Articles/Comment
Generational amnesia is killing the wildlife Story & photo Mary Gardner
Rainbow bee-eaters, pictured, the size of a small child’s hand, tunnel deep into the face of the dunes making nests near the Tallow waterway. At the base of the dune is the new two strand fence, a token defence against people who would clamber up and down or bring along their forbidden dogs. Nests can collapse, birds are crushed or frightened to death by heavy feet or the smell of the canine predator. The ignorance of recent beachgoers, which prompted the building of the fence, is a symptom of generational amnesia. This is the loss of ecological knowledge over time, which goes hand in hand with losses of animals and plants. Who notices where a few little birds nest today? Who remembers when flocks of bee-eaters numbered in hundreds or thousands? In 1995, fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly coined the phrase ‘shifting baseline syndrome’. He was describing how each generation of marine researchers assume the present numbers of fish they find in the sea is the norm and dismiss as exaggerations earlier accounts of greater abundances. As researchers started to ask elders and check records going back hundreds of years, they found that each pass-
ing generation was quickly losing memories of earlier ecology and its wild wealth. How to remember? One memory of past abundance is in the history of pests. In the 1930s, rainbow bee-eaters were so common that in Queensland they were labelled noxious and bounties were paid for every dead bird. In New South Wales, ‘hoppers’ were paid to smash the eggs and nests of another pest, the black swans. Long lines of low netting along the banks of the Richmond trapped droves of another vermin, freshwater turtles. Another memory is in the re-
cords about commercial harvests. Until the 1950s, good money was made from sea turtles caught in Byron or Ballina and sold for soup at the Sydney Fish Market. Into the early 1960s, Byron Bay was Sydney’s major supplier of seafood. In 1951, a union was calling on local council to investigate a fruit-and-vegetable processing centre in Bangalow or Byron Bay that would include a cannery for fish. Old newspapers report that sharks in Byron Bay were common and hazardous. In 1917 ‘about two acres’ of mullet were driven by sharks into Byron Bay. It took a half-
hour for all the fish to pass under the jetty. In 1937, fishermen gave up fishing for snapper at Julian Rocks because there were so many sharks. By 1950 anglers still complained that sharks took two of every three fish they hooked. The lower reaches of the Richmond were well known as a breeding ground for sharks. The oysters of the Brunswick were considered by many to be tastier than those of the Richmond. Through the first half of the 20th century, both Brunswick Heads and Ballina had public oyster reserves. Here tourists and residents could
pick and eat fresh oysters on the spot. When these disappeared, a birthright – once the pride of Bundjalung people, extending back for thousands of years – was extinguished. Any day, an extra fragment of history may come to my attention. Last week, a friend way up Wilsons Creek told me his elderly neighbour remembers a time when sea mullet came upstream, almost 20 kilometres from Brunswick Heads. When I am called back inside to meetings, I look again at every development, rural activity and project, as might sea mullets, oysters or bee eaters. Drains can become channels. Trampled banks are sites for planting new wetland plants. Programs for flood management of waterways must include growth plans for aquatic wildlife. Dune restoration? Removing rock walls? More sites for the nests of bee-eaters as well as the surprising increase in the numbers of sea turtles. Future livelihoods will depend on the success Byron Shire makes of not only sustainable farming but re-wilding the waterways and coastal seas. Q Mary Gardner is a biologist, writer
and tutor. Read more of her work at echo.net.au/tangle-of-life.
Affordable rental housing – really? Larry Larstead
We have heard the term ‘affordable housing’ a great deal in this election but what does it really mean? I decided to research and try to connect dots and see where it led me. In 2009 the NSW government mandated ‘affordable housing’, including secondary dwellings, in legislation, the State Environmental Planning Policy (Affordable Rental Housing). In this act, the term ‘affordable housing’ is defined by law as requiring rental caps. A secondary dwelling contained no such caveat. Only developers with properties that already have an existing dwelling and are 450sqm or greater can build secondary dwellings (granny flats). In 2011 Byron Shire passed motion 8.1 which waives developer contribution fees for secondary dwellings. With this, developers are ‘gifted’ the ability to increase their property values and their rental potential, while existing ratepayers must compensate the shire for loss of income through increased rates, housing density and decreased amenity. In an article in the North-
ern Star in 2011, Mayor Richardson stated that ‘rental rates have not improved appreciably due to this fees waiver’. However, we are losing around $19,000 per waiver in contributions. In April 2016, Byron Shire Council resolved to amend its Local Environmental Plan 2014 (LEP) to permit ‘holiday letting’. A recent article published in the Global Property Guide noted ‘… housing affordability in Sydney deteriorated by about 24 per cent in 2015 from the previous year, the largest change ever recorded in the history of the Demographia Survey’. According to RP Data, a Byron Bay median house price is $927,000, Annual capital growth is 6.45 per cent, weekly median advertised rent $700. I have yet to receive Council data concerning the number of granny flats developed since 2009. However, I feel it’s safe to say that over 400 were approved in 2015 alone and around 100 secondary dwelling DAs are presently waiting approval. While the density of our shire is increasing due to so called ‘infill development’, so
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too is holiday letting. And although it is illegal to holiday-let a granny flat, it is happening and holiday letting is certainly not helping to keep long-term rental prices under control. Just the opposite, I suspect. To make matters worse, while Council’s income is diminishing because of development-fee waivers, so is their inability to monitor compliance. Lately, I was given to believe by one compliance officer that there’s over 6,000 complaints on their desk at the moment. Can we really expect Council staff to maintain due diligence when pressure like that is on? Now connect the dots above and then tell me that these acts by the state and Byron Shire have succeeded in creating more affordable rental housing. One thing is for sure, as individuals we have little or no power to control the future look and feel of our shire. That is, and will always be, a matter for politicians and how their various ideologies colour their world. So please ask the candidates where they stand on these issues and then vote carefully.
Byron
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