Tweed rail trail has now opened $800,000 in community election commitments

State Member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin, has this morning announced a suite of small-scale election commitments aimed at strengthening local communities for future natural disasters, improving services for families and youth, and supporting sport and cultural life.

Ms Saffin says she remains firmly focused on leading the flood recovery and is also delivering projects, small and large, which will make a real difference to people’s lives across our electorate.

‘Today, I’ll be meeting with members of the Nimbin

Advisory Group and Aquarius 50 Organising Committee in Nimbin, and then visiting Friends of the Koala Incorporated in Lismore, to thank them for the work they are doing in the community.

‘And over the coming weeks, I’ll be catching up with other local community leaders driving more great projects.

‘These election commitments are ones I have secured support for if a Minns Labor government comes to office at the NSW state election on March 25.’

Read more on The Echo online at: www.echo.net.au.

No April Fool’s Day Tweed rodeo

Aslan Shand

A proposal for an annual rodeo at the Council-managed Les Burger Sports Field, Cabarita Beach was knocked back by the majority of Tweed Shire councillors at yesterday’s council meeting.

The proposal to Tweed Council was for an event to take place on 1 April that would include live music, and amotorbike show etc for 1,500 to 2,500 attendees.

Councillor, Dr Nola Firth put the motion to say that Tweed Council ‘does not support the rodeo event proposed’, which was seconded

by Cr Meredith Dennis.

‘Looking at the application it is proposed to be an annual event. It is on Council land and we as leaders in the community need to be taking a lead on this issue,’ said Cr Firth.

‘We heard from Lisa Ryan that this is entertainment at the expense of animals.

‘The RSPCA is opposed to rodeo and rodeo schools because of the potential for significant injury, suffering or distress to the animals involved,’ she explained.

Read more on The Echo online at: www.echo.net.au.

The Tweed section of the Northern Rivers Rail Trail opened last week making 24km of the former rail line open to the public.

The rail trail runs from the heritage-listed Murwillumbah Railway Station to Crabbes Creek and features 26 bridges and two tunnels.

‘The Tweed section of the rail trail meanders gently southwards through the spectacular scenery of the Tweed Valley, connecting the villages of Stokers Siding, Burringbar, Mooball and Crabbes Creek. The path features a 500m Burringbar Range Tunnel, home to tiny micro-bats and glow worms,’ said a spokesperson.

Lismore MP Janelle Saffin, who represented Federal

Member for Richmond, Justine Elliot, at the ceremony, said the Northern Rivers Rail Trail would eventually run from Murwillumbah to Casino through the spectacular scenery of the Tweed Valley, Byron Shire, Lismore and Richmond Valley.

The trail has seen the restoration of a range of heritage-listed bridges including both the historic Dunbible Creek Rail Bridge and the Burringbar Under Bridge No.1 near Mooball, a bolted plate girder bridge, first opened in 1894. They are two of the largest and most historically significant landmarks on the rail trail.

‘These are unique heritage bridges that really add to the look and feel of the area with the 100m timbre bridge at Mooball being restored,’ said Project Director, Iain Lonsdale.

Mayor of Tweed Shire, Chris Cherry, said she was confident the rail trail would be warmly embraced by the local community, providing an exciting new corridor between villages.

‘This is going to be such an incredible new asset for the community and will provide a safe new link between Murwillumbah and the villages of Stokers Siding, Burringbar, Mooball and Crabbes Creek,’ Cr Cherry said.

‘This is going to be a first-class attraction that not only connects us to our community and neighbours but to the wider world’.

Gym/dance studio blocked at Ballina Racecourse

A proposal to amend the Local Environmental Plan for a site at 34 Racecourse Road was blocked by Ballina Council at their last meeting, preventing the redevelopment of the site for a proposed gym school and dance studio.

Despite staff recommendations to proceed to a Gateway determination, it quickly became obvious that councillors thought this was the wrong location for the idea, with horse racing to be prioritised over other uses.

Cr Jeff Johnson said he was excited about the proposal when it first came up... but was since disappointed.

‘Given the location, I don’t think it’s compatible with surrounding businesses.’ Council then voted unanimously to block the LEP change from proceeding. Cr Eva Ramsey was absent and Cr Phil Meehan absented himself owing to a potential conflict of interest.

Read more on The Echo online at: www.echo.net.au.

Iron Gates developers roll out the big guns at conciliation meeting at Evans Head. Community says ‘NO’

Aslan Shand

Iron Gates is an approximately 50 hectare site at Evans Head that has been subject to proposed development applications (DAs) since the 1980s. The local community has repeatedly highlighted the flood and fire risks of the site as well as held developer Graham Ingles to account for illegal clearing of the site through the courts.

The site is once again back in the Land and Environment Court (L&EC) for a Section 34 Conciliation Conference following the rejection of a DA by the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) on 7 September, 2022 that highlighted two independent reports stating that the DA should be refused. The conciliation conference was convened at the Iron Gates property at Evans Head on Monday morning (6 March, 2023) to consider the decision of the NRRP to refuse the DA from Goldcoral Pty Ltd for residential development on the property.

The conference was attended by staff of Richmond Valley Council and Council’s solicitor, Simone Barker from Bandjalang Traditional Owners and members of her family, represented by her solicitor. There was also a large phalanx of legal representatives and experts hired by the appellants Goldcoral Pty Ltd (in external administration), a substantial number of residents opposed to the development, and L&EC Commissioner Michael Chilcott who presided over the conference.

The commissioner indicated that he had only come to the file last Thursday.

Six locals addressed the commissioner

Dr Richard Gates from Evans Head Residents for Sustainable Development Incorporated said that he found it ‘passing strange’ that he should be addressing a conciliation conference of the L&EC having not been told what the grounds for the appeal from Goldcoral Pty Ltd were. He said that nonetheless, any matter involving proposed residential development at the Iron Gates site demanded comment so that the court was very clear that residential development was not welcome and that should it proceed, it would knowingly put people in ‘harm’s way’. He said that the land should be rezoned to a more environmentallysensitive zoning in keeping with its character, something the community has been asking for for many years.

Above: locals waiting to speak before the L&EC hearing.

Right: Measurements made of each of the Iron Gates sites using the ‘area measuring tool’ from SIX Maps. While the R1 zone makes up a majority of land within two of the blocks (276-277) it occupies only 40 per cent for the three blocks which are the subject of the DA, highlighting that much of the land is not zoned R1.

Dr Gates also said that he found it difficult to reconcile the fact that land along the Woodburn-Evans Head Road had been recommended for removal from residential development status in Richmond Valley Council’s draft Growth Management Strategy, while almost identical land to the south of it, the Iron Gates site, was still included for a large residential development.

Dr Gates also covered fire and flood risks for the Iron Gates site pointing out from his own experience as a volunteer firefighter, as well as chair of an advisory committee involved in fire plans for National Parks, and park ranger and planner in Canada, that it was difficult to understand how the RFS had given approval for residential development on the site. Dr Gates queried their assessment processes, particularly in view of climate changes now upon us.

He pointed out that the land is also subject to serious flooding: ‘why else would the developer dig two huge canals hundreds of metres long?’ Dr Gates also reminded the commissioner that the 2014 flood planning maps are incorrect and two of the three are missing from the assessment process.

Dr Gates highlighted that the NRPP was in error drawing the conclusion that ‘much of the land proposed for development’ was zoned R1 Residential when measurement showed that it was approximately 40 per cent with most of the rest being of environmental (see image).

Commissioner Chilcott also heard about many other issues of concern from the community including impact on the koala population from Maria Matthes, Aboriginal cultural landscape integrity matters and history from Jocelyn Reese from the Bundjalung Nation and Elaine Saunders from Evans Head Residents for Sustainable Development. Ms Saunders also included information about the 1895 destruction of the land bridge at Iron Gates which joined the north and south sides of the Evans River together allowing passage of the Aboriginal Nation for important cultural practices.

Dr Peter Ashley spoke particularly to the status of the Iron Gates Road, built illegally across wetlands to get to the property, and for which Richmond Valley Council claims no responsibility, and the matter of who the appellants were in the conciliation meeting, which is not known to the public. He asked whether the court might be interested to know who it was as there was information ‘on the street’ that it was foreign-owned. Ian Rankin spoke on the impact of the development on the local community and its infrastructure and the isolated nature of the community. There was no support for the development from any of the speakers.

Public excluded

Once the six speakers were heard by the commissioner, the meeting was adjourned and all the parties, except for the public, moved to the Iron Gates property where the conciliation process continued. The commissioner indicated that once the site visit was completed the parties would reconvene at the Casino Council Chambers but that the public was excluded. The outcome of the conciliation process would be provided by Council’s solicitor.

Power On Display

Dr Gates said that it was interesting to observe just how many people Goldcoral Pty Ltd had rolled up for the conciliation. Such a large contingent suggested money and power. ‘I expect they would be collecting information about what the community had to say. Hopefully they got the message that the Iron Gates development was not wanted and was dangerous.’

Dr Gates said that he expected that the case for appeal would go beyond the Section 34 conciliation process to the court itself and that those who gave evidence ast today’s conference could well end up giving evidence in court.