Latest News
Concerns raised over the impact of opening up to tourists
The North Coast has seen a significant rise in vaccination however, spokesperson for the Cross Border Task Force and Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry has told The Echo that there are significant concerns over the impacts as people start arriving from Sydney.
Other News
NSW Education responds to Teachers Federation over Murwillumbah Education Campus staff cuts
The NSW Education Department has responded to the NSW Teachers Federation's accusation that Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has only just revealed the extent of staff cuts at the mega school.
As summer approaches
Ah yes, all this death
because we could not listen
and a bus
winding through
the renamed country road
once a walking track
now paved...
Cacao wow
After ten years of wholesale trading from their small factory, Byron Bay Cacao’s stunning new retail space is now...
Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: ‘What’s that, Skip?’
I love Kangaroos. Like most people my age I grew up eating my dinner off a Skippy plate. Seeing Sonny and Skip was a real incentive to finish my dinner. I wanted a kangaroo friend too. I wanted to say ‘What’s that, Skip?’ And Skip would tell me ‘There was a murder down at the gorge’...
COVID-19 update: 5 new cases in the NNSWLHD
Northern NSW Local Health District, Acting Chief Executive, Lynne Weir, says there were five new cases of COVID-19 reported for the District to 8pm last night, 21 October.
NSW Legislative Council expresses concerns over push to burn native forests for power
The NSW Legislative Council unanimously passed a motion expressing its concerns over the growing push by industry to burn NSW native forests for electricity and hydrogen production.
Stories about "Save Ballina’s Koalas":
Call to secure bushfire funding for koalas and other endangered species
Ballina Shire councillor Jeff Johnson is calling for a port if the $1.1m dollars in bushfire funding that has been received by Ballina Shire Council to be spent on the local koala population.
Ballina koalas’ ‘fate sealed’ as highway route confirmed
Despite a 10-year campaign to prevent the Pacific Highway being routed through the middle of the region’s most significant koala colony, new federal environment minister Josh Frydenberg rubber-stamped the RMS proposal on his first day in the job.
Highway route in ‘worst possible spot’ for koalas: expert
Backed up by a renowned koala expert, local, national and international conservation groups are accusing the Roads, Maritime Services (RMS) agency of submitting inaccurate and misleading information in the Ballina Koala plan.
Ballina koala campaigners seek crowdfunding
The Save Ballina Koala campaign has turned to crowdfunding in a last-ditch bid to save the north coast’s sole remaining intact colony of the marsupial.
State promises to cover cost of Ballina koala fences
Ballina mayor David Wright says councillors were told yesterday that Roads and Maritime Services have undertaken to cover the cost of koala fences along some local roads in Ballina shire if the controversial Blackwall Ranges highway route goes ahead.
Koalas in highway’s path ‘dying anyway’, says RMS
The newly released koala plan of management for the Pacific Highway section south of Ballina has drawn the ire of koala campaigners who say it is simply a method of managing the local colony into extinction.
Fence local roads in Ballina shire to protect koalas: Johnson
A Ballina shire councillor is hoping to gain support today for a motion calling on either the state or federal governments to fund koala fences along local roads in Ballina shire.
Nesting boxes ‘won’t save endangered species’
One of the region’s key wildlife groups is sceptical that 700 ‘nesting boxes’ for native animals displaced by the encroachment of the Pacific Highway into the Blackwall Range will improve their survival chances.
RMS accused of cover-up over highway-route secrecy
Roads and Maritime Services NSW has been accused of sitting on studies of a koala colony in the path of the Broadwater section of the Pacific Highway, with protection groups suggesting the authority is massaging the figures.
Government refuses to route Pacific Highway away from koalas
In the clearest show yet that the state government is unmoved about the plight of the north coast’s last intact koala colony, it indicated in parliament yesterday that it still intends to plough through it when it builds the new Pacific Highway south of Ballina.
Local News
Should the Northern Rivers be opening up to mines?
The question of whether or not mining should be allowed in the Northern Rivers has once again been raised and the issue is being brought to the table in the NSW Parliament.
Byron Echo
Paid parking review on the table for Byron Shire Council
Touted as their ‘first detailed policy position ahead of the Council elections’, the Byron Independents have announced their plans to expand pay parking in ‘other towns’ like Brunswick Heads and Mullumbimby.
Byron Echo
Community sport warms up as restrictions recede
Amid the uncertainty of COVID-19 and the winding back of public health restrictions, summer sporting codes are doing what they can to get their season underway.
Byron Echo
Freedoms and rights
Whilst I agree with most of Adrian Gattenhoff’s assertions in Letters (13 October: Perrotet and Opus Dei) I urge him not to be fooled...
