ON THE SUBLIME OUTER SPECTRUM SINCE 1986 The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 37 #12 • August 31, 2022 • www.echo.net.au
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Big ideas are back!
Hans Lovejoy
Trent Dalton, author of acclaimed book, Boy Swallows Universe, made a big impact at last weekend’s Writers Festival. More than 140 writers and thinkers converged, with near capacity crowds, at the Elements of Byron Resort, heralding the welcome return of one of the nation’s top literary events. Festival Executive Director, Emma Keenan, told The Echo, ‘It filled our hearts to see authors and community gathering together again, after the upheaval of the pandemic and floods’. More festival photos on page 34. Photo Jeff ‘Brain Food’ Dawson
Rail trail option to be explored for disused railway Paul Bibby Byron Council will investigate building a bike and pedestrian path beside the rail line between Mullumbimby and Wooyung, in a bid to make use of the currently unused track. In a move that has reignited the rail vs trail debate within the Shire, councillors resolved to commission a report on the issue at last week’s Council meeting. The catalyst for the return of the issue is the recent removal of train tracks in the Tweed Shire, following that council’s decision to build a bike and walking track on their section of the corridor. Last week’s Byron Council
Replanting the Big Scrub ▶ p5
meeting heard that there is an option to link up with that track, effectively providing a path from Mullum to Murwillumbah, including a side link to Brunswick Heads. ‘At the moment, nothing is happening in the rail corridor in the Byron Shire,’ said Labor councillor Asren Pugh, who moved the motion. ‘I’ve had the opportunity to walk along much of the corridor [between Mullumbimby and Billinudgel] and it is an amazing piece of infrastructure. ‘This is about making use of this asset for locals and residents. There’s currently no way to ride safely between the northern towns of the Shire. I think we need to make decisions about the rail
Nurses/midwives strike over patient ratios ▶ p9
corridor and stop pretending something else is going to happen.’ ‘Let’s get on with making a decision about this asset, because otherwise it will continue to rot.’ But the move was not without its opponents. Three residents spoke against the motion during public access at last week’s meeting, and expressed concern that moving ahead with a bike and pedestrian path would rule out the possibility of reopening the train line. ‘Locals want a train service,’ long-term local and rail advocate Louise Doran said. ‘This isn’t going to take any cars off our roads.’ NSW Labor took the trains off the tracks in 2004.
Bernard Collaery to speak in Ballina, Oct 15 ▶ p10
Residents who experienced the worst flooding in living memory earlier this year are claiming that a lack of drainage maintenance over the last 15 years contributed to the eastern part of Mullum being flooded. Yet Council’s infrastructure director maintains ‘nothing could have fully prevented the 2022 Brunswick River creek and riverine flood event’. Drainage was raised at the Flood Inquiry meeting in Mullumbimby on June 6, where one elderly woman, living on Ann Street, told the panel that no drainage maintenance had been carried out, to her knowledge, in over 15 years. Resident, James Sturch, agrees. He lives on King Street, which is off Argyle Street, coming into town. He told The Echo, ‘This area of town (Ann Street, New City Road, Queen Street, King Street and all the lanes in between) was the first area to flood in both the 2017 event and this year. The water depths here were the greatest’. After carefully observing flooding for both 2017 and 2022, Mr Sturch believes it was a result of a combination of factors. ‘The area is filled when Saltwater Creek flows backwards (well before the Brunswick River bursts its banks). There is no continuous stormwater drainage from this region of town to Kings Creek, so the flood water just sits. The drains have not been maintained or cleared by Council in any of the fifteen years that I have lived here. The overall
Spoil dad – It’s Father’s Day! ▶ p20
draining system and its route is completely inadequate for the topology and development footprint’. Mr Sturch said, ‘I fully explained all of the above issues to Council after the 2017 flood, and submitted a huge amount of evidence, as well as drone footage. No actions were taken then, and the flood this year was over 1m deeper. ‘Although I appreciate that nothing could have fully prevented the floods this year, if the uncomplicated, basic, straightforward works that I had recommended had been carried out, the residents within this region would have had more time to act and save their belongings. The water depth would also have been greatly reduced’.
Director replies Phil Holloway, Director Infrastructure Services, was provided with Mr Sturch’s statement. The Echo asked Mr Holloway ‘if he agreed with Mr Sturch’s claim that drainage maintenance had not been carried out in the area for many years’, but he did not reply to that. Mr Holloway did tell The Echo, however, ‘Council agrees that this natural disaster flood event has impacted areas to depths never recorded in the past, and that nothing could have fully prevented the 2022 Brunswick River creek and riverine flood event’. ‘This event exceeded all local drainage systems’ capacities as it did across all Northern Rivers council areas. Flood flows would have been experienced flowing upstream (reverse flow to normal when river ▶ Continued on page 2
All the shiny people of The Byron Writers Festival ▶ p34
Celebrate the best of the Northern River’s fine produce; on a seasonal journey as we recreate the great nouvelle cuisine classics of the provinces of France. Dine in the century-old Dining Room under elegant pressed tin ceilings, or the River Terrace, overlooking the Tweed River with sweeping hinterland and river views.
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