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September 27, 2026

Latest News

Coercive control incidents rise across Northern Rivers

Recorded incidents of coercive control have increased across the Northern Rivers in the second year of NSW’s new coercive control laws, with 30 incidents recorded in the Richmond-Tweed region since the offence came into effect.

Other News

The Whitlams Return to Rock Island

The Whitlams are coming to the Hotel Brunswick on Friday, 2 October for the first show of the Return to Rock Island tour. The band is revisiting its favourite rock venues down the East Coast, where long, sweaty nights formed the bedrock of The Whitlams’ reputation as a memorable force in the Australian live music scene.

Jo Immig’s article

I am looking at Jo Immig’s article in last week’s Echo, where she said the reasons human have been...

Brush up on your road rules knowledge

Drivers, riders, and pedestrians are being encouraged to brush up on their road rules during Road Rules Awareness Week, with Transport for NSW launching seven new online learning modules to help road users stay safe.

Animals reveal a human story at BBFF

Animals take an unexpected starring role in the newly revealed program for the 20th Byron Bay International Film Festival, with filmmakers from Australia and around the world using our relationships with animals to explore some distinctly human questions.

Ross Lane to be closed for at least two months

Lennox locals and visitors have reacted with dismay to the announcement that Ross Lane will be completely closed from...

Wildlife road warnings falling short on Byron roads

Byron Shire Council has acknowledged that some of its current measures to protect wildlife from vehicle strikes have limited effectiveness, while funding has yet to be secured for seasonal electronic warning signs on several key koala routes.
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October 30, 2024

Byron Shire Echo issue 39.21 – October 30, 2024

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Local News | North Coast News | Comment | Letters | Articles | Sport | Soapbox | Crossword | Stars | Good Taste | The Good Life | Seven Entertainment | Gig Guide | Made Here | Classifieds | Community at Work | Service Directory | Echo Property | Property Business Directory | Backlash
In this issue: Made Here – October 2024
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In this Issue:

What do real nature positive laws look like for Australia?

Following a ‘disappointing’ inaugural Nature Positive Summit in Sydney, a team of researchers say that current laws are not sufficient to achieve the summit’s lofty goal.

Leave the dunes for the endangered birds

A pair of critically endangered beach stone-curlews are nesting in the dunes on Clarkes Beach, they are one of only 13 breeding pairs in NSW.

Restoring scattered thoughts

Truth and victorious peace: a scattered journey we live in a scattered world. Violence, wars, deaths of innocent children, imprisonment of children, the failure of institutions and the rise of the military industrial complex, the rise of mad men...

Genocide

Danny Wakil denies that Israel is committing genocide claiming that Hamas inflates the figures and that probably 17,000 of the 40,000(sic) Palestinian victims, were Hamas fighters (October 23). What about the other 23,000 innocent deaths, Danny, or don’t they...

War profiteers

One of the most disturbing things about the ongoing carnage in Gaza is the fact that wealthy plutocrats, comfortably ensconced in Western capitals, are making huge profits from the sale of weapons to Israel. The bombs that are used...

Confusing

The Byron Shire Council’s (BSC) utility manager Cameron Clarke makes some confusing statements in The Echo concerning the Lavertys Gap Water Filtration Plant (LGWFP). Mr Clarke claims any delay in handing the Mullumbimby water supply over Rous has health and...

More obstructionism

There has been much grandstanding and obstructionism of late by the federal Greens in blocking the Labor government’s badly-needed housing reforms in the Senate, resulting in unnecessary long delays and inevitable cost blowouts, and really the country deserves much...

Screaming, obstructionist Greens

Re the ‘screaming, obstructionist Greens’ rhetoric – the Greens challenge a status quo where Labor and the Coalition are in bed with the one per cent and the capitalist power lobby.  This is why they let corporations pay little or...

Sandwiched

I would like to encourage everyone to refer to that large country sandwiched between Canada and Mexico as the United States. lt is not America. North America begins in the Arctic Circle and South America finishes way down south in...

Support for female sexual assault survivors

Joana Sponsel is starting a free monthly group for female sexual assault survivors in Byron Bay.

Conscience vote

NSW regional media fund extended

Regional and rural papers providing public interest journalism will get financial assistance in what the Minns Labor government says is its ‘ongoing work to deliver solutions which will support regional NSW communities to thrive.

Skye Ray brought sunshine, laughter, and love to so many lives

Skye Ray, a colorful explosion of beautiful, organised chaos, laughter, professionalism and sharp wit passed away on Sunday, October 13 with her husband John by her side. 

Editorial – A healthy approach to drugs

‘If you don’t have a drug problem then the last thing you need is a conviction; if you do have a drug problem then the last thing you need is a conviction.’

Splitting heirs

You are not my king. As Lidia Thorpe’s words reverberated around the parliamentary chambers, it was an opportunity for some colonial reflection. ‘This is not your land’ (whose land is it anyway?), ‘we want a treaty’ (why the hell don’t...

Wategos corporate

As a resident of Wategos beach it was very disturbing to see Raes hotels hold what I would call a ‘corporate event’ selling alcohol all under the guise of community. In my opinion this is nothing other than commercial –...

What if Trump wins?

The Queensland election was not the rout most pundits predicted. Labor did well to hold metropolitan seats but lost heavily in the regions. 

Lavertys Gap possible option for Mullum water supply

The option to source Mullumbimby’s local water supply from Lavertys Gap has risen from the dead, after Byron Council backtracked on its decision to permanently connect the town to the Rous County Council regional supply.

Drug summit for Northern Rivers

Drug reform is finally on the NSW agenda and the NSW Drug Summit will be held for a day in Lismore on Monday, November 4. It will also be held for a day in Griffith on November 1 and for two days in Sydney on December 4 and 5.

Vicarious trauma of screens

Last week my 11-year-old son awoke with horrendous nightmares. His body shook in fear. The evening before he’d watched a MA+ film at his friend’s house, one that involved gratuitous violence and murder. His friend’s mother had allowed him full...

Byron Bay Golf Club

In relation to The Echo’s front page last week on the future of Byron Bay Golf Club. It is rather unfortunate that a member of that club feels that the fees are too high for the common person. Everything...

Mullum’s water

At the recent Council meeting, the new Council voted in favour of deferring the decision to pursue a permanent connection for Mullumbimby to Rous for up to two years. This decision to connect to Rous Water was made at...

Water, homelessness in the sights of Byron Council’s Elia Hauge

One of the six new councillors at the Council bench in the Byron Shire is Elia Hauge, member of the Greens team.

Old Byron Hospital gets new lease of life

It was a mid-week evening in June 2017 and The Echo was sitting alongside about 50 locals in a high-ceilinged room above the Byron Community Centre.

Julian’s persecution

I felt driven to respond to the letter from Ms Farlow (October 23). Julian Assange did not put any lives at risk, as stated by Ms Farlow. This is precisely why the US government could NOT provide any evidence...

Re ‘The Bay’

You can have a wide, sweeping, world-attracting Byron beach or you can have a pool on a broken, undermined beach, but you can’t have both. Already the rocky outcrop on Main Beach is tearing ‘The Bay ‘apart, particularly on the...

New laws set to influence local live music scene

New NSW laws designed to support live music venues have been passed months after Byron Shire Council abandoned plans for a Special Entertainment Precinct in Byron Bay.

Shark drone operator rescues six-year-old at Lighthouse Beach

A shark surveillance drone operator at Ballina’s Lighthouse Beach has found himself carrying out a very different kind of rescue after spotting a six-year-old boy struggling in the surf.

Red alert issued for potentially toxic algae at Lake Ainsworth

People are being warned to stay out of Lake Ainsworth at Lennox Head after testing detected high levels of potentially toxic blue-green algae.

Appalling leadership

While the PM spins and avoids transparency and the foreign minister prefers to yell abuse to take up time and never gives a straight...