Sustainability
THE BYRON SHIRE
HINTS FOR LIVING A SUSTAINABLE LIFE
Volume 31 #51 Wednesday, May 31, 2017
www.echo.net.au Phone 02 6684 1777 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
Mungo unpacks the Uluru Statement – p10
W E H AV E A N E CO N O M Y W H E R E W E S T E A L T H E F U T U R E, S E L L I T I N T H E P R E S E N T A N D C A L L I T G R O S S D O M E S T I C P R O D U C T – PAU L H AW K E N
Former police minister Gallacher retires – p8
Author Kate Grenville talks with Mandy on her new book The Case Against Fragrance – p7
BONUS MAGAZINE IN THIS ISSUE!
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Police crackdown on 4WDs on Seven Mile Beach echo.net.au/police-crackdown4wds-seven-mile-beach
Bruns land transfer Up a lazy river in now in motion the noonday sun… Hans Lovejoy
Despite at times heated debate between councillors and the gallery, the Greens with support from Nationalsaligned Alan Hunter and left-leaning independent Basil Cameron voted on Thursday to support two plans of management (PoMs) of the three Brunswick Heads holiday parks to go on public exhibition. Crs Cate Coorey, Jan Hackett and Paul Spooner voted against. No independent legal advice will be sought over the long-contested encroached lands by the state government, and The Echo understands that this now sets in motion the formal transfer of long-contested land to the state government for those parks. Cr Sarah Ndaiye’s rescission motion overturns a previous motion from April 20 that maintained a long-held Greens position on calling for clarity around alleged encroached boundaries. PoMs for the Ferry Reserve and Massey Greene will soon be open for public submissions while The Terrace Reserve PoM is still to be negotiated. Residents opposed in the chamber were clearly disgusted at the Greens’ capitulation, which came with very little public notice. While the state-governmentrun North Coast Holiday Parks Trust (NCHPT) have promised 10 metres of public access setbacks along shorelines, it appears not just boundaries will now be all under the NCHPT’s control; large areas of road reserves and Crown lands look set to be subsumed for the
commercial benefit of the NCHPT. Much of the rhetoric by the Greens councillors had been reported previously by The Echo; they all spoke in similar tone (except Cr Jeannette Martin, who did not speak). They said that they reached the best deal possible and that they believe if they don’t do what NCHPT want, then NCHPT will take Council to court or revert to previous plans. Yet the claims Council was at risk of court action were not supported by staff. Previous PoMs were roundly condemned by the public at the March 9 meeting with NCHPT.
Legal advice ignored Cr Cate Coorey tabled an alternative motion to seek independent legal advice – with support from Labor’s Cr Paul Spooner and a rowdy public – but was defeated. Additionally Labor’s Jan Hackett – with the gallery – challenged the Greens on the lack of legal clarity, yet the Greens instead bunkered down and pushed on regardless in the knowledge they had the numbers. Mayor Simon Richardson did however ask Council’s director of sustainable environment and economy Shannon Burt if there were talks with NCHPT after the last motion, to which she replied there were informal talks about the options, yet the topic of ‘deemed refusal’ was not raised. ‘Deemed refusal’ was one main reason Cr Ndaiye pushed her rescission motion before councillors. Throughout debate, the mayor continued on page 3
Blue is the new black.
Just some of the paddlers at Sunday’s Mullum 2 Bruns paddle. Photo Jeff Dawson Aslan Shand
The sun was shining on the Mullum 2 Bruns paddle on Sunday providing perfect conditions for the 1,100 participants to take to the Brunswick River. Starting at Federation Bridge, in Mullumbimby’s Heritage Park, participants took off in smaller groups ensuring those who were racing weren’t going to run down the more leisurely paddle-goer. Races included the stand up paddle, the open paddle challenge and the double kayak challenge with prizes for both female and male winners. Prizes were also awarded for the best decorated dragon boat – a tough decision between the ten boats that came for the paddle. MC Roger Curran said, ‘The best dressed boat was won by the Gold
Coaster whose balloons moved in time with the paddles.’ ‘They come for the fun of the paddle and we had participants from Grafton to Maroochydore with ten dragon boats – that was the highest number yet.’ The kayaks came in 20 minutes faster than the stand up paddle boarders, while general participants were able to come in at their own pace. Helping local marine rescue were a number teams from Port Macquarie, Point Danger and Trial Bay, who were sent up to help keep the participants safe. Curren said, ‘One of the dragon boat teams lost a paddle and then it was the marine rescue who came to help. It was a spectacular event and a wonderful atmosphere. Everybody was so happy. People were enjoying life. What a fabulous spirit
there is in the community. ‘People were so generous and we have raised more than $30,000. There was such huge generosity of spirit.’ Beneficiaries from the fundraising are marine rescue, the surf club and the Brunswick Heads visitor centre.
Local business support Support from local businesses who provided prizes for raffles was key to the success and general participants had their wristbands put into the hat for a surf tour of Bali provided by Mojo Surf. ‘The highlight was that there was a really different turnout in the people who came to Brunswick Heads,’ continued Roger. ‘From quite early on people came to watch the spectacle and were really rewarded and generally had a lot of fun.’
Northern Rivers northernrivers.harcourts.com.au
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