THE BYRON SHIRE
Hello Summer
Volume 31 #30 Wednesday, January 4, 2017
www.echo.net.au Phone 02 6684 1777 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
R O L L A B L E S PA N K I N G A I D , Z E N O N LY
CAB AUDIT
Enova Energy cares more for solar – p9
Mary celebrates Healing in the wild resilience new year – p13 – p14–18
Pages 19–27 netdaily Hollywood sign changed to ‘Hollyweed’ Online in
www.echo.net.au/hollywood-
sign-changed-hollyweed
Byron wakes up to Crowds chill at Falls Festival NYE aftermath It all went off pretty well. Families enjoyed themselves in the celebration in downtown Byron Bay, the Falls crowd was mostly happy and Mullum chillaxed on New Years Day. But there are always drunken yobs who care little for the lovely backyard and some who hit the drugs a little too hard. Local environmetal activist Dailan Pugh reports on the damage: ‘Byron Bay attracts visitors from around the world who come here because of the natural values that have been destroyed in their own homes. Shamefully some visitors seem intent on trashing our home as well.
Harassed ‘Our coastal birds that roost and nest around the mouths of Belongil and Tallow Creek estuaries are being harassed into extinction. We have 17 species of migratory shorebirds, such as the Little Tern, that depend on our estuaries as staging posts to rest and recuperate on their annual migrations to the other side of the world. ‘We have others which lost so much habitat that they are now vulnerable to extinction. And there are many others that are coming under increasing stress. ‘Many birds that used to regularly nest here no longer can, and it seems that now people won’t even give them time to rest and recuperate. It is bad enough that they are regularly harassed by pet dogs, careless beach users or people wanting selfies with birds wheeling around, but the constant partying at Tallow Creek is a death knell.
‘On Christmas Eve a couple of hundred people partied there all night, with their fires, lights and blaring music, not to mention rubbish and lack of toilets. On New Years Eve a few hundred people partied the night away there. The wildlife don’t stand a chance under this sustained attack. ‘While I appreciate that careless locals join in, the majority of patrons at these events are on annual migrations from the other side of the world. They are trashing the home of our migratory species to pursue their hedonistic lifestyles. ‘Byron’s transient Spanish community seem to be the core of the parties at Tallow Creek; I implore them to stop trashing it.’
Passed out Local police report that about 6am last Monday a 27-year-old Byron Bay man was found passed out at the camping entrance gate at the Falls Festival site. Concerned members of the public contacted onsite paramedics. Paramedics arrived and attempted to wake and assist the man; however, he tried to attack them. Police and security were called, and had to restrain the man to prevent him injuring himself and others. Once restrained, the man was taken to the medical centre onsite for treatment, then later to Byron Hospital. The man told police he had taken an amphetamine-type drug during the evening. He was issued a criminal infringement notice ($500 fine) for his offensive behaviour.
She goes in for the kiss, he takes the selfie. The phone generation enjoy themselves at the Falls Festival up Yelgun way over the weekend. See more photos in Echonetdaily – echo.net.au/chill-day-falls. Photo Tree Faerie Mia Armitage
‘All right, stop here, guys, let’s put on some glitter,’ says the nubile teen to her friends after making it through security at Byron’s Falls Festival on New Years Eve. Glitter is back in a big way at the 2016 farewell celebrations: gold dust is smeared with sweat over naked torsos, ladies’ eyes are adorned with silver diamanté studs and stalls are styling punters in metallic polyester outfits that could well be as hot as the sun itself to wear. A predicted heat wave has kept up a Byron festival tradition of insufferable weather but if revellers are a little sluggish, it’s probably not a bad thing. Byron’s bubble has swollen to
include a festival targeted at youth who are often accused of ruining the fun with excesses of hard drugs and trashing the environment.
The pop band from Sydney plays infectious dance tunes with more than a nod to the 1980s in cruisy synth beats, power suits in all colours of beige, choreographed dance moves reeking of a jazz ballet eiBut festivals are places where in- steddfod and Monte Morgan’s vohibitions and conservative stand- cals sounding a little early-career ards are unwelcome and young George Michael in places. Judging by the super high-cut people, in particular, get a chance to have fun without constant su- bikini lines on display around Palm pervision and reprimand from baby Springs – a portable resort respite boomers who tend to forget the way plonked in the middle of the festival, where those who aren’t afraid they used to party. Party time hits the Amphitheatre to bathe in one another’s essences again and again throughout the day go to cool off but mostly to look but it isn’t until the breeze picks up cool – the hipster fascination with and Client Liaison takes to the stage 1980s trends continues to find new in the late afternoon that tired feet sources of inspiration for irony and continued on page 2 begin to trample the grass en masse.
Boomer reprimands