Letters Lighthouse walk Our family are regular visitors to Byron Bay and have, for many years, enjoyed the walking track to the lighthouse. Yesterday (Sunday, 10 September) we walked the track again and were deeply saddened to see the brutalist concrete structure that now serves as a path for the first part of the journey from Wategos. It simply beggars belief that those in charge of the unique walking track could think it appropriate to introduce a structure as hideous as this to a place of such natural beauty. Instead of maintaining a humble track that was subservient to the natural environment, a brutal statement of human domination has been displayed. It’s a slash across the beautiful face of coastal Byron and testimony to human insensitivity and stupidity. A thorough review of the decision-making process should be undertaken to ensure that when issues like this arise all relevant considerations are taken into account – not just economic and engineering ones. John Bennetts St Kilda West, Victoria
Complete rail trail The Byron Shire Council’s recent decision to approve the proposed rail trail on the abandoned rail corridor, excluding the section between Mullum and Byron, is a half-hearted half-step toward realising the community’s desire for progress on this issue. The Echo’s report on the vote notes this decision will make less likely the already unlikely prospect that trains will ever return to
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that section of the line, begging the question why the councillors thought it was a necessary compromise. In truth opposition to the rail trail is ideological, it’s rooted in theory, not facts. It’s based on the idea there’s a demand for a rail service between Byron Bay and Mullumbimby, and there’s profit to be made from that demand. The proponents of this theory present no evidence for it and have shown little interest in finding any, they seem content to simply assert their opinion and expect everyone to accept it at face value. But the evidence already exists to disprove their precious theory. The final report from the 2004 Parliamentary Inquiry into the closure of the local rail service made clear there were two main reasons for the termination of the Casino to Murwillumbah line. Namely escalating maintenance costs and declining patronage. These
factors were due largely to long-term social and environmental processes, such as deterioration of wooden bridges and the advent of alternative transport. Whatever the opponents of the rail trail may want to believe about the validity of these arguments, there is little chance their opposition will alter or reverse these historical trends. They should abandon their goal of going forward looking backward and instead get on with the project of delivering a viable rail trail for all of Byron Shire. John Scrivener Main Arm
Your cover Just want to acknowledge The Echo for your front page of the Uluru Statement. A powerful and generous contribution to a really important historic event in the making. Thank you for your beautiful heartfulness! Virginia White Goonellabah
No more Hottentot I have received a petition from Change.org to change the name of Hottentot Crescent, Mullumbimby to another South African word, ‘Khoisan’, also totally irrelevant to the area. Why can’t it be changed to the name of an Australian bird or an Australian tree in keeping with the rest of the area? As in Cockatoo, Quail, Tuckeroo, Corella, etc. According to sahistory.org: ‘It is important to remember that the Khoi-San people were the most brutalised by colonialists who tried to make them extinct, and undermined their language and identity. As a free and democratic South Africa today, we cannot ignore to correct the past.’ So by using Khoisan, as was suggested, are we not repeating the offence caused by the word Hottentot? Vicki Kennedy Mullumbimby
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