Sean Turnell, author of An Unlikely Prisoner, and Ma Thida, activist and author of A-Maze, join together for an intimate conversation with Mick O’Regan about their time in Myanmar’s notorious Insein Prison.

It was once the largest piggery in the southern hemisphere – a sprawling operation covering 33 acres. Now, the former Yager’s piggery looks set to host an exclusive high-end restaurant.

With the recent release of local flood data from the devastating 2022 floods now public, Council staff have told The Echo there is no budget this year to apply for funding to incorporate it into their planning instruments.

Local author Tristan Bancks’s novel Scar Town has been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards Book of the Year.

Some people get to experience life differently to the rest of us. We go out of our way to make sure things are better for them. These people tend to be super wealthy and privileged so they probably don’t need the extra curation. I wondered why we do this. I wondered what life must be like when it’s made slightly better than everyone else’s experience. When you belong to those eight seats at the front of the plane with champagne and clean toilets while the rest of us wait patiently for tea and water. Behind the velvet rope.

Dodgy reception and dangerous driving have been cited as concerns prompting a recent majority Ballina Shire Council vote to ban members attending meetings by video in a moving car.