Fragments of the COVID-19 virus have been found in the Byron Bay sewerage treatment plant (STP) that services Byron Bay, Broken Head, Suffolk Park, Wategos, and Sunrise areas and the Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSWHD) are asking residents and visitors to get tested at the first sign of any symptoms.

When I walk the streets of my town I feel this. I feel the divide. I watch the masked mingle with the ‘medically exempt’. There’s an unspoken agitation. A sense of ‘them’ and ‘us’. My town is no longer a place of love and acceptance. It is not a place of compassion and kindness. There is an undercurrent of distrust, suspicion and potential violence. We are being taken.

The building of seawalls has been the subject of a controversial court case brought against BSC in recent years. What are the other options?

We love to receive letters, but not every letter will be published; the publication of letters is at the discretion of the online and print letters editors.

Following a refusal by Byron Shire Council to communicate with local landholders on the Belongil Catchment Drain Board over the impact of excess water flows from the Sewage Treatment Plant they have finally admitted there is a major problem.