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THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 26 #39 Tuesday, March 13, 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
CAB AUDIT
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I ’ V E G R O W N A C C U S T O M E D T O T H I S T Y P E FA C E
New Santos boss appointed
Full moon Thursday at Byron’s Main Beach
Luis Feliu
More than a thousand people enjoyed the free moonlit screening of the surf movie Minds In The Water on Thursday, as part of the Byron Bay International Film Festival. The night also included a special appearance by surfer/musician/filmmaker Jack Johnson. Now six years old, the festival screened 200-plus films in five venues over ten days. Photo Jeff ‘It’s A Wonderful Night For A Moon Screening’ Dawson
The Mullumbimby-based wholefoods retailer Santos has appointed a replacement for general manager Jean Boussard who resigned suddenly last week. The announcement came in the wake of a fiery meeting of company staff, owners and management days earlier. Ryan Hamilton, who managed the company’s Byron Bay warehouse for the past 10 years, has been named as interim general manager. The Santos board of directors issued a brief statement this week saying Mr Hamilton ‘knows Santos intimately,’ and would replace Mr Boussard immediately. The board said ‘everybody at Santos is doing their best’ and it was ‘grateful to all staff for their openness and dedication’. During the meeting, Mr Boussard, who was appointed to run the 30-yearold business a year ago, had offered to stay away from Santos’s three outlets and work from home in an effort to ease tensions until a further extraordinary meeting was held. But that was not necessary as he resigned four days after the meeting. The board in its statement said it acknowledged ‘the wonderful support for Santos from unit holders and the community’.
UNESCO greeted in Gladstone by Mullum locals Hans Lovejoy
A contingent from the northern rivers region drove to Gladstone last week to meet the UNESCO delegation and to participate in activism over the massive port development that threatens the pristine area. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) delegates arrived Wednesday after being alerted that major LNG (liquid natural gas) export and CSG (coal-seam gas) processing facility was being constructed within the World Heritage Area of the Great Barrier Reef. Wren McLean of Mullumbimby
told The Echo she ‘spontaneously put work and the rest of my life on hold last week’ and travelled up by bus with 11 others as part of the Nimbin Environment Centre. Security, of course, was tight. ‘MP Tony Burke personally escorted UNESCO delegates and his department kept them on a strict timetable,’ says Ms McLean.
Controlled operation ‘It was quite a controlled operation. At the airport we held up signs and banners in French saying “help us” and quite a few Gladstone locals were also present.’ Another highlight she says was wel-
coming the arrival of June Norman, a seventy-one-year-old woman who walked 500km from Tara to Gladstone and arrived on the same day as UNESCO. Ms Norman says on www.sixdegrees.org.au, ‘I feel my generation is allowing this destruction to happen at a rate that is out of control. I feel responsible to do what I can to stop this madness and influence our government to consider the long-term impacts of what it is permitting.’ The walk was part of the Friends of the Earth and Lock the Gate Alliance campaign and endorsed by Footprints for Peace. Upon Wednesday’s arrival, Ms McLean says groups of activists
set up in the town centre and handed out coal-seam gas information and gave presentations, did face-painting and played music. ‘One hundred per cent of people that I stopped had serious concerns about fish kills, cyanide leaks, acid sulphate soils and indeed the demise of the entire reef ecosystem.’
Concerns for ecosystem ‘A medical doctor from Brisbane also gave a talk and said, “If the industry is not kept in check by governments, then they take risks with our lives and resources. Industrial poisoning is a long-term thing…” He gave an example at Mount Isa, where the
government knows industry is polluting at twice the recommended doses. ‘On Thursday actions were held outside the offices of CSG companies,’ says Ms McLean. ‘One man had a megaphone and was saying “What mongrel bastard companies they are”. ‘We witnessed some horrific things whilst there – evidence of the extremely adverse effects on human, marine and environmental health of the dredging, dumping, clearing and pollution already underway. ‘The trip bought to reality the extremity of scale of industrialisation planned for the series of fossil fuel export ports along he Great Barrier Reef coast.’
enrich your spirit It mightthe sound a bit Byron Bay hippie but the perhaps most tranquil tourist attraction grounds soCoast well designed and peaceful that on theare East and a wonderful place it isto impossible for a visitor not tohours… be seduced spend a couple of mellow by the ambience. Brisbane News, December 2010. Bruce Elder, Sydney Morning Herald, march 2012
www.crystalcastle.com.au Open 7 Days 10am-5pm (NSW time) 81 Monet Drive, Mullumbimby 40 mins from Tweed Heads 20 mins from Byron Bay (02) 6684 3111
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