DAV I D D U N N I N G A N D J UST I N K R U G E R H AV E A SS U R E D US W E A R E CO R R E CT The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 38 #38 • February 28, 2024 • www.echo.net.au
Native title holders defend Wallum DA endorsement
'ëŔŕĶŕī ǖşşĎ IJşƖƆĶŕī ëƖĎĶƐ released A performance audit of how effectively, or not, the NSW government provided emergency accommodation and temporary housing in response to the 2022 floods has been released by the NSW Audit Office. Emergency pod villages for floodaffected residents are spread across the region; there are three located in Byron Shire (Mullum and Bruns). The report found that government agencies did not have plans for implementing their responsibilities and the ‘amount of temporary housing provided did not meet the demand’. Additionally, the ‘extensive waitlist for temporary housing and the remaining demand in the Northern Rivers is unlikely to be met. The NSW Reconstruction Authority has not reviewed this list to confirm its accuracy’. And while ‘demobilisation plans for the temporary housing villages have been developed, there are no long-term plans in place for the transition of tenants out of the temporary housing’. Agencies involved in providing emergency accommodation and temporary housing are NSW Reconstruction Authority (formerly Resilience NSW); Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ); Premier’s Department (PD); NSW Public Works (NSWPW) and the Department of Planning and Environment (DPE). Lismore-based Greens MLC, Sue Higginson, said it was concerning that communities across NSW ‘are still exposed to a government network that is unprepared for future disasters’.
Hijacking feminism, harming women – Dr Moynihan ▶ p8
Hans Lovejoy
Floodplain fury Furious flood-traumatised residents around New City Road to the west of Mullum are sending a clear message to Council around its plans to turn floodplains into residential: ‘No floodplain development’. Photo Eve Jeffery With the two-year flood anniversary being recognised this week, Council appears to be pushing on with its plans to seek approval from the state government for floodplain development in Mullumbimby. Distraught residents gathered
at 75 New City Road, Mullum to highlight just one proposal, which they describe as complete madness. Up to a metre of water inundated homes in the area in 2022, and while the NSW government promised funding to assist with house raising, retrofits and
buybacks, those promises are yet to materialise. Council’s Byron Shire Residential Strategy refresh is expected to be on the agenda of the March 14 meeting. ‘Get your placards ready’, says Dale Emerson from the Mullum Residents Association.
bëŔćş ĎĕëƐIJ ĶŕžƖĕƆƐ ĎĕōĶưĕſƆ ǕŕĎĶŕīƆ David Lowe State Coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, was in Byron Bay Courthouse on Friday afternoon to deliver her findings in the inquest into the death of Natasha Lechner, who died after taking kambo in Mullumbimby in 2019. Derived from an Amazonian frog, kambo was criminalised in Australia not long after her death. Another death is currently being investigated by the coroner, that of Jarrad Antonovich. The three-day inquest into Ms
Lechner’s death took place in Lismore in May 2023. Her father, Frank Lechner, remembered her then as ‘an old soul in a young body’, close to her twin brother, and having travelled widely before settling in Mullum. There was evidence that she’d been suffering from a range of chronic health problems for years, and had been declared medically unfit to practice her previous profession of hairdressing in 2019. Ms Lechner had been interested in kambo since 2015, reportedly finding it beneficial for her back
pain and other issues. At the time of her death, she’d recently completed her own training as a kambo practitioner. Coroner O’Sullivan was unequivocal about kambo’s role in Natasha’s death, with the evidence of toxicologists and other medical experts leading her to conclude that she died ‘as a result of an adverse cardiac event, triggered by the administration of kambo, which involves scraping poisonous secretions onto burns in the body.’ Q Full story www.echo.net.au
Vale Bill Stewart ▶ p10
America is suffering from electile dysfunction ▶ p13
Industrious arty folk in action in Byron ▶ p18
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Is nude rude? ▶ p3,11
Leweena Williams, representing the Tweed Byron Aboriginal Land Council (TBALC), told councillors at Thursday’s meeting that her organisation stands by their cultural assessment of the Bruns Wallum site, which is slated for urban development by Clarence Property. The granting of consent by the authorised traditional owners has been one of the most contentious aspects to the campaign to save the rare and endangered ecological site, with claims being made by non-authorised traditional owners that the site is also sacred to them. A statement on behalf of Arakwal Corp was read out regarding their support of the Wallum DA. Williams said consultation occurred in 2009, with two surveys completed by Bundjalung of Byron Bay Aboriginal Corporation (BOBBAC) and Arwakwal. In 2011, their report found significant vegetation and plants within the area, an animal corridor 150m along Simpsons Creek, and moderate level of disturbance at the site. ‘No significant sites were identified in the area, but there was a significant pathway between Tyagarah and Brunswick Heads’. Further investigation is needed, they said, including investigations on site maps. Continued cultural monitoring would occur, the board added. Save Wallum advocate James Barrie told The Echo he contacted Arakwal and TBALC asking about the 2009 survey. ‘They only replied a sentence something to the effect that their consultants would have done a proper assessment. I queried further about the assessment, and had no further response’.
Lust, madness, wink wink, flicks and marmalade – find it all in Seven ▶ p20
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