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Volume 4 #19 Thursday, January 12, 2012 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au 21,000 copies every week CAB AUDIT
...page 12
LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
Event-site plan a ‘social disaster’ Luis Feliu
Mozzie man to hang up his nets Steve Spencer
Using natural methods to keep the Tweed’s biting insects at bay has been Clive Easton’s passion for 28 years. Pottering around the shire’s wetlands and woodlands may not be everyone’s idea of a fun career, but Mr Easton describes it as the best job at council. ‘I’ve had a really good time. I’m allowed scope to do my job which involves research and innovation, working with scientists, engineers, public health officers, town planners and the public. I get to meet and work with a lot of people,’ said Mr Easton, who plans to spend more time fishing, surfing and travelling after his retirement in February. ‘It keeps you thinking when you are dealing with complex ecology and a
Tweed Shire Council entomologist Clive Easton retires next month after almost 30 years keeping a keen eye on the shire’s insects, especially the biting ones. Photo Jeff ‘Itchy and Scratchy’ Dawson
lot of people. People can be annoyed when they have a problem with insects, but it is always good to be able to help an individual.’ Mr Easton said control methods had changed drastically since he first began work on the Tweed in 1983. Nowadays mozzie control has more to do with making sure mosquito larvae become part of the aquatic food chain rather than aerial spraying with toxic insecticides.
Natural solutions Allowing small fish into mosquito breeding grounds drastically drops mozzie numbers and appropriate controlled opening of certain flood gates to flush stagnant pools with salt water and reduce acidity can solve much of the problem. ‘Improving water quality and adjusting water levels has proven to be the best method. Mosquitoes thrive in poor-quality water devoid of natural predators,’ he said.
‘These days we have nothing like the number of mosquitoes that were about in the 1980s. Every season is different of course. ‘We try to avoid chemicals whenever possible and look to environmental solutions. Small changes to the habitat work well.’ One method now used involves use of soil bacteria discovered to kill only mozzies around desert waterholes in the Middle East. Spread around the wetlands, the commercially bred bacteria have a devastating effect of Tweed mozzies. Decades of work by Mr Easton must have led to fewer cases of Ross River virus and Barmah Forest virus in the shire. Mr Easton said the two illnesses were particularly debilitating to manual workers, such as farmers and tradesmen, because they may cause extended episodes of fatigue and arthritis in the small joints. Biting midges are a harder problem continued on page 4
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A potential crime wave and a social and environmental disaster is how several speakers at the upcoming NSW Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) public hearings have described the controversial plan for a permanent music-festival site at Yelgun on the Tweed-Byron shire border. The commission, which makes the final decision on the North Byron Parklands event site proposal where Splendour in the Grass and other music festivals are set to be staged, has scheduled two public hearings for Wednesday, February 1, at the Byron Bay Community Centre and Thursday, February 2, at the Ocean Shores Public School hall in Shara Boulevard, Ocean Shores, both starting at 9am. The NSW planning department recently recommended approval for the development, allowing maximum crowds of up to 30,000 people for three events in its first year, growing to 50,000 people in later years. It also recommended a maximum of 25,000 on-site campers. It says the events site would attract tourists from across Australia and overseas and provide job opportunities. But Tweed and Byron shire community and environmental groups, including Pottsville Community Association and Wooyung Defenders, are unanimous in their opposition to the plan. Byron Shire Council recently moved an urgency motion directing staff to prepare a submission for the hearings opposing the plan. Mayor Jan Barham said the recommendation showed a total disregard for community concerns and undermined local democracy. Cr Barham
said the proposed event numbers recommended were ‘huge’. Deputy mayor Basil Cameron says ‘council doesn’t think it’s an appropriate development for the site’, right next to the Billindugel Nature Reserve. ‘And we’re not talking about the event Splendour, which often gets confused, but an application for a permanent ongoing event site at Yelgun,’ Cr Cameron said. Local environmental broadcaster and author Gary Opit fears the plan ‘will generate a potential crime wave, besides the traffic problems, the lack of suitable fire and flood emergency evacuations and the disruption to the migratory rainforest birds along the narrowest portion of the adjacent wildlife corridor’.
Illegal drug industry targeting the area Mr Opit says that ‘over time any locality offering a permanent party atmosphere, whether it be Kings Cross, Surfers Paradise or, in the future, the Tweed Coast towns and Brunswick Heads, will eventually lead to ‘a crime wave’ with the illegal drug industry targeting the area. Convenor of the Coalition for Festival Sanity, Mac Nicolson, says the proposal was an unrivalled recipe for ‘an environmental and social disaster’ and the recommendation had been ‘100 per cent in favour of the music promoters’ with the local community totally ignored. ‘I am absolutely astounded by the numbers and the overkill,’ Mr Nicolson said. Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann said the decision was a blow to the work continued on page 4