THE BYRON SHIRE ECHO
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Advertising & news enquiries: Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au Available early Tuesday at: http://www.echo.net.au VOLUME 22 #19 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2007 22,300 copies every week
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F U T U R E
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H E R E
Hailstorm sweeps the Shire
Petria Thomas joins Hall of Fame Mullumbimby swimming star Petria Thomas has been inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame (www.sahof.org.au). Among her fellow inductees this year were cricketer Steve Waugh, wheelchair racer Louise Sauvage, rower Mike McKay, and skater Steven Bradbury. Golfer Greg Norman was inducted as this year’s Legend. Petria, 32, was inducted into the Australian Institute of Sport Swimming Hall of Fame in 1996. A winner of 15 national titles, Petria’s came to international prominence in 1994 when she won a bronze medal in the 200m butterfly at the World Championships.
Robin Wolf, dwarfed by hail holes in his protective netting, sits beneath his nectarine trees stripped of fruit.
Story & photo Lou Beaumont With Lismore bearing the brunt of last week’s severe hailstorm, Byron Shire escaped relatively unscathed. The State Emergency Service (SES) received 540 calls for assistance as a result of the storms, with only 18 of those from the Byron Shire. However, there were plenty of people affected by Wednesday’s hail that didn’t request emergency assistance. Tyagarah, Ewingsdale and Bangalow were among the areas worst affected, with large hailstones up to 9cm in diameter causing alarm for some and big repair bills and income loss for others. Robin Wolf, grower of stonefruit and organic vegetables in Tyagarah, lost the majority of his nectar-
ine crop, vegetables and netting to the hail. Mr Wolf told The Echo, ‘I thought I’d only ever read about this in the local paper happening to someone else. We lost most of our crop we were about to harvest. The worst part is that our entire protective net was demolished. it’ll take a lot of nectarine profits to replace that.’ At a conservative estimate of $30,000-$50,000 to replace the nets, and nil income from harvest this year, Mr Wolf is continuing to assess the damage, considering rebuilding feasibility and looking into a loan to get back on his feet. Other Byron Shire residents were stunned by the sudden onset of the hail and the damage to
vehicles and house windows. Ed and Wendy Szlezak, also of Tyagarah, got impressive footage of the storm which saw hail fall continuously for nine minutes. Mr Szlezak told The Echo, ‘All our family cars were heavily damaged, our house tin roof is dented badly all over and the skylight smashed, causing hail and water to come into our kitchen. There were leaks throughout the house due to the cyclonic winds that were driving the hail almost sideways at times. After the storm, we found many hail pieces were close to the size of tennis balls. ‘After the giant hail storm, we could see another storm coming from the southwest. Another wave of hail fell heavily though the hail was smaller this time. Our out-
door solar lamps were smashed, some of them into many little pieces as if shot with a shotgun and many of our trees were stripped of leaves 80% plus. We were amazed to see mum and dad magpie attending to their little one or ones in the nest in a tree next to our house. You could hear the young magpie/s in their nest. We have no idea how they could have survived such an intense hailstorm of such duration.’ Not all wildlife was so lucky however, with WIRES recording wildlife fatalities in Lismore and many animals currently recovering in their care. SES Deputy Regional Controller for the Clarence/Nambucca Region, Dave Mackey, was in the
In the same year Petria won two gold medals in the 100m butterfly and 4x100 m freestyle in the Commonwealth games in Canada. At the Atlanta Olympoics in 1996 she took the silver medal behind her main rival, fellow Australian Susie O’Neill. Despite recurring shoulder injury, Petria went on to take two gold medals at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and in 2000 won bronze in the 200m butterfly, silver in the 4x100m medley, and silver in the 4x200m freestyle at the Sydney Olympics. When O’Neill retired in 2000, the gold medals flooded in for Petria – three at the 2001 World Championships in Japan, five at
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