeting centre opened last week, located beside the town’s boat harbour.
Recalcitrant Reflections denied Bruns operation
Byron Council is holding its ground in the fight to protect a collection of Cypress Pines located in a Brunswick Heads holiday park, refusing an application that would have likely further decimated the endangered ecological community.
A time of loss
Neil Matterson, Byron Bay In recent times Byron Bay has lost Mungo, lost its Main Beach and lost the ability to control a sensible future pathway with the loss in the courts to the developers of West Byron. From that...
Congrats to The Echo
Bill Sokolich, Kuranda A strong congratulation is in order for The Echo in surviving the Murdoch Press assault on local newspapers. It was relentless and captured many of them on the whole east coast some years ago. Content was reduced...
The many aspects of Mungo
Hugh Ermacora, Byron Bay I suspect that not all of Mungo’s unique contributions to the Byron Community and the Northern Rivers in general, are well known. Over a period of some three years, in the early ‘90s, a small group of...
Councillor renumeration
Cr Sarah Ndiaye, Byron Shire Council Re editorial 16/12/20. While it’s no surprise Mr Lovejoy’s commentary of my comments was completely out of context (I referred to Cr renumeration and conditions when addressing some of the reason Cr Coorey may...
An Echo drudge remembers Mungo
Janet Planet Price – Katikati, New Zealand Mungo was sexy! (If he were in his grave, that remark would surely have him spinning!) Sexy in the way that men of towering intellect, aristocratic bearing, devastating wit and a generous heart...
