THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 26 #32 Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
pages 15–17
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CAB AUDIT
Another tale from the Down on the upside for Evolve infamous Bruns bar Hans Lovejoy
Local yachtsman Bob Martin is advising all big boats to avoid the notorious Brunswick bar after a four million dollar yacht lost its rudder in shallow waters a few days before New Year’s Eve. Thankfully no-one was injured when the 48 tonne sloop, the Bellatrix, hit sand at the river’s entrance, but it proved inconvenient for its captain, Dutch multi-millionaire Kommer Damen. Mr Damen is heir to a worldwide shipbuilding empire based in Holland. Mr Martin said Mr Damen and his family stayed at the harbour for two weeks, waiting for an opportunity to cross the bar to sail – with an improvised rudder – to the Gold Coast for repairs. ‘We finally got him through the bar, and then watched them for an hour doing circles,’ he said. ‘Kommer asked Pete, the owner of the local trawler, to tow him to Coomera. Pete agreed and was taking me and big Mal back in through the bar to get food and water when Pete snapped his rudder off !’ Mr Martin says that he then volunteered his yacht, the Nord Sjarna, to tow the vessel. ‘Luckily my son Allan and his mate were at the boat when
this happened and they came and helped.’ After an exhaustive tow, he says both crews arrived through the Southport seaway at 10pm. ‘Interestingly, Kommer says he has sailed all the world’s oceans, twice over, and never got a scratch on his boat until he came here.’
Dredging not cost effective: Cr Tabart The incident – along with others in recent times – raises the issue of dredging; however, it would not be cost effective, according to councillor Tom Tabart. Cr Tabart, who used to moor a 48-foot boat in the harbour, told The Echo that dredging ‘was done around 20 years ago, and it went back to where it was within months.’ Dredging won’t make a difference, he says, as there is a rock shelf at the mouth of the river and the angle of the walls are not ideally positioned. ‘Securing state funding is also a difficulty’, he says, and has been a ‘merry-go-round issue’ for years. ‘It’s not a safe bar under any circumstances,’ he added. Owen Danvers from Brunswick Marine Rescue agrees with Cr Tabart on the bar’s design.
Local yogini Bettina Kahlert and rishis Niyabodh and Diwali were just some of the teachers at the Evolve Yoga and Wellness Festival held in Byron Bay on Saturday. Photo Jeff ‘Devolved’ Dawson
Akubras flattened by CSG trucks at protest Simeon Michaels
Drilling rig trucks crushed Akubra hats into the dirt on Saturday morning in the Kerry Valley as Arrow Energy sought to end a ten-day standoff with angry landholders in the Scenic continued on page 2 Rim, south-east Queensland. The blockade of the site, organised by ‘Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic’, rapidly gained momentum as Arrow conducted exploratory drilling within a heavily policed enclosure.
Stirring address Arrow announced that exploration is complete, but protesters suspect that it was terminated early to avoid mounting pressure. With the rig ready to depart, Kerry Valley farmer Rod Anderson, Akubra hats in hand, gave a stirring address. ‘I’ve been standing over by that strainer post for the last bloody ten days, quietly behavin’ like all of us Leon ‘Bumpy’ Mclean aboard the Nord Sjarna, which towed the Bellatrix from locals have. I’ve got a little place up Brunswick Heads to Southport after losing its rudder on the Bruns bar. the top there, it’s only small, might
be insignificant to some, but it’s my house and it’s my home. ‘And fancy, it’s just absolutely mindboggling that good citizens and good farmers and good people with no criminal history – just blokes off the street who are trying to do the right thig for this country – are forced to come down here and bark at cars like mongrel dogs. ‘That’s bullshit. It’s not fair. The whole place here is built on generations of farmers, generations of business people that have done the best they can do for this community and are putting stuff back into the community. ‘I can’t believe that we have to justify ourselves to the government… Arrow should be down here justifying their existence to have the right to ruin our water. And the government’s letting them do it. ‘So I’m here to make a stand for all the people who were too afraid to come down here because of the standover tactics and they didn’t want to be involved and they didn’t want to
be seen. They were frightened. ‘But by gee whiskers there’s a lot of bloody locals here that have had enough and I tell ya what if that rig or any other rig comes back into this community there will be a shitload more people that’ll stand up. ‘So I’m putting my hat down in protest, and all the other people’s hats down, people that I know that are me mates. I’ve had a gutful.’ ‘Drive over that!’ Anderson yelled at the rig, followed by fellow protesters placing their hats in the roadway. ‘I’m not touching ’em,’ one police officer was overheard to say. What followed may well be a watershed in the battle between farmers and the coal-seam gas companies. Two semitrailers rode over the Akubras, crushing them into the gravel. The symbolism was astounding. In the aftermath, farmers were visibly shaken, police struggled to contain their emotion. continued on page 2
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