Simon Haslam Evans Head – it has great beaches, a wonderful river mouth, and walks – it’s a great spot for a holiday, and given the housing affordability issues in Byron Shire one of our Echo workers even commutes from...
There is an element of incompetence in all of us: we all commit minor stuff-ups occasionally, although rarely if ever with the simplest of tasks. Our (hopefully tentative) leaders Morrison and Perrottet have, nevertheless, achieved new benchmarks in incompetence. This...
The new Ballina Council does not seem to be going to plan for the ‘purple shirt’ brigade seen during the recent local government elections. A failed motion moved by Cr Bruem of the ‘purple shirts’ has resulted in an...
Public transport is virtually non-existent in Byron Shire and the region as those looking for convenient services and fast connections will know. One of the dis-benefits of not having public transport is the impact on mobility-challenged people and their...
I would like to see the Union Jack motif become like a yellow sun symbol that would make a nice flag; dark blue with stars and our nearest star the sun in the corner, as a nod to our...
I admire Mullum Cares (Echo 26 January) for its recycling projects to reduce COVID-testing plastic going into landfill. I hope that when it gets more support and sponsors it will be able to help the planet on a larger...
As a landscape architect, my practice at the start of a project often involves asking: ‘What wants to happen?’ It’s an intuitive listening at its first principle.
With students having returned to school Tuesday, teachers and students are required to test for COVID-19 twice weekly.
The new 2022–2023 councillor students, along with the re-elected ones, will be attending their first class, this Thursday February 3, at the Council Chambers in Mullum from 9am.
Patient ratios, not the current unwieldy, often misinterpreted system that measures patient care needs on an inequitable equation of hours per day, is needed.
Driving into Mullum and seeing the red, black, and yellow painted on the roundabout on Invasion Day touched a deep sadness within. While the artwork is a mark of respect of the First People, no mob can afford to...
If anyone is searching for RAT kits they are available, for the moment, at Suffolk Park service station $65.00 for a box of five. That’s about $40 more than they should cost. That’s what is called price gouging and they should...
Vale Heeling (Helen Dean), a much-loved and long-time member of the Mullumbimby and Byron Shire community.
The grassroots community project providing frontline health workers with tasty and nutritious meals, snacks, and drinks has been expanded to include staff at Tweed Hospital.
It is very surprising that The Echo’s story on 19 January ‘Council’s planning powers at risk of removal’ has apparently not been taken seriously by our councillors or the community as a whole. The issue raised by Council’s director Sustainable...
The Exterminating Angel of COVID is passing over our Shire. Mercifully few have been exterminated, but many, mostly unvaccinated people, have been ill – some extremely ill and needing hospitalisation. If you are unvaccinated, you have 24 times the likelihood...
The proposed Dunoon Dam is a twentieth-century ‘solution’ to a twenty-first-century problem. Undoubtedly, a dam would benefit someone – just not the community, Aboriginal heritage, the ecosystem, or already struggling wildlife. There are simpler, more cost-effective solutions to our water...
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.
Three group homes for single mothers facing homelessness would be built on the former Eco Village site in Brunswick Heads under a plan proposed by local developer, Brandon Saul.
Some people make an impression. Heeling Dean was one of them. Sadly she died last week, and I wanted to dedicate my Soapbox to her in honour of a truly unique individual.
The unrelenting opposition of many Aboriginal people to the date of Australia Day is a tribute to their resolve to keep the circumstances of settlement and their suffering before us all. Changing the date is the next necessary step...
Growing up in in regional South Australia, Kelly Brouhaha’s family moved around a lot as her dad worked with a bank that posted him all over the state. In a not uncommon story Kelly was the ‘new kid’ in about six different primary schools. ‘When we did the final move I basically refused to get in the car unless Mum bought me a drum kit (child logic, right!).’ Kelly ended up with a guitar instead and spent most of her high-school years slumped over it practising to distract herself from the loneliness of being yet again the new kid. ‘I found music incredibly healing and it’s been with me since.’
Check out the wonderful world of entertainment this week
In the lush fields of Fernvale sits Woodland Valley Farm, which can only be described as chicken heaven. Fabian Fabbro and Jodie Viccars took on the property in 2016 with the purpose of regenerating the land and waterways. Although they...
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