FOR WHEN THE TOILET PAPER RUNS OUT The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 34 #40 • Wednesday, March 11, 2020 • www.echo.net.au
Bared Byron bike bums
Rail trail push for track removal Hans Lovejoy
One of the biggest legs of the World Naked Bike Ride in the southern hemisphere was held Sunday, with 180 odd people donning their birthday suits and cruising the streets of Byron. While bicycle safety and ecological awareness were their main message, fun was never far from the agenda. Photo Jeff ‘Jenny Taylor’ Dawson
Virus sparks a-poo-calypse Paul Bibby While at the time of writing, there has been not one reported case of the illness formerly known as Coronavirus anywhere in the Northern Rivers, the threat is clearly being felt across the Shire. Virtually every local supermarket has experienced a mad rush on toilet paper, echoing the nationwide trend of people stocking up on the staple for fear of one apocalyptic scenario or another. ‘We’ve had a rush on toilet paper, tissues, long-life milk,
Byron Shire Council Notices ▶ p6
hand sanitiser and canned goods,’ Maddy, a staff member at Byron Woolies said. ‘We’ve been trying to get a bit extra, but it does seem to go quite quickly.’ Perhaps more worrying, given the local economy’s reliance on tourism, is a downturn in the number of people visiting the Shire. The head of Destination Byron, David Jones, said while he had not spoken to many operators about COVID-19 specifically, there was ‘certainly a demand downturn underway’.
Health and healing at your fingertips ▶ p15
Demand downturn ‘There could be some horrible times ahead,’ said Mr Jones, who is also the sales and marketing manager at Elements of Byron. ‘From Elements’ perspective, the biggest area of risk is the events and conference market. ‘We’ve seen some last-minute groups reallocating their travels from abroad to domestic. We’ve also seen that, pending travel advisories, their travels might not be going ahead.’ ▶ Continued on page 3
The best of Byron Bay’s A&I ▶ p18
A rail trail group have been lobbying NSW MPs to amend the Transport Administration Act 1988 (Section 99A) to allow the transfer of sections of the 132 km Murwillimbah to Casino rail corridor from transport use to Crown Lands ‘for the sole purpose of constructing a rail trail’. And while Northern Rivers Rail Trail (NRRT) claim that the amendment ensures that the corridor ‘can’t be sold,’ rail supporters Trains On Our Tracks (TOOT) aren’t so convinced, and are opposed to track removal. It’s a position supported by local NSW MP Tamara Smith (Greens), who told The Echo that should a bill be presented to parliament, her party will push for amendments. She told The Echo, ‘I will only support cycle paths along our rail corridors if the corridors remain in public hands through a public trust model and the tracks remain in place’. NRRT’s Geoff Meers told The Echo that the NSW Tumbarumba rail trail amendment ‘ensures the only use that can be made of the land is for a rail trail. It can’t be sold.’ According to yourvoice.svc.nsw. gov.au, the 22km NSW Tumbarumba rail trail will open on April 2020, and includes track removal. Meers said, ‘What we do not support is moving away from that simple change to constrain how or where in the corridor the trail should be built. That is an unnecessary level of detail that, in many places, makes the trail impossible.
Arts, culture, music – so much entertainment to be found in Seven ▶ p26
‘Our letter to MLCs encouraged them to support the amendment and not to support a requirement to build off-formation’. Meanwhile, TOOT are calling for an increased service of the existing solar train service from Sunrise to Byron’s CBD, and co-operation with rail trail advocates, so other parts of the rail line can coexist with a future train service. Jeremy Holmes from the Byron Bay Railroad Company told The Echo, ‘We are open to expanding the service, however there would need to be a financial partner – government or otherwise – to fund any expansion. ‘Byron Bay Railroad Company is a not-for-profit organisation, without government subsidy, and is working toward a cost-neutral operation’. Last year in July, Byron Shire Council was ‘excited’ to table its own multi-use rail corridor report, which looked at the ‘feasibility of reactivating the rail corridor from Bangalow to Yelgun.’ Mayor Simon Richardson said at the time, ‘[Report author] Arcadis suggested that a light rail system could be used to take people to festivals and markets and that this alone had the potential to take some 700,000 vehicles off the roads, which has huge benefits for the environment.’
Tweed rail trail Tweed Shire, meanwhile, is moving ahead with a 24-kilometre rail trail (shared-user path) along ▶ Continued on page 3
Got a job to do? Turn to our trusty Service Directory! ▶ p32
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