THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 26 #27 Tuesday, December 13, 2011 Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
CAB AUDIT
CENSORING *$#&@**!! ¬†∂# SINCE 1986
Markets licence gets reworked Caring for Mother Earth Chris Dobney & Hans Lovejoy
A second draft of the Expression of Interest for Market Licences will soon be up for public comment – alongside the current one – after Byron Shire councillors passed a motion by Crs Simon Richardson and Tom Tabart at its Thursday meeting. The new draft, unlike the previous one, will weigh criteria for the tender process in favour of localism and will be less reliant on monetary gains. Crs Ross Tucker and Diane Woods voted against, while both Crs Tony Heeson and Basil Cameron were absent from the chamber when the vote was taken. The decision comes after a packedout Byron Community Centre public meeting on Monday December 5, which unanimously rejected the
current draft. The unanimous resolution of Monday’s meeting reads: ‘We call on Council to reject draft policy as it stands and to convene a working group of stakeholders (including market managers, stallholders group and Council) to explore assessment criteria, a cost benefit analysis, a local procurement policy and alternative legal and Crown Lands advice.’ ABCs 4 Corners anchor Kerry O’Brien ably held together Monday’s meeting, which included panelists mayor Jan Barham, deputy mayor Cr Basil Cameron, CEO of Byron Community Centre – which runs the current Byron markets – Paul Spooner and Farmers Market (stallholder) Association representative Anthony Hotson. Cr Cameron said he had spent 18 months crafting the original policy with full community consultation,
only to have it knocked back by the state government due to some of the markets being held on Crown land. Both Cr Cameron and mayor Barham said there was a very real possibility that if Council failed to put the markets out to tender its control of the Crown land would be taken away by the state. They used the example of the state resumption of council-run caravan parks to make their point. From the floor, Cr Richardson condemned the council voting process, saying it was ‘not good leadership to put a poor document on public exhibition and then watch the community turn cartwheels trying to redraft it’. A working group of market managers, stallholders group and Council is scheduled to meet by the end of February. Q Letters page 16, editorial page 12
Perrow claims Pipeline victory Eve Jeffery
Byron Bay’s Kieren Perrow has made a lot of his family’s and friends’ dreams come true – not the least his own – when he conquered Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii, on the weekend. He took out the 30th crown in the world-renowned Pipeline Masters, joining a list of esteemed Aussie surfers who have held the title, including Mark Richards, Simon Anderson, Mark Occhilupo and Tom Carroll and, more recently, Bede Durbidge and Taj Burrow. Perrow rose from the ashes of a devastating eleventh-hour loss last year to Frenchman Jeremy Flores to win this year’s event over compatriot Joel Parkinson. The Echo spoke to Kieren’s mum Susan Perrow, who was ecstatic with her son’s win. ‘He had a lot of interviews yesterday but we managed to speak for a few minutes on Skype’, she said. ‘We have watched for 16 years as he came fourth or second or third and to not get it last year in the last minute was terrible.
‘When the hooter went on the weekend and he had won, I actually started sobbing. He is so deserving.’ Susan says that even as a child she knew what an important event the Pipeline Masters was. ‘It’s iconic. Everyone knows about it. You never imagine you son could win it. I was so excited I couldn’t sleep last night, but it was so delicious to just lie
awake and bathe in the joy of it’. Perrow’s win, which was celebrated in Hawaii with his brother Simon and his wife Danielle and their two children, will carry him onto next year’s ASP World Tour. Before that, he will come home and Pictured from left, Ocean Shores Public School’s Courtney, Lachlan, Jemma, spend Christmas with his family. Ellie Edan and Ruby (sitting), were among the 58 students who were placed ‘I can tell you that will be one very third in the national Wakakirri competition. big celebration’, says Susan. trusted her inhabitants with her care Photo & story Eve Jeffery but the result of pollution, rubbish Ocean Shores Public School has won and construction might make her anthird place in a national story-dance gry to the point of retaliation. One of the criteria for the entry is competition with their DVD entry that students use as many reusuable entitled Mother Earth. Fifty-eight students from years and recyclable items as possible, and three to six were part of the produc- as costumes and props were sourced tion that was entered into Wakakirri, from the school community, the actual a story-sharing arts festival that chal- cost of the production was very little. The school came first at the state lenges schools to make a positive imlevel a few months ago and was repact on the world. Established in 1992, Wakakirri cently told of their third place at the is Australia’s largest arts festival for national level. ‘The production of Mother Earth schools involving more than 30,000 was not about making an elaborate students across the country. The Ocean Shores piece focused on story,’ says assistant principal Melinda looking after the planet, in particular Lengyel. ‘We wanted to raise awarethe oceans and beaches. It conveyed ness about how and why we need to A proud moment for the Perrow family. Photo courtesy Shea Lopez the idea that Mother Earth had en- look after the Earth.’
enrich your spirit perhaps the most tranquil tourist attraction on the East Coast and a wonderful place to spend a couple of mellow hours… Brisbane News, December 2010. www.crystalcastle.com.au Open 7 Days 10am-5pm (NSW time) 81 Monet Drive, Mullumbimby 40 mins from Tweed Heads 20 mins from Byron Bay (02) 6684 3111
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