THE BYRON SHIRE
H E A LT H &
Volume 32 #17 Wednesday, October 4, 2017
www.echo.net.au Phone 02 6684 1777 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
The NBN is officially a mess – p12
PAGES 22-25
S T I L L WA I T I N G F O R R U S S I A TO I N T E R F E R E W I T H T H E M A R R I AG E V OT E
Hi ho it’s back to school we go – p21
Living the Good Life – p26, 27
Horoscopes and cinema reviews – p43
Spot the fake gig guide entry – p44
Online in
netdaily
Call to develop flood plan for Billinudgel www.echo.net.au/call-developflood-plan-billinudgel
Mullum affordable housing proposed
Bollywood Bruns
Twenty-five one-bedroom units
The D’Cruz family took part in Saturday’s Indian night at the Bruns Picture House. Pictured are Priya, Tiki and Suni, while in the back are Zerina, Edna, Shamila and Mahlia. Photo Jeff Dawson Paul Bibby
Watching the Bollywood Sisters dip and shimmy their way through a pulsing Indian dance number, it’s hard to believe they were once disconnected from their cultural heritage. ‘That aspect of our culture was swept off the map,’ says one half of the duo, Zerina Millard, of growing up in country Victoria and Canberra. ‘I didn’t even realise I had brown skin until I was 10 or 11 or something like that.’ ‘Mum always cooked curries but that was about it.’ More than two decades on, Zerina and Shamila have not only embraced their Indian heritage, they are sharing it with hundreds of others in the community through Bollywood dance.
On Saturday night as their proud mother Edna and dance-loving children watched on, the sisters brought a little bit of Mumbai to the Shire for Bruns Goes Bollywood at the Brunswick Picture House. A sell-out audience feasted on curry and danced their way through English-language Bollywood film Bride and Prejudice. Zarina and Shamila performed multiple times throughout the night and got the audience’s shoulders bouncing.
Mountain of love ‘It was one of my favourite gigs to date – there was just a mountain of love coming from the audience,’ Zerina says. ‘People were dancing and everyone was coming up to us and asking
when our classes were on.’ The duo’s mum, Edna D’Cruz, has been a mainstay at her daughter’s shows from the beginning and is deeply proud that they are bringing contemporary Indian dance to the community. After coming to Australia with her 11 sisters and brothers in 1968 from Kerala in southern India, Ms D’Cruz married and, about a decade later, started a family. Zerina moved to the Shire in 2000 and the rest of the close-knit family weren’t far behind. ‘We’re a very close family – basically where the kids go, we follow,’ Ms D’Cruz said. ‘At 15, 16 they wouldn’t even touch spicy food! Now I’m watching my grandchildren doing Bollywood dancing. It’s beautiful.’
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A two-storey affordable housing proposal between Council’s carpark and the Mullumbimby Community Preschool would see six of the twenty-five one-bedroom units be ‘affordable’ in perpetuity, according to North Coast Community Housing (NCCH). The DA for Railyard, which is on council-owned land, is on public exhibition until October 11. The Echo understands that a heritage precedent for affordable housing was set by the casting vote of Greens mayor Simon Richardson last year, when a similar, smaller proposal was approved on Station Street. NCCH’s CEO John McKenna told The Echo their proposal goes beyond state legislation, which requires a ten-year guarantee that 20 per cent of any affordable housing project be ‘affordable.’ ‘Our financial projections are based on holding the social and affordable housing units for the life of the complex; our projections go out to 30 years,’ he said. As for price, McKenna said, ‘Our financial projections were based on renting two of the six units we will retain as affordable housing at 80 per cent of market rent of $375, so we would be offering these at $300 per week. The four social housing units will be rented to applicants on the NSW housing waitlist when the project is completed. These units would be rented at 25 per cent of their income, typically this would be approximately $95 per week
from their pension.’ Asked how the proposal would maintain the heritage of the town, McKenna replied, ‘The site is within the Mullumbimby Conservation Area (MCA) and is adjacent to the Council buildings.’
Heritage ‘The concept design complies with the standards and criteria set out in the Byron DCP 2014 for infill development in the MCA and demonstrates respect to the heritage context in terms of sympathetic form, scale, bulk, design, and materials. The proposal is sympathetic to the “local character” of Station Street and will not adversely impact on the broader heritage values of the Mullumbimby Conservation Area. It will enhance the understanding of the history of the site through not only its built form and use of materials but proposed public interpretation devices (yet to be developed).’ Asked if he supports the plans, Mayor Richardson told The Echo, ‘I haven’t seen the absolute details but it is certainly a better outcome than previously, where we were going to lose the tree and only get a few blocks that would have sold for large sums. They are putting in affordable housing in perpetuity, beyond what is required and providing muchneeded smaller dwellings in a market that is filled with large houses, but I am concerned at the prices.’ Q Full story on www.echo.net.au
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