One of Byron Bay’s favourite lunch spots is wowing guests after a recent community-gifted makeover. More than 50 volunteers...

This year’s festival celebrates some of the most vital and impactful storytelling in Australian literature, with a dedicated program of First Nations writers whose work spans historical fiction, picture books and Indigenous knowledge and whose voices are reshaping how this country understands itself.

Byron Council has voted to give the community a greater role in shaping the future of the former Mullumbimby Hospital site, despite concerns from some councillors that additional consultation could further delay the delivery of desperately needed housing.

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.

On Sunday, a memorial was unveiled at the RSL Memorial Park, next to the Ballina RSL, to pay tribute to those lost on the night of May 4 on the Ballina Bar.

New flood mapping covering much of the Byron Shire could affect future development controls, with a major new study recommending that planning decisions be based on whichever flood source – river flooding or overland flow – produces the highest flood level.