The NSW Environment Awards, hosted by the state’s leading environmental advocacy organisation, Nature Conservation Council NSW, was recently held at Customs House in Sydney.

It is the age-old story – the lack of public transport across the Northern Rivers that leads to high car ownership and a failure of local and regional public transport infrastructure and use.

Haven’s story starts with a supermarket. The venue at 102 Jonson Street occupies the former Woolworths building, a site presented as a temporary home for music and community, before the building is eventually redeveloped. Instead of hiding that impermanence, the team made it the point. The space was built entirely from salvaged materials, turning a commercial site into a cultural one which is reminiscent of a futuristic Pan-Asian set from Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell.

The artificial opening of the Belongil Creek, an Intermittently Closed and Open Lake and Lagoon (ICOLL), on Monday, 12 October led to yet another significant fish kill with locals and vistors advised to avoid the area and not swim nearby.