Local News
Get Echo news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
A message to the state govt:
Need a driver? Going to the airport? – Let me take you there, and fetch you, in the comfort of your own car. Need a chauffeur for the day? – Let me drive you whilst you work or relax. Having a long, lazy lunch out? – Let me be your designated driver.
Our fishing traditions are not illegal
Highly skilled and qualiďŹ ed driver available for all your needs. Very reasonable rates.
We Drive 4 U we drive whilst you relax
1300 90 40 50 wedrive4u@hotmail.com
Warbird ights over Byron and Ballina! Coastal ights, aerobatics and more! Up to 3 passengers on most ights. All ages! Gift vouchers are available. Indigenous peoples of the region are calling on NSW Fisheries MP Hodgkinson to permit traditional hunting and gathering as has been the case for many thousands of years.
CLASSIC AERO ADVENTURE FLIGHTS BALLINA-BYRON GATEWAY AIRPORT s INFO CLASSICAERO COM AU
Story & photo Eve Jeffery
The state government’s failure to endorse traditional Aboriginal fishing and hunting rights was highlighted over the weekend as Aboriginal people of coastal regions protested against NSW Fisheries regulations. ‘We are here this weekend to make a statement to Marine Parks and NSW Fisheries in regards to our natural resource collection’, said Yvonne Stewart speaking on behalf of the Arakwal people of Byron Bay. ‘We believe that the state government really needs to start looking at the needs of Aboriginal people and their access and their rights to their cultural resources.’ Mrs Stewart says that she believes that the local Aboriginals have tried very hard over ten years to find some resolution so that they can manage country and have access to the their resources. She says that the local mob fished and gathered food in the
area over the weekend in protest against Fisheries restrictions. Yvonne says that the midden that the boat ramp at the Pass is built on top of was established about 1500 hundred years ago and is of cultural significance to the Arakwal and other Indigenous people in the area. ‘This place holds our culture’, she said. ‘It tells a story. It’s part of who we are. We have been coming to this place for so long. ‘We want to continue to come here and we want to bring all of our jarjums here and exercise our right to go fishing.’
Current zonings Currently the zoning puts the area, up to the shoreline, from halfway between Clarkes and The Pass, all the way around the cape to the lighthouse in a Sanctuary Zone, a ‘no-take’ area. This covers the area of shoreline adjacent to the Arakwal’s midden site under the boat ramp at the Pass. The area from the lighthouse to Kings Beach
in the south and Clarkes to the Belongil at the west is a habitat zone, which means recreational and some forms of commercial fishing and fishing competitions are allowable, though several species are protected within this area. The only areas for general fishing are some distance from the shore and would require access by sea craft.
BEC supportive The Byron Environment Centre (BEC) members and management committee also went on record as supporting the Arakwal Bundjalung people of Byron’s civil disobedience protest. ‘The BEC supports the Arakwal campaign to allow all Aboriginal people the right to fish and collect seafood for their personal, and their family’s, consumption, irrespective of any restrictions placed on the wider society, and irrespective of Marine Park or any other zoning restrictions’, said convenor of the centre John Lazarus. The Aboriginal people of the
Tweed will hold a protest next weekend and Yvonne hopes that communities up and down the New South Wales seaboard will join in. ‘We ask all communities in NSW to organise their families and community and go out to your favourite fishing grounds and gather, dive, fish and take what ever you need to feed your family’, says Yvonne. ‘Let your local Fisheries and Marine Parks authority and your local media know in advance what your community and families are planning’.
No decision: MP A spokesperson for Ballina MP Don Page’s office told The Echo, ‘We have followed up with Minister Hodgkinson’s office who says that no decision has been made in relation to Arakwal people’s right to access fishing in the Cape Byron Marine Park. Ms Hodgkinson’s office says the latest representations and protests will be part of that decision-making process.’
Byron Bay
CLOSING FRIDAY 21ST AT 5PM TO RE-OPEN ON JANUARY 3
s a m t s i hr C y r r e M to all! 80 Centennial Cct, Art & Ind Estate. Tel. 6685 5744
www.echo.net.au
Interior and Exterior Luminaires
Y R
O
Ar T
N
HURRY IN !! Don’t miss this one!
S U P P L I E S & UP OFF Easels OFF selected items MERRY XMAS TO 6$/( (QGV ;0$6 (9(
Laurel Vidal from Paris just arrived in store
SHOWROOM OPEN 9 – 5 Mon to Fri and 9 – 1pm Sat,
B
27 Fletcher Street, Byron Bay r BOOB!BOOBNJEEMFUPO DPN BV
%
0!).4 "253(%3 0%.#),3 0%.3 "/$9 0!).4 ).+3
BYRON’S BEST BOUTIQUE
0!34%,3 !24 */52.!,3 35-) ).+ "//+3 !24 "/8%3
8-!3 3!,% #2%!4)6% 02%33)%3 8-!3 3!,%
SALE EASELS TOO GOOD TO LEAVE BEHIND
ART KITS &
lots more !!!
XMAS GIFTS FOR ADULTS & KIDZ
MON FRI PM 3AT PM
66808010
97 Centennial Circuit
<echowebsection=Local News>
The Byron Shire Echo December 18, 2012 3