THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 32 #51
River Street
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Ballina
www.echo.net.au Phone 02 6684 1777 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
FEATURE P20-21
GOES WELL WITH COFFEE AND ANY TYPE OF CAKE
Byron Writers A new law to What’s crooked fest lineup further facilitate Trump up to? announced – p3 societal decay – p14 – p17
Turtles, turtles and more turtles – p18, 19
Online in
netdaily
Lismore artist wins Border Art Prize www.echo.net.au/2018/05/lismoreartist-wins-border-art-prize
The great 2018 river paddle
Despite a few spots of rain, the 2018 Mullum2Bruns paddle attracted a decent crowd, both in the river and on the bank, with some 1,206 paddlers participating. Among the kayak winners, Dane Sloss was the first male to come in at 46 minutes while female winner Erin Blanch followed not far behind at 51 minutes. The slightly slower standup paddlers came in next, with Kate Baker the first female (1hr 5min) and Jackson Cosgrove (1hr 53sec). Co-organiser Jo-Ann Spiteri said the event ran almost without a hitch, with ‘just a few minor injuries’. For more pics see page 6 or visit the gallery at www.echo.net.au. Photo Jeff ‘Paddles’ Dawson
Bruns community ‘store’ evicted by govcorp Paul Bibby
A local service that gave away clothes, books and other items to the community has been evicted from its Brunswick Heads home by the contentious state governmentowned corporation pushing for camping next to degraded and protected cypress pines at the Terrace Reserve holiday park. Dennis Stevenson had operated the informal giveaway stall known as the ‘Bruns Store’ out of an old shed in Banner Park next to the Brunswick River since the beginning of the year. Having begun with a few boxes
of books and kids’ clothes, the stall grew into a community hub where people would pop in to pick up everything from kids’ toys to televisions or borrow a surf ski for a quick splash in the river. ‘There were a lot of great stories of people getting something they really needed like a pram or a free jacket, and a lot of people who just popped in to browse and then stayed for a chat,’ Mr Stevenson said. But on May 9, Mr Stevenson was told by the regional manager of Reflections Holiday Parks (RHP) – the state government-owned land trust responsible for much of the Brunswick Heads foreshore – that he had
to be out within two days. RHP was formerly known as North Coast Holiday Parks and was recently rebranded.
Complaints Manager Jennifer Scott allegedly told Mr Stevenson there had been a number of complaints about the stall taking up too many tables that would otherwise have been used by local picnickers. She also told Mr Stevenson that he could not operate in the shed without being given permission following a formal application. Five days later, with Mr Stevenson questioning RHP’s authority to
move him on, staff from RHP came to the shed and removed all of the items stored there, effectively evicting the service. ‘On Monday morning I had it all looking perfect, then I got a text saying: “I have been instructed to move your belongings to storage… Please email or ring Reflections Holiday Parks, attention Jennifer Scott, to arrange pick-up.” ‘Along with the text they’d sent me a picture of the empty shed. ‘I know he was just doing what he was told. Basically, without any due process, someone had ordered him to remove everything from the shed.’ Mr Stevenson said that, far from
receiving complaints from locals about using tables, most had complimented him on what he was doing. This included the work he and other volunteers did each week to keep the shed and the surrounding park clean.
Hilarious ‘It was pretty hilarious that someone claimed to have authority over the shed considering that when we first got there you could tell it hadn’t been cleaned for years,’ Mr Stevenson said. ‘When I started, there was a pile of mud in the corner and the tables continued on page 2