Letters Dredging for beaches Changes in inshore currents, more water, high tides and rough seas have had a damaging effect on some of our beaches. Beaches have been scoured out, up and down the east coast. The northern sides of points, especially in the corners like at Clarkes Beach or Broken Head have really copped it. The foredunes and trees on them have been washed into the sea. It’s a complicated thing involving many variables. When they decided to dredge sand from the Tweed Bar and drop it below Pt Danger, it drifted around to Snapper and onwards creating the Super Bank as a byproduct! Those beaches are quite stable now after years of adjusting the amounts of sand being pumped according to the conditions. I’m not going to suggest we do anything on that scale! Our beaches are beautiful and valuable assets and there’s a lot of valuable infrastructure and businesses affected by the beach erosion as well. Surely it’s ridiculous for us just let it all go! Rock walls, sandbag walls, and erosion control structures spoil beaches and often have a deleterious effect on other beaches further along. I’m suggesting a smallscale experimental dredging operation. It’s possible to drill a pipeline from the cliff base of the Cape below the lighthouse and run it to Wategos. Sand dredged a little way out from the Cape could be pumped to the outlet at Wategos. If this was done sensitively and turned off when not needed, we could stabilise our beaches and we may even see the turtles who used to nest here return again. Some folk may object because the little inner reefs would be covered with sand, but if the sand pumping wasn’t overdone it should be possible to get these beaches back to normal – as they were when I was a kid. Food for thought anyway. Warwick Anderson Suffolk Park
Silence stokes fears More than one month ago Victims of Holiday Letting (VOHL) made a written query to NSW Planning Minister, Mr Rob Stokes. An extract: ‘It has been more than one year since
Cartoon Gary Cavanagh – Instagram: @gary_cavanagh submissions for the Discussion Paper “Short Term Rental Accommodation A New Regulatory Framework” closed on 11 September, 2019. These submissions have not been publicly released. ‘On page 4 of this Discussion Paper it states “All submissions will be made publicly available. Government is required by law to release that information”. ‘Further, it states “It is also a statutory requirement that all submissions are provided to the Legislative Review Committee of Parliament”. Has this legislative requirement been undertaken? ‘Submissions to the first public exhibition “Explanation of Intended Effect STRA Planning Framework” closed on 16 November, 2018. Submissions were made public within two months of this date. ‘I am seeking an explanation as to why there has been an inordinate delay in publication of these submissions and the future date that this oversight will be corrected.’ At the time of writing this letter, submissions have still not been published. Neither Mr Stokes, nor his ministerial staff have responded to the query. Department of Planning staff confirmed that the submissions had been sent to Mr Stokes some time previously. VOHL is perplexed about why the submissions have not been published, as required by law. Publication should not have been delayed by the pandemic. Could it be that the NSW government is concealing something? Perhaps it is the
reported submission from Fire and Rescue NSW that was critical of the proposed Fire Safety standard in the policy. Is this another example of a lack of transparency from the NSW government? Doug Luke VOHL
Astronomy & zodiac Geographically, the naming of clusters of stars helped humans to navigate at night, and also locate an individual star in a certain part of the sky. The twelve star clusters on the ecliptic, which is the path our sun appears to follow, are known as the zodiac. Zodiac is a Greek word, however, one of the earliest zodiacs is at Dendera, Egypt, recorded over 4,000 years ago. In Hebrew the zodiac is called Mazzaroth, which is mentioned in Job, the earliest book in the Bible. Incredibly, in almost all cultures, the zodiac is the same (how on Earth did that happen?). Most of us know the signs; Sagittarius is the archer, Cancer the crab, Gemini the twins, etc. However, if you look at the night sky, it’s impossible to see these pictures by looking at each constellation (try and see). So where did these pictures come from (note: this is not astrology but astronomy)? Did they come from a story? Each star has a name and a meaning (according to their brightness), forming a story. The pictures may have been mnemonics to help us remember. Ancient cultures have
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created their own mythology, but the story of origin is the one underlying the zodiac (search and see). Someone suggested this story begins at Virgo (virgin), because the Sphinx has the head of a woman and points due east, and, that it ends with Leo, as the Sphinx has the body of a lion. Sphinx means ‘bind together’ or ‘squeeze’. Maybe the stars aren’t about us, but someone awesome, kind, and infinite? Peter Duke Suffolk Park
Stolen money If banking legislation gets the ‘Yes’ vote this November in Australia, the banks will be able to steal your money, legally, out of your account and use your money to prop themselves up, and support their risky financial practices. Your money will no longer be safe in any bank in Australia, if this legislation gets approved. In addition, banks will be
able to limit cash withdrawals to $10,000, meaning that you won’t be able to rescue your own money by taking it out of your account. Hate to frighten you all, but this scares the pants off me! Since the Global Financial Crisis this legislation has already gone through in other countries, such as Greece, where people have had half their life savings stolen out of their accounts – legally – by the banks. You can help this legislation to be voted out in Australia by signing the petition at www.citizenparty.org.au. The petition also calls for a safeguarded savings bank, just like in the good ole days of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. This dreadful legislation is being presented to Parliament in November, so your signature on this petition now is vital. You can also write to your local Member of Parliament Tamara Smith, MP at: ballina@parliament.nsw.gov.au. Ann Carter Mullumbimby
Secret roads I was interested to read in The Echo (7 October) about the Council staff approach to Infrastructure Australia for funding to upgrade Ewingsdale Road. I was particularly interested in Cr Basil Cameron’s and State Member Tamara Smith’s comments and opinions on preference for Park and Ride schemes, and on their being left out of the planning discussions. Firstly, I feel, on Park and Ride that Council lost credibility on such a scheme when they failed to interact positively with Elements
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Resort when the train service from Sunrise to Byron was established. This was a perfect opportunity to trial Park and Ride without too much expense to ratepayers, but Council could not even manifest an appropriate parking area for those wishing to use the service, or provide signs indicating where and how to use Park and Ride, or manage a workable arrangement with Elements Resort. Secondly, though I understand that it is reasonable to expect that they would be informed about the plan, Tamara Smith’s and, particularly, Basil Cameron’s comments clearly bagging the road upgrade seems to answer the question of why they weren’t asked. Gyan Moyes Tyagarah
Sewage treatment I can understand Alan Dickens frustration with the failings of the operations of the multi-million dollar Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs). I suspect that he knows more about how to operate these new STPs effectively than the management experts responsible for these plants. Council could do a lot worse than seek his proven expertise based on his effective operation of the old overloaded ‘battleship’ STPs for over 26 years working for Council, especially the old South Byron STP. He was transferred there by the then executive works and services engineer, Keith Disher to solve the ammonia exceedances which were, at that stage, breaching EPA licence requirements. Alan solved that problem for Council, ▶ Continued on next page
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