Ode to a ‘Byron character’ – Richard Maloney

Courtney Miller

Richard Maloney was gloriously eccentric. When I was a child, he spoke to me like a full human, with formed opinions and compelling ideas. He would test some of his trivia on me, or make me read the Australian Constitution. One of my fondest memories was of an 11 course meal he made for my sister and I. The first five courses were varieties of apples, the last five were varieties of chocolate, with a meal in between.

According to Professor Brendan Mackey from Griffith University, stopping the logging of our native forests would reduce CO2 emissions by 15 million tonnes each year, almost the same as the annual reduction needed to achieve our 2030 emissions reduction target.

Forests also provide critical habitat. Since settlement, 100 Australian species have become extinct with 13 added in 2021 alone. Now, more than 1,700 native species and ecological communities are known to be threatened and at risk of extinction.

Richard is someone who fully encompassed the spirit of this region with none of the stereotypical tropes.

He walked his own walk, quite literally with a gait few could match. He peppered his speech with words of idiosyncratic origin and definitions the New York Review of Books would admire. And he could tell you the plot lines and describe in great detail the characters of every book he’d read and they were many and varied.

Richard wasn’t a hippy or a surfer. He was a lawyer by trade, but his views

As the NSW election approaches, the climate and biodiversity value of the state’s trees are clearly an election issue, evidenced by the quick scuttling of the Land Reform Bill introduced by Agriculture Minister, Dugald Saunders, in December last year. Unsurprisingly, after extensive and severe flood events, Local Government NSW has called for ‘urgent action to address the climate crisis… and fit-for purpose protections for biodiversity of native habitats’.

Phasing out the logging of native forests, as WA and were alternative, antiestablishment and often confronting. He taught science at the Byron Community School for a time, he ran trivia nights and he read voraciously. He read TinTin and crime fiction; cookbooks by Edouard De Pomaine, books about people, politics, and travel – there was nothing he wouldn’t read if it was written well.

For my 18th birthday, Richard gave me 18 crime fiction novels carefully curated across eras from the 1920s to the 2000s, male and female authors, detec-

Victoria have done, would be an excellent start.

Ray Peck Hawthorn, Vic Marshalls Creek

The past week saw some intense rain in the Byron Shire. Council has a large deposit of fill near Marshalls Creek; the rain would no doubt have seeped fill into the creek; thus undermining the ‘rights of nature’ and the sensitive ecology that defines Marshalls Creek, and indeed all adjoining waterways.

The community deserve tive and thrillers, all fabulously unique. an update on this current reckless situation, as by defying its own policies Council is displaying poor governance and disregard of our democratic rights, indeed the rights of all sentient beings. Could the four councillors who voted against the removal of this pile of fill please inform the public of the current situation of the creek? This situation presents as environmental vandalism. Simply: ‘Is the creek singing or choking?’ www.misstree.com.au stephanie@misstree.com.au stephanie@misstree com au

Richard loved his Ducati, and days before he passed was happily delivering lollies to delighted kids. I will forever hear Richard’s commanding, yet playful, voice in my head, reading Suddenly to my four-year-old or relating the plot of his latest book.

Thank you, Richard, for forever widening and encouraging my love of books and the magical worlds and ideas they take us all to. Your unconventional perspective on the world is a loss to our Shire.

Native Plant Specialist

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