Letters When was your last skin check? u b1_-;Ѵ "|-r;Ѵ0;u] Ň u mm; ; ;bv;m_;u u mv|-m $_olrvom The dedicated skin clinic at Mullumbimby Comprehensive Health Centre is a complete skin cancer diagnosis and treatment facility with specialised equipment and two purpose built treatment rooms. Our doctors are highly experienced in the diagnosis and management of skin cancer with digital mole monitoring equipment that enables us to store images -m7 1olr-u; 1_-m];v o ;u ঞl;ĺ -uѴ u;1o]mbঞom -m7 -11 u-|; 7b-]movbv o= vhbm 1-m1;u iv ;vv;mঞ-Ѵ |o b|v v 11;vv= Ѵ |u;-|l;m|ĺ ;u om; should get a professional skin check at least once a year - or every few months if you are at high-risk or have been previously diagnosed with skin cancer. CALL 6684 1511
Gold Coast coming There has been a lot of talk about ‘The Greens’ political party bringing the Gold Coast into Byron Bay, Brunswick Heads, and Mullumbimby. The takeover of the creekfront of Belongil Estuary and transition of that waterway into a Gold Coast canal began last year and looks set to continue. DA 10.2020.489.1 for 12 Giaour Street, Belongil seeks to follow on from the approved development at 6 Giaour Street, eliminating all vegetation and building a glass-and-steel box virtually down to the waterfront, with a pool placed one fat fart from the water itself. This wasn’t supposed to happen under The Greens. But then again, it was The Greens who voted to get rid of backyards and turn them into holiday units for multinational property managers. It was The Greens who turned green laneways into asphalt. The Greens mayor did a deal, allowing a property developer to exceed floor area and height limits on Jonson Street. A previous Greens mayor did a deal with the same property developer to eliminate the Belongil village centre and replace five shops, a cinema, restaurants, nursery, village green, parking, an art gallery, offices, and restaurant, plus film studio facilities and a yoga studio, with a housing estate. So much for ‘walkable neighbourhoods’. The Greens allowed 6
Giaour Street to be turned into a monster, exceeding limits, and they’ll probably do it at 12 Giaour Street too. Matt Hartley Byron Bay
Eroding Byron How can it be that 42 years after the problem was identified that there can be a panic when the coastal dunes start eroding at Clarkes Beach? We are in a mess with coastal erosion, despite a 1978 Public Works Department Study identifying the cause as a net sand deficit, with less sand entering the bay than is being carted out of it by northwards littoral drift. After considering the full gambit of options, Council adopted the policy of planned retreat in 1986. Since then the problem of rising sea levels and intensifying storms, owing to climate heating, have become apparent, with seas likely to rise by over a metre by the end of this century. For each metre rise in sea levels, sandy coasts need to retreat 50–150m inland to maintain equilibrium. This has compounded the existing problem. Since 1978 millions have been spent on coastal studies, and years spent preparing failed coastal plans, and we are still resorting to knee jerk reactions and spending fortunes undertaking temporary works. The simple truth is that if we pay a fortune putting in protection works to stop the dunes eroding, then the beach will erode in
front, so we end up with just walls and no beach. In fact, the refraction of waves off the walls increases beach erosion, and the erosive force is transferred to the end of the walls (as can be seen at Belongil). If we want beaches in the future (and Byron’s are worth millions in tourism revenue) we either have to allow the coast to retreat inland over time, or use sand replacement to maintain an artificial beach in front of them. This is no mean feat in an era of rising sea-levels, given that if we want to raise the beach by a metre we have to raise the sea-bed by the same amount out to the limit of wave, storm, and current influences on sand movement. Two sand replacement proposals have been advanced: A 2006 study identified that an initial volume of 2.85 million m3 could be dredged from a sand lobe in front of Cape Byron, barged to the coast and spread with bulldozers on beaches, in 2006 dollars costing $18 million and taking five months (7 days a week, 24 hours a day). They estimated this may, at best, last 25 years before having to be topped up, though it could be lost in a single cyclone. In 2016 the proposal was to suck 50–80,000 m3 of sand per annum from Cosy Corner and pump it over to Clarkes Beach, at a cost of over $11 million for 20 years. This would rob Wategos and The ▶ Continued on page 13
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Submissions on the Byron Shire Council’s Draft Unauthorised Dwelling Policy close this week. For more information go to www.marra2482.org. Cartoon by Gary Cavanagh
60 Stuart Street, Mullumbimby
‘The price good men pay for ĶŕĎĶǓ ĕſĕŕĈĕ Ɛş żƖćōĶĈ ëǓ ëĶſƆ ĶƆ Ɛşȝćĕ ſƖōĕĎ ćƷ ĕưĶō Ŕĕŕȁț – Plato
86 JONSON ST, BYRON BAY 6685 7662 therailsbyronbay.com
AND THE FAMOUS
RAILS kitchen
Thursday 29 October
Chris Fisher Duo Friday 30 October
Alivan blu
Saturday 31 October
Ooz
Sunday 1 November
Tim Conlon
Monday 2 November
Neil Mccann
Tuesday 3 November
Stoned Waves Wednesday 4 November
Jon J Bradley
wĈƐşćĕſ ǩǯǽ ǩǧǩǧ The Byron Shire Echo 11