B I T I N G R O B OT D O G S S I N C E 1 9 8 6 The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 41 #19 • October 21, 2026 • www.echo.net.au
57 Station St DA now in the hands of the NRPP Aslan Shand
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onday, 19 October saw the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) listening to a long list of reasons why the development application (DA) for the carpark at 57 Station Street, Mullumbimby should not be approved. The community came out in force against the DA with multiple planning and other experts, including David Brown, Ian Pickles, and Karl Allen, speaking to various inadequacies and failures of the current DA along with Greens MP Tamara Smith. These included the fact that the ratepayers would be footing the bill for any future replacement carpark and public toilet. The most recent iteration of the DA proposes to narrow the exit from the town’s main entrance roundabout to Station Street and do extended roadside landscaping with no community consultation or supporting evidence that it would not impact the existing truck movements. The DA impacts the narrow and congested McGoughans Lane that is also used as an access route to the CBD by a number of people with disabilities. Concerns were raised that the DA did not adhere to Council’s own published flood planning levels for the site and that the DA failed to meet the same standards for the rubbish removal provision required for other similar developments in Mullumbimby such as Chinbible Avenue. There were multiple requests for the NRPP to defer, or to refuse the DA and suggestions that there were better sites that would provide an increased quantity of affordable housing available.
Landcom’s planner, Wes Wilson, seemed to wave the community concerns away telling the NRPP ‘the scheme is compliant, and it’s not correct to say that it isn’t compliant. They may not like the way that the codes have been formulated, but that is the law’. However, the most surprising reveal was after Mr Wilson had emphasised how closely Landcom had worked with Council staff (though obviously not councillors considering half of them recently attempted to withdraw support for the DA because they felt they had no input into the DA process). Mr Wilson then said the applicant had not been fully briefed by Council on the landowner’s legal requirements in relation to access to the Pink Lotus restaurant for bulk gas deliveries and had believed only pedestrian access, not vehicular access, was required. Speaking to the NRPP the landowner made it clear that vehicle access and a line of sight was required to deliver gas to the rear of the restaurant, as approved by BSC. The gas supplier uses a tanker approximately 9.5m long, 2.5m wide and 3.5m high, weighing approximately 17.5 tonnes. According to the supplier, filling requires a clear line of sight from the tanker to the gas cylinder and an unobstructed hose route. BSC Greens Mayor Sarah Ndiaye, Labor’s Janet Swain, and former BSC councillor Salma Balson spoke in favour of the DA highlighting the need for affordable accommodation in the region. The NRPP panel is due to hand down its decision within seven days.
Spaghetti Circus needs you! Joel Salom and Erik the Dog of Steel getting behind The Spaghetti Telethon. Photo Carnival Cinema Hamish McCormick
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paghetti Circus is truly a place of fun and engagement that has come from out of our community. From humble beginnings at Main Arm Upper School it has grown into a wonderful organisation that gives so much back to our youth and community. This Thursday you can be part of keeping this vital local organisation running by donating to the AusArt Day, with matched funding covering the first $5,000 given to the Mullumbimby youth circus. That means a $25 donation becomes $50 and a $100 donation becomes $200, all going towards scholarships, youth performance development, and community outreach. You can donate on 22 October
Trust Council with The alchemy The plan to reduce DA compliance? of suffering floods by flooding our ▶ p5 ▶ p10 local communities ▶ p15
from 8am to 8pm via www. spaghetticircus.com/donate or pop into the shed at Mullumbimby Showground and enjoy a range of performances, BBQ and more. ‘Matched giving days don’t come around often, so this is a real chance for our community to make their generosity go twice as far,’ said Chair Joel Salom.
Help people get involved ‘Every dollar helps a young person who might not otherwise be able to train with us.’ ‘Spaghetti Circus has always been more than a circus school, it’s a place where young people belong and learn trust, resilience, and teamwork,’ said Circus Director Petrina Hutchinson.
‘AusArt Day is a chance to pass that on to the next generation – it is a national day of giving that brings communities together to support the artists and arts organisations that enrich our lives.’ To mark the day, the circus will host its first telethon from 8am to 8pm at its sheds at Mullumbimby Showground, with performances, a community BBQ and students, staff and alumni calling supporters to say thank you. For more than three decades, Spaghetti Circus has trained young people – across the Byron Shire and beyond – in circus; from aerials and acrobatics to tumbling and performance. It is a registered charity; all donations are tax-deductible.
Healing and Farming Sleigh Whaat!? Now’s the time to sort your your wellbeing that rebuilds ▶ p22 resilience ▶ p23 Chrissy function ▶ p19
Local News
North Coast news online
Bangalow Bowlo fight goes to Supreme Court Fish kill follows Belongil Creek opening Aslan Shand When Norths Collective decided to breach the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bangalow Bowlo and the community, and closed the Bangalow Bowlo with no warning, they may not have realised how prepared the community is to fight for the return of their beloved Bowlo. A year on, and though the Bowlo remains closed, legal proceedings have commenced in the Supreme Court of New South Wales seeking access to documents relating to the closure of the Bangalow Bowling Club and the circumstances surrounding its management by North Sydney Leagues Club Ltd (Norths). Bangalow Bowlo member Greg Nash has filed a summons seeking preliminary discovery orders, almost 12 months after Norths closed the club in October 2025. Since 11 June 2026, Greg’s legal representatives have written to Norths seeking documents, further explanations of decisions affecting
the Bowlo, and opportunities for discussions with club members and community representatives.
Are their grounds for action? The application seeks documents that may assist Greg in determining whether there are grounds to commence further legal proceedings concerning Norths management of the club and its obligations following the 2023 amalgamation. Greg is bringing the application in his individual capacity, with the support of the Save Bangalow Bowlo Steering Committee (SBBSC), which has been campaigning for the return of the club to community ownership. ‘This application will give me what I need to know if I am to make a decision to sue or not sue Norths,’ Greg said in a press release provided to The Echo. Preliminary discovery is a legal process that allows an applicant to seek access to documents to help determine whether they may
have grounds to commence substantive proceedings. The current application does not establish that Norths has breached any legal obligations, and no findings have been made. Community fundraising efforts over the past year have generated close to $200,000 in donations, demonstrating the strength of local support for securing the Bowlo’s future. Greg acknowledged the financial and personal commitments involved in pursuing the application. ‘None of this is inexpensive and of course there’s risk involved, especially for myself,’ he said. The SBBSC said they ‘support Greg’s efforts to obtain further information and remain committed to pursuing a sustainable future for the club that protects its sporting, social, and cultural functions.’ Support the Bring Back the Bowlo campaign at: www. bringbackthebowlo.com and the Community Fighting Fund at: www.gofundme.com/f/ help-fund-a-fair-outcome-forthe-bowlo.
Zenith’s last Day of the Dead ceremony This year will be the last year that Zenith Virago will host the Day of the Dead ceremony at The fig trees, Heritage Park, Mullumbimby, on Sunday, 25 October from 3pm to 5pm, as she prepares to pass the ceremony on to Kirsty Laing. ‘Twenty years ago I realised there was a need for a community ceremony to honour our dead every year ongoingly, not just once in the rawness of a funeral,’ said
Zenith, who also founded the Natural Death Care Centre. ‘Creating positive social and cultural change, it has been a wonderful way to introduce children to death and bereavement in a gentle and positive way. We have led the way and seeded these community ceremonies throughout Australia. ‘Ceremony is one of the most powerful ways we can show our care and love when
Welcome back Caitlin!
planned for,’ Council’s Coastal and Biodiversity Coordinator, Chloe Dowsett, said. Ms Dowsett said Council and government departments were investigating the incident and reviewing it to inform opening protocols. The creek is an intermittently closed and open lake or lagoon (ICOLL), a sensitive aquatic environment where artificial openings can cause fish deaths. Council said staff undertook openings carefully to reduce that risk. Rain could lessen the likelihood of a fish kill, but could not eliminate it. Council said Monday’s opening was undertaken in accordance with approvals from NSW Crown Lands and the Department of Primary
Industries and Regional Development. For several weeks, sand accumulating at the creek mouth had contributed to rising water levels, with water filling drains and covering some pathways. Council said it opened coastal creeks only when accumulated water posed a significant inundation risk to infrastructure or property. ‘People are advised to avoid the area and not swim nearby,’ Council’s statement said. Dogs should be kept away, and dead fish should not be handled, eaten or used as bait. Council’s announcement did not specify the number, or species, of fish killed.
Igniting young minds at Coorabell with STEM Robotics sparked the imagination of students at Coorabell Public School when a team of robotics experts brought a fantastic array of robotics kits for students to explore and enjoy. ‘The STEM Day was buzzing with energy as our students rolled up their sleeves to dive into hands-on challenges designed to spark imagination and creativity. Through programming basics, experimentation, and problem-solving activities, our students developed critical skills that are essential for the innovators of tomorrow,’ said Jenny Moore from Coorabell Public School. ‘With teamwork, curiosity, and plenty of trial and error, our budding engineers and coders excelled in every challenge, showcasing just how
The robots said students Lenny and Treya were really well behaved and showed encouraging signs of intelligence. Photo supplied inventive and resourceful they are. This event was more than just fun – it highlighted Coorabell’s ongoing commitment to fostering creativity, critical thinking, and a love for learning in a supportive and dynamic environment.’
Coorabell Public School, told The Echo that their STEM programs and specialist experiences ‘ensure that our students are well-equipped to meet the challenges of the future with confidence and enthusiasm’.
After some special time at home with her little one, Caitlin is looking forward to returning to the O’Meara Dental team and reconnecting with her patients.
O’Meara Dental is delighted to welcome Caitlin back from maternity leave! Caitlin is a qualified Oral Health Therapist who graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2018. With a passion for preventative dentistry and helping patients feel comfortable and
someone dies, and the way we can tend to our own grief. It is open to any religion, spirituality, belief, or culture. Thousands have come with photos, mementos, even ashes,’ Zentih explained. ‘It has been a joy to offer this much-needed ceremony to our community. I know Kirsty will evolve the ceremony as she steps into the future.’ ■ See Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox on page 18.
A fish kill at Belongil Creek has prompted warnings to avoid the affected area, and not to swim nearby. Byron Shire Council (BSC) and government agencies are investigating the incident following an artificial opening of the creek by BSC. Council opened the creek to the ocean on Monday, 12 October, to relieve high water levels inundating stormwater culverts and drains in lowlying parts of Byron Bay and Belongil. In a statement issued on 15 October, Council said the absence of forecast rain, combined with a rapid drop in water levels, had reduced oxygen in the water, causing the fish kill. ‘It’s not the result we had
confident in the dental chair, Caitlin provides gentle, personalised care for patients of all ages, particularly children.
We’re so excited to have Caitlin back and look forward to seeing her smiling face around the practice again! The team at O’Meara Dental.
Byron Bay: 19/5 Easy St Mullumbimby: 60 Stuart St 02 6694 3083 omearadental.com.au
2 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
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Local News Byron High teachers and students rally together for Livi RE-FILL, RE-USE, RE-IMAGINE
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Livi, centre between Principal Janine Marcus and Deputy Principal Kristy Collins, with his Byron High year-12 school friends, teachers, and staff who have rallied to help raise funds. Photo Jeff Dawson A thousand dollars was enough to put Byron Bay High School’s Principal, Janine Marcus, in the barber’s chair as a fundraiser for year-12 student Livi Eddington who has been receiving experimental treatment in the US for his rare and aggressive form of brain cancer. Deputy Principal, Kristy Collins, then raised the bar to $20,000 to be raised in less than 24 hours, to join her and have her head shaved as well.
The school and the community came together raising $35,147.20 which saw both the principal and deputy principal in the barber’s chair. Livi’s dad Blake said, ‘Livi has been to the US for two treatments, the last of which caused quite severe seizures, which have since settled down. We now need to travel back to North Carolina for another round of T cell treatment,’ he told The Echo. Livi’s treatment is part of
a registered clinical trial with the FDA, the US equivalent of the Australian TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration). Even though it’s experimental, it is rigorous first-world medicine. Teacher Kelly Caoyonan said the students had been keen to find a way to support their friend. ‘The cohort just wanted to do something for him,’ she said. ‘Obviously, we wanted to raise more than $1,000.’ Year-12 advisers Lara
Cranfield and Leah Miles have been key organisers of the fundraiser and the school’s support for Livi. Friday’s activities include a mufti day with gold coin donations, live music, a cake stall, sausage sandwiches and snow cones. ‘We Stand With Livi’ caps are also being sold for $25. Donations can still be made through its ‘bald principal’ GoFundMe page at: www.gofundme. com/f/help-raise-1000-forlivi-our-principal-goes-bald.
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Can you help settle refugees in the Northern Rivers? The Northern Rivers for Refugees (NRFR) will be hosting Romy Vitalien, director of the national program for refugee sponsorship in Australia, at Tintenbar Hall on 7 November, at 2.30pm. NRFR has already helped settle nearly 50 refugees in our region and is hoping to establish more community supporter groups to welcome
families approved for settlement by the Australian government. Romy represents the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Program (CRISP) and has spent more than a decade working in refugee settlement. She has led a range of government, philanthropic, and participant-funded programs. Romy says she’s excited
to be travelling to a region which is seen as a national role model for welcoming refugees. At Tintenbar she will outline how the community
program works, and provide a perspective on the big picture of refugee settlement in Australia. For more info, contact secretary@nrfr.org.au.
FIRST ROUND DEADLINE
Monday 9 November 2026
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT Admissions@tss.qld.edu.au or Amanda Shuttewood at foundation@tss.qld.edu.au
www.tss.qld.edu.au
17 OCT
SATURDAY 3 Sinclair St
RIVERFEST EVENT
WARDELL RIVER FESTIVAL Live music, kids’ activities, river fun and food.
Caring for Catchments Exhibition Thu 15 Oct, Lismore Regional Gallery Finale: Picnic by the River Sat 24 Oct, Riverside Park, Lismore
On the unceded lands and waters of the Bundjalung and Githabul Nations. Supported by the Australian Government and North Coast Regional Landcare Network through the Caring for Catchments project.
richmondriverfest.com
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Take your team’s Christmas do outside Ride the Rail Trail on e-bikes. Fresh air, open skies and good laughs. From $99 per person.
grab your crew. book now! betterbybike.com.au 02 6639 7700
October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 3
From $1,029,000 2 Orion Dr, Yamba NSW 2464
4 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
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Local News Trust Council with DA compliance? Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader Aslan Shand The controversial community title (CT) subdivision at 53 McAuleys Lane, Myocum that directs traffic onto the McAuleys Lane and Mullumbimby Road intersection has had a number of the modifications sought by developers, John Callanan and Tim Mundy, approved by the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) on 13 October. The application sought changes to the subdivision layout and internal road alignment, permission to keep dogs under controls, and removal of requirements for a cycle path and turnaround in McAuleys Lane. The development followed a familiar path. After initial meetings with Council, with Jack Dods in charge for the developer, neighbours weren’t notified as promised before the DA was submitted. Documents supporting the DA, when examined in detail by neighbours, were inadequate and were contradicted by other experts. After gaining approval from the NRPP with numerous conditions, the developers then went back to the NRPP seeking to water down those very conditions. The recent 13 October NRPP meeting considered 15 objections, with concerns including traffic and road safety, the impact of allowing dogs, wastewater disposal and the visual impact of an additional lot. ‘The revised application, like the first, was wrongly advertised with Byron Shire Council (BSC) as the consenting authority not NRPP. But again the community reviewed the new application which sought to remove the pet restrictions in a koala area, the cycleway, the emergency turnaround on McAuleys Lane and the upgrade
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of the Mullumbimby Road intersection, claiming it was redundant due to the recent publicly funded intersection works,’ neighbour, Richard Kowalski, told The Echo. ‘Protecting the environment is a priority all developers should respect. The intersection upgrade and cycleway are essential public safety issues required due to the impact of 39 new lots. The difficulties with this development could’ve been avoided if community consultation was undertaken as required, and committed to, in the rezoning stage,’ he said.
Some protections While changes to the layout were approved, the final consent retains the prohibition on keeping cats and dogs to protect environmentally sensitive areas, except assistance animals. These sensitive areas were also protected from building envelopes and proposed septic areas. The plan must demonstrate minimum separation distances between wastewater disposal areas on a specified lot and a neighbouring dam and groundwater bore. It must also address the separation between another lot’s disposal area and a watercourse. The road infrastructure requirements also remain, including a pedestrian path connecting the development to the bus stop in Mullumbimby Road. ‘Provision must be made to provide a cycle path from the development to 180 Mullumbimby Rd,’ the retained consent condition states. The decision follows months of community concern about the proposed changes to the development, which was originally approved in June 2025. ‘The community was never against the development in principle but was
focused on ensuring compliance with planning rules,’ Mr Kowalski said. ‘It’s reasonable to expect that development growth delivers improved community benefit and public safety and environmental outcomes.’ During the NRPP meeting Mr Kowalski also raised concerns over the fact that reports he had submitted to BSC in relation to proposed septic areas that were too close to his neighbouring dam, waterways, and bore had not been provided to the independent assessor by Council. ‘Without the community engaging professional peer reviews, and countless hours of work and stress reviewing the DA, these great outcomes would never have been achieved,’ he told The Echo. ‘Unfortunately, once again, the community has had to assess this application on Council’s behalf to ensure compliance. From Council incorrectly advertising these DAs, twice, to accepting consultant’s reports submitted by the applicant as fact without thorough assessment by staff, this has been made a torturous task for the community to undertake to ensure compliance.’ Concerns were also raised about the previous involvement of Byron Shire Councillor and former Deputy Mayor Jack Dods in the DA. Dods represented the developers in 2022 and 2023 and was subsequently listed by the NRPP as an ‘Applicant’ at a site meeting while serving as Deputy Mayor. Also listed was developer John Callahan, who is in a de facto relationship with Dods’ mother. Despite this connection, Dods answered ‘No’ to the question of whether he was a close associate of a property developer in his annual pecuniary interest disclosure.
announces bid for state seat of Ballina Paul Bibby
in Byron Shire, where Council is consulting Ballina Mayor Sharon residents on a proCadwallader will posed compounded contest the state seat rate increase of of Ballina as an indeapproximately 35 per pendent, arguing that cent over three years. local ratepayers are She also called for carrying costs that an upgraded Ballina should be met by the District Hospital, NSW government. infrastructure supAnnouncing her porting affordable candidacy outside housing, and policing Ballina District Hosresources that pital, former National Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader speaks. reflected population Photo David Lowe Party member, Cr growth and peak Cadwallader said the visitor numbers. Cr Cadwallader singled electorate needed a repreHer announcement out Ballina’s new $6.3 million included criticism of the sentative free to negotiate with whichever party formed SES headquarters as an Greens, who have held Balexample of governments government. lina since 2015, and a pledge shifting costs onto councils. ‘It’s time to change the to assess legislation on its Ballina Shire Council game in Ballina and Byron merits. contributed $4.2 million shires. We’ve been sidelined ‘No single political party towards the facility, with the for too long by the political has a monopoly on good parties, and we need an inde- state government providing ideas. As an independent, I $2.1 million. pendent in Macquarie Street will assess every policy and ‘Two-thirds of the cost with one mission: securing piece of legislation on its our fair share of attention and was borne by Ballina merits and support what is ratepayers, while other new funding,’ she said. best for our communities.’ SES facilities received full Her campaign will focus Cr Cadwallader has state government funding,’ on health services, housing, served on Ballina Council she said. ‘That is unfair and roads, flood resilience, since 2004 and became unsustainable.’ coastal protection, policing, mayor in 2021. Cr Cadwallader said simiand restoring the Richmond The NSW election will be lar pressures were being felt held on 13 March, 2027. River.
The climate crisis is here – what do we do? As we watch the climate crisis accelerate around us Lismore-based resilience practitioner Dr Jean Renouf and Murwillumbah academic Professor Richard Hil will be joining former Byron Shire councillor Cate Coorey in conversation on Friday, 30 October at the Mullumbimby Ex-Services club. Hil and Renouf recently launched their new book Unspeakable: Facing up to the climate catastrophe and its consequences in Australia in Murwillumbah which draws on the authors’ own
roles in the community response. It argues that the catastrophe is already here, that trusted institutions are under strain and that the most effective responses are coming from communities. ‘The hardest thing about the climate catastrophe is often to say, in an ordinary voice, that it is already here,’ Dr Renouf said. ‘The book offers people concrete things they can do now.’ The event will be followed by a hands-on community resilience workshop on
Saturday, 31 October from 10am to 1pm. Dr Renouf will lead a practical workshop that will explore local risks, start a household preparedness plan using a take-home workbook, and more. No prior knowledge is needed. Book online for Friday’s conversation at: events. humanitix.com/book-launchunspeakable-mullumbimby or the workshop at: events. humanitix.com/communityresilience-workshopmullumbimby. Both events require a $5 booking fee.
October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 5
Local News
North Coast news online
Byron’s drainage upgrade piles up Tobias Moran sues police over Simone Strobel murder prosecution on Council-remediated land Zakai Sparkes A growing stockpile of debris from Byron’s town drainage system upgrade has been deposited on Council-remediated land at South Byron’s Old Sewage Treatment Plant. The remediated site, located beside Tallow Creek estuary, was described in a 2019 Council statement as ‘the provision of public open space for community and environmental benefit’ by Council’s then-major projects manager, Phil Warner. Council’s current Manager of Major Projects, Christopher Soulsby has not provided an end date for the stockpiling and has said the ‘time frame for this project is several years, dependent on grant funding’. ‘We will continue to use our land at the old sewage treatment plant as required,’ he said. Local resident David Boutkan who cycles and walks his dog at the site is concerned that the amenity of the park has been ‘degraded considerably’ by ‘the movement of heavy vehicles and the dumping of large amounts of waste.’
Council-remediated land at South Byron’s Old Sewage Treatment Plant. Photo Matt Drinan ‘We’re concerned about the nature of the waste,’ he said Soulsby said that Council knew the community utilised the site stating, ‘Council is aware that the land is valued by the community and any future plans for the site will be a decision of the elected Council.’ He said treated acid sulfate soil was being stored at the site, and that measures were in place to protect the environment. ‘This material is being stored on a specially–constructed impervious pad with stormwater diversions’ he said. Untreated acid sulfate soil runoff has been linked
to a number of cases of sick waterways and fish disease in surrounding areas according to a 2022 report from Tweed Shire Council. Waterways Program Leader Tom Alletson said in the report, long-term discharge of this runoff can significantly harm ecosystems, having ‘serious impacts on aquatic life, including fish kills.’ In another statement from a Byron Shire Council spokesperson, it was said that the site will be ‘returned to public open space’ when the project is complete. ‘The site will be remediated by the contractor following completion of the drainage upgrade.’
Tobias Moran has caravan park launched legal where she had action against been staying with NSW Police Mr Moran and for malicious friends in Februprosecution over ary 2005. In findthe withdrawn ings delivered on charge that he 6 November, 2025, murdered his State Coroner girlfriend, German Teresa O’Sullivan backpacker found Ms Strobel Simone Strobel, in died as a result of Lismore in 2005. homicide by an O’Brien Crimiunknown person Tobias Suckfuell (now Moran) and Simone Strobel. or persons. nal & Civil SoliciPhoto supplied tors announced She accepted the District Court it was unlikely Mr O’Connell said the proceedings in a statement Mr Moran could have acted proceedings would examine published on 13 October. alone in killing Ms Strobel and the investigation and Mr Moran was arrested in disposing of her body, but prosecution, with his firm Perth on 26 July, 2022 and declined to find it was very voluntarily extradited to NSW seeking justice for its client unlikely he had been involved. if the prosecution was found to face the murder charge. The coroner made no to have been improperly His lawyers say he spent assessment of the adequacy motivated. ten days in custody and ten of the police investigation, Mr Moran said he believed saying that issue was outside months under strict bail the prosecution had been conditions before the NSW the inquest’s scrutiny. Office of the Director of Public driven by improper motives She recommended referral and hoped the action would Prosecutions withdrew the to the Unsolved Homicide bring renewed attention to charge on 14 June, 2023. Team for assessment and the unsolved homicide. The court subsequently monitoring, including con‘Everyone impacted by ordered the state to pay his sideration of further forensic Simone’s death and the afterlegal costs. analysis. ‘Mr. Moran has consistently math deserves some answers NSW Police told the ABC and closure,’ he said. maintained his innocence of it was aware of the civil Ms Strobel’s body was this horrific crime,’ his soliciproceedings but declined to found near the Lismore tor, Stewart O’Connell, said. comment.
Have Your Say Draft Byron Shire Overland Flood Study This study is about overland flooding, sometimes called flash flooding, caused by short periods of intense rainfall overwhelming drainage systems, resulting in water flowing across land, roads and properties. The study is NOT about riverine flooding from rivers and creeks following long periods of rain. Community feedback will help improve our understanding of flood behaviour and inform future flood planning across Byron Shire.
Come and talk to us at a drop in session
More information
Ocean Shores Community Centre 27 October 2026, 5pm to 7pm
For more information or to have your say yoursay.byron.nsw.gov.au/ overland-flood-study Draft Overland Flood Study PO Box 219 Mullumbimby NSW 2482 02 6626 7000, Nikki Bourke, Shila Sivanadiya ipt@byron.nsw.gov.au
Online Information Session 28 October 2026, 4.30pm - 6.00pm Details at yoursay.byron.nsw.gov.au South Golden Beach Hall 29 October 2026, 5pm to 7pm Council Chambers Mullumbimby 4 November 2026, 2pm to 4pm
Submissions close 29 November
02 6626 7000 • www.byron.nsw.gov.au 6 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
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Local News 20th Byron Bay Film Festival success
CAPE BYRON Rudolf STEINER SCHOOL When alumni return to Cape Byron, their memories of the senior school are always the same. They remember the connection, care and support of their teachers. Here, students are celebrated for who they are and the gifts they bring to the community. Their feeling of belonging and emerging sense of self carry them out into the world, from Graduation Day onwards, enabling them to impart meaning into their own lives.
• Our pastoral care supports individualised growth and allows students to build the courage to move into the world with confidence and a sense of their own path.
• Our intimate class sizes enable students to experience targeted
guidance and tuition from their teachers who prioritise a tailored approach to the needs of each young person.
J’aimee Skippon Volke and Greg Aitken centre, flanked by film critics/appreciators Pete Castaldi and Peter Thompson at Friday’s festival opening. J’aimee and Greg launched the Byron Bay Film Festival (BBFF) 20 years ago and celebrated its ongoing success. The festival runs through until Sunday, 25 October. Photo Jeff Dawson
Byron Council won’t lose $2.4m in funding Aslan Shand The proposed draft changes to NSW’s allocation formula for Financial Assistance Grant funding to local councils will not be revised after consultation, with a high level of engagement, ‘did not receive broad support’ according to the NSW Local Government Grants Commission (LGGC). Financial Assistance Grants are Commonwealth funds distributed through the states to support local services and infrastructure. Councils including Byron,
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Tweed, Kyogle, and Lismore had argued that the methodology proposed by the LGGC did not adequately recognise disaster recovery pressures, tourism, road usage, and the differing costs of delivering regional services. In a letter to mayors, the LGGC said, ‘No peak body, joint organisation, or union clearly supported the draft model, and significantly, the NSW country mayors’ submission noted that the draft methodology cannot be supported.’ ‘The LGGC has decided
not to implement the draft revised methodology. The existing methodology will continue to apply.’ Byron Shire Mayor Sarah Ndiaye told The Echo, ‘I am grateful the LGGC has listened. Our community would have lost almost $2.4 million a year, more than half our Financial Assistance Grants, and that is money we rely on to keep our roads and services going. ‘It is wonderful that our advocacy, along with that of councils across NSW, has been successful.’
• Our students are empowered to choose the pattern of study that best meets their goals: the HSC with an ATAR to pursue tertiary study or alternative pathways.
Our senior teachers are highly experienced classroom practitioners, passionate about their subject and work strongly to foster a life long love of learning through independent, critical thinking and creative innovation.
Senior School Tour Tuesday 27th October 9:30am Please book via our website Please come and experience the uniqueness of our learning environment for yourself. Enrolling now for Senior School 2027.
Further information: Call 02 6639 9300 or visit our website www.capebyronsteiner.nsw.edu.au
October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 7
BBFF2026 final five days: Wed 21 to Sun 25 October The 20th Byron Bay International Film Festival heads into its final five days with international dramas, powerful documentaries, First Nations films, music, surf, local filmmaking, Q&As and live performance still to come across Byron Bay, Ballina, Brunswick Heads and Lismore. Details are correct at time of print. Scan the QR code for live updates, session details and tickets, or visit bbff.com.au.
Big Screen Stories BOSS CAT + Q&A
THE FOX
After discovering his partner Kori is cheating, Nick encounters a talking fox with a highly questionable solution to his relationship problems. But getting the ‘perfect partner’ proves considerably more complicated than the fox promised. Featuring the voices of Olivia Colman and Sam Neill. Sat 24 Oct, Lismore Cinemas – 6.30pm; Palace Ballina Fair – 7.20pm
BITTER CHRISTMAS
Pedro Almodovar explores the dangerous territory where life becomes art and the people closest to us become material. Sexy, melancholic and unmistakably Almodovar.
Thurs 22 Oct, Palace Ballina Fair – 12pm – accessible screening + Q&A
ALL OF A SUDDEN
Ageing and aged care take centre stage in this warm, funny and deeply human story set in an aged-care home outside Paris. An unexpected friendship opens up frank conversations about mortality, growing older and how much life remains to be lived. Featuring two Cannes Best Actress-winning performances. Sponsored by Honey Bee Homes. Sat 24 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 11.30am
THE LIGHTKEEPER
Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon, Aidan Quinn and Sarah Bolger star in Vic Sarin’s atmospheric drama about a lighthouse keeper trapped by grief and war, whose isolation is disrupted by three strangers. Sat 24 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 3pm
BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY
Fourteen-year-old Sid navigates adolescence, class, sexuality and the contradictions of the adult world in this tender, sharply observed New Zealand coming-of-age story.
Sat 24 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 5.15pm
When filmmaker Shannon Harvey set out to understand why mental illness is rising among young people, she found herself asking: can mental illness be prevented? Her search explores the forces shaping young minds and what might protect them. Harvey will attend the screening. Sat 24 Oct, Brunswick Picture House – 3pm
CRACK ME OPEN – WORLD PREMIERE + Q&A
Sat 24 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 7.30pm; Sun 25 Oct, Palace Ballina Fair – 4.30pm Willem Dafoe and Greta Lee star in a witty story about an overlooked poet suddenly rediscovered by a younger generation. A sharp look at art, ego, ageing and second chances.
THE TALE OF SILYAN
When a Macedonian farmer rescues an injured white stork, an unexpected bond grows between two lives facing displacement and an uncertain future. Against a changing rural landscape, their companionship becomes a powerful story of survival, migration and our connection to the natural world. Sun 25 Oct, Palace Ballina Fair – 2pm
True Stories
Faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis, a young family man is forced into a profound confrontation with fear, death and the painful truth of not fully being himself. The film becomes a raw journey of healing, courage and transformation. Director Endre Kvia will attend the World Premiere and Q&A. Sun 25 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 3pm
First Nations Stories
Wed 21 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 7pm
THE CYCLE OF LOVE
In 1977, a young Delhi street artist from a poor ‘untouchable’ family sets off on a second-hand bicycle, on an extraordinary cross-continent journey to find the Swedish woman he loves.
Thurs 22 Oct, Palace Ballina Fair – 7pm; Fri 23 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 7.30pm
8 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
THE OLIGARCH AND THE ART DEALER
A billion-dollar dispute between Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev and art dealer Yves Bouvier opens the door into a secretive world of extraordinary wealth, power and priceless art.
First Nations stories of Country, culture, identity and belonging come together in this special session. At its heart is Ganibarra, connecting the survival of culture with the survival of the dingo. Filmmakers will join the audience by video link for a Q&A. Fri 23 Oct, Brunswick Picture House – 6pm
GUIDED BY HORSES
In Western Australia’s Kimberley, Professor Juli Coffin’s Yawardani Jan-ga program connects horses with Indigenous young people in a region where Aboriginal youth suicide rates are devastatingly high. The film captures culture, Country, humour, confidence and the quiet power of trust.
Sat 24 Oct, Lismore Cinemas – 1pm; Sun 25 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 12.30pm
Making Waves
MAGIC ISLAND + SURF SHORTS + Q&A
Sat 24 Oct, Palace Ballina Fair – 5pm
BROKEN ENGLISH
Marianne Faithfull spent six decades refusing to be easily defined. Featuring Tilda Swinton and George MacKay, this unconventional documentary blends biography, memory and performance in a portrait of a survivor, provocateur and musical original.
THE BEST SUMMER
The Best Summer returns to 1995 with Tamra Davis’s rediscovered Summersault tour footage featuring Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Beck, Bikini Kill and more. Sat 24 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 8pm
THAT HALF BARBARIC TWANG
Surfing becomes a connection to place, culture and identity in a collection travelling through coastlines and different relationships with the ocean. Magic Island director Max DeSantis will attend the screening. Thurs 22 Oct, Stone & Wood Brewery – 6pm
ONDA LATINA – LATIN WAVE South American surf stories travel through coastlines, communities and cultures shaped by the ocean. Fri 23 Oct, Stone & Wood Brewery – 6.30pm
Short, Sharp & Unexpected
INTERNATIONAL SHORTS
A handpicked collection from around the world showing just how much story, invention and emotion can be packed into short-form cinema. Fri 23 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 5pm
THROUGH THE LOCAL LENS
WHAT BELONGS HERE FEATURING GANIBARRA + Q&A
AMERICAN DOCTOR
Emmy Award-winner and Academy Award-nominee Poh Si Teng’s film follows three physicians – Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian – united by their commitment to saving lives. From a Gazan hospital under siege to the halls of Congress, the film confronts the human cost of conflict.
Music & Art
Thurs 22 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 7pm
LATE FAME
Fri 23 Oct, Palace Ballina Fair – 7.20pm; Sun 25 Oct, Lismore Cinemas – 1pm; Sun 25 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 7.30pm Sonja, a woman with Down syndrome, has built an independent life for herself. When that independence is threatened, she discovers krump, a high-energy dance form that gives her a powerful new way to express herself and fight for the life she wants. Lead actress Olivia Hargroder joins the Ballina Q&A.
RAISING SUPERHEROES + Q&A
Director Stephen Dupont hits the road with acclaimed actors David Field and Geoff Morrell and musician Tim Oxley, whose Number 4 Band takes its raw ‘bad-ass gospel’ country music to remote and marginalised communities across Australia, while dreaming of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. Dupont, Field, Morrell and Oxley will be in attendance, with Q&As across the festival and a live musical performance at Brunswick Picture House.
Fri 23 Oct, Lismore Cinemas – 6.30pm + Q&A; Sat 24 Oct, Brunswick Picture House – 6.30pm + Q&A + live performance; Sun 25 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 8pm + Q&A
MUSIC VIDEO PARTY – FREE – TONIGHT (WED)
A showcase of short films from Northern Rivers filmmakers, celebrating the people, places and distinctive creative voices of our region, with many of the filmmakers in attendance.
Sat 24 Oct, Brunswick Picture House – 12.30pm
STAY STRANGE
Because normal is a myth. A collection for outsiders, oddballs and films that refuse to behave: bold, surprising and deliberately left of centre. Fri 23 Oct, Palace Byron Bay – 8pm
Short films also precede many feature screenings throughout BBFF.
MORE SCREENINGS ADDED! Popular demand means extra sessions! Scan the QR code for encore screenings, latest times and tickets.
BBFF’s Music Video Awards return to the Arts Factory Garden Bar, bringing filmmakers, musicians and audiences together for a night celebrating some of the year’s most inventive music videos. Free entry. Wed 21 Oct, Arts Factory Garden Bar – 6.30pm
bbff.com.au www.echo.net.au
Local News Can you help buy a bus for the local youth? New koala strategy leaves local
priorities to later implementation plan
Byron Youth Service are aiming to raise $80,000 to replace their old rusty bus with something a little newer. Photo Jeff Dawson Aslan Shand There was a time you could jump in the back of a ute and catch a lift with banana farmers around the Shire but those days are long gone and one of the key issues that comes up for young people is the lack of transport around the region. Byron Youth Service (BYS) is calling on the community to support their campaign to buy a bus that is desperately needed so young people can access much-needed services. ‘Transport remains one of the most talked-about issues that continues to affect
young people and families in our community,’ Byron Youth Service General Manager Christian Tancred told The Echo. ‘The tyranny of distance and cost of transport prevents young people in our community from accessing services, activities and simply having some independence. When we do our community consultation, young people constantly tell us that lack of transport is one of their main concerns and often presents serious safety issue,’ he said. The current bus has reached its end of life and urgently needs replacing
before the end of this year. ‘We do get some grant money for the costs of running the bus but we have never had success with a grant for the purchase, or lease, of an actual bus so once again it’s up to the community,’ Christian explained. BYS is planning to raise $80,000 to purchase a late model used bus plus associated costs to run transport for young people two days per week. Local businesses can also support by sponsorship and advertising their logo on the bus. Support the bus campaign at: bys.org.au/ fundraising.
Northern Rivers residents are being invited to help shape a new NSW koala conservation strategy, with specific local actions and investment priorities to be detailed in a separate implementation plan. Released for consultation on 12 October, the draft identifies 39 priority management areas across NSW, including the Far North Coast. These areas would guide government investment in tackling threats including habitat loss, fire, vehicle strikes and disease. However, inclusion on the map does not establish which conservation projects will receive funding. ‘Not all of the actions listed in the toolbox will be funded or delivered by the NSW government,’ the draft states. The strategy sets out potential measures including habitat acquisition, conservation agreements with private landholders, revegetation, wildlife crossings, disease management and support for koala rescue and rehabilitation. It also identifies
Keeping koalas healthy and safe, what is the best way forward? Photo Bangalow Koalas opportunities for councils, landholders and other organisations to fund and deliver conservation work. A publicly available implementation plan will identify priority areas and the actions required during the strategy’s first three years. The draft includes an illustrative plan for the Southern Highlands, but does not provide an equivalent schedule of projects for the Northern Rivers. The strategy would be delivered through the government’s Saving our Species program, integrating koala conservation with work to protect other threatened
species and their habitats. ‘Koala conservation requires collective action,’ the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water says on its consultation page. The department is seeking feedback from communities, landholders, conservation groups, Aboriginal stakeholders and researchers, including on how much detail the implementation plan should contain. Submissions close at 9am on Monday, 9 November, and can be lodged through the department’s draft Koala Conservation Strategy consultation page.
SUPPORT LOCAL, SHOP MULLUMBIMBY ured t a e F
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Hemp Culture Hemp Culture is a conscious living store in the heart of Mullumbimby, offering sustainable hemp clothing, botanical wellness products, journals, candles and everyday essentials that inspire a mindful lifestyle. Every item is thoughtfully chosen to support wellbeing and honour the earth, creating a warm, welcoming space you’ll want to explore in person. Locals are invited to ask about our loyalty program. A simple way to enjoy meaningful discounts while supporting a community focused small business. 40 Burringbar St, Mullumbimby • 0478 218 031 • hempculture.com.au
BECOME A MEMBER! The Mullumbimby Chamber of Commerce represents a mixture of businesses and community groups that have come together for the purpose of ensuring Mullumbimby thrives and remains a vibrant community. Since its inception in 2013, the Chamber has hosted numerous successful events. These include street banquets, the revival of The Chinny Charge, Carols by Candlelight and the
MULLUMBIMBY
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.echo.net.au
annual Shop Local campaign before Christmas. The Chamber also supports Brunswick Valley Historical Society, Mullumbimby Community Gardens, GateWay Landcare, Spaghetti Circus and many other community organisations. If you have a business in Mullumbimby area or are a resident of the Mullumbimby area, you are welcome to join the Mullumbimby Chamber of Commerce. An initiative of the Mullumbimby Chamber of Commerce
Are you interested in how you can use AI in your business? You’re invited to join a free Australian Government Digital Solutions Workshop. ○ Session 1 AI for marketing and content creation 11 November 2026 2pm to 4:30pm - Byron Bay Bowling Club ○ Session 2 Build your own AI business assistant. 11 November 2026 5pm to 7:30pm - Byron Bay Bowling Club
More information Register now on Council’s website www.byron.nsw.gov.au/ AI-Digital-Workshops
Council is presenting these sessions in partnership with the Australian School of Employment. The first 10 business to register get five hours of free one-on-one business mentoring with the Australian School of Employment.
www.mullumbimby.org.au October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 9
Comment
North Coast news online
The Byron Shire Echo
Volume 41 #19 • October 21, 2026
The rise of the machines Ewan Willis
W
We perhaps failed to heed
hen the last Stephen Hawking’s words of switchboard warning ‘our future is a race operator became between the growing power of extinct and the filing assistant closed the cabinet for the last our technology and the wisdom time to join the lamplighters with which we use it.’ and ratcatchers we were, perhaps, mollified with the knowledge that newer, more the wealth, through marketinteresting careers would open dominating advertising in exchange up before us. Network switches for all the ills of social media and hummed to the gentle caress of the demise of traditional media. systems administrators and countWe are on the verge of seeing less roles arose that were hard to the same thing happening in the explain to the uninitiated. Progress. world of employment but with Imagine the horror of the career a twist to every technologicallymathematician who awoke to driven change that we have find that not only had some AI henceforth seen; this technology is confabulation created solutions self-actuating and is replete with to longstanding problems in the agency. It is well accepted in many field but, more distressingly, had professions that we can no longer done so with elegance. How quickly confidently tell our young people they grow up, why, it seems only that the career they study for will yesterday that frontier AI models still be viable by the time they routinely failed to correctly count graduate. all three Ns in the word contrapIt isn’t all doom and gloom, of tion. Or is it four? course. Hark, is that the resounding Here we stand in a shining new trumpeting of government regulaera and dry-throatedly realise that tion rushing in to save the day? Any we, the good citizens of Carthage, decade now. Sadly, governments may be in for a rough ride. For routinely fail to regulate in a timely now, perhaps, we are safe but only manner. The well-intentioned but because machines don’t pay the ineffective age restrictions on social income tax to which all modern media are only a recent example. nations are addicted. Having witnessed the effects The rate of technologicallyof social media fighting, and windriven upheaval is accelerating. ning, the battle for our attention We perhaps failed to heed Stephen we should ask ourselves how we Hawking’s words of warning ‘our will respond when AI comes for future is a race between the growour affection and makes itself so ing power of our technology and indispensable that we no longer the wisdom with which we use it.’ It know how to function without it. doesn’t seem that long ago that we My advice? Get a hobby. Preferably chose en masse to trade privacy for one involving other people. convenience in the wake of which we have seen mega corporations ■ Ewan Willis, when not too busy siphon literal fortunes away from practicing rocket science, is The the communities that generated Echo’s resident electron wrangler.
The alchemy of suffering T here is alchemy in the crucible of suffering, if you can surrender to it. I don’t say this glibly and acknowledge the scale of suffering many beings endure is unimaginable. Suffering though is a fundamental aspect of what makes us human. In the simulacra we’ve created with AI, we urgently need to know our humanity. Many foundational stories speak of suffering. The teachings of Buddha centre around the intrinsic nature of suffering and its causes as part of the human condition and kindly offers us a noble path by which we may choose to liberate ourselves from it. ‘No mud, no lotus’ as the venerable Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh said. I had my own moment in the mud recently and it reminded me of the importance of surrendering and our moral imperative not to be the cause of suffering and to ease the suffering of others whenever we can. I went to catch up with friends over pizza at Clunes and instead ended up spending a gruelling seven hours waiting in hospital emergency to see a doctor. I tripped over an awkwardly placed umbrella stand and fell, hitting my head hard on the uneven stone pavement, smashing my glasses into my face causing a laceration above my eye needing stitches. I’ve also bruised, and likely hairline fractured, ribs. The beautiful thing, the lotus in the mud if you will, as I lay there in pain shaking in shock looking up at the darkening sky filling with flying foxes, was the spontaneous kindness of people around me. I had no choice but to surrender and the salve of their care made the suffering bearable. Time becomes otherworldly in those moments and acts of kindness like holding my hand, reassuring me help was on the way, placing comfort under my head, and covering me with a blanket made the world of difference. This is humans at their best,
‘For a country that prides itself on its universal health care system funded by our taxes, it’s a dismal failure of government that public hospitals are so stretched.’ – Jo Immig
caring for a stranger in strife. The wonderful paramedics arrived quickly and took me to Lismore Base Hospital. There the vibe changed, not because people weren’t kind, but because as we all know, the public hospital system, particularly in rural and regional NSW, is at breaking point. It’s a nightmarish situation for hospital staff and those needing urgent care. Dozens of people were waiting, many elderly, worried parents with pallid children, some hacking and coughing, perhaps with influenza or Covid, all waiting on ridiculously uncomfortable chairs. It made a mockery of the pandemic restrictions jamming us all into a smallish space for hours. For a country that prides itself on its universal health care system funded by our taxes, it’s a dismal failure of government that public hospitals are so stretched after years of neglect and an inexcusable lack of proper funding. Those on the right of politics would kill off public health care altogether if they could. Because the waiting time was going to be hours, and we wanted to avoid also catching a virus, my partner drove me to Byron Hospital, where we were advised no one was waiting, but as happens, several ambulances arrived all at once with serious emergencies. At Byron, I asked the triage nurse why the seating was so uncomfortable. She said it was to deter homeless people from wanting to sleep there. Not only is the government failing to care for homeless people, they’re also torturing sick people in the process. There are immense challenges running a public health care
system, adequate staffing being one of them. Tough talk on immigration by One Nation, and now the copycat Coalition, sends shivers up my spine. Imagine how much worse public hospitals would be without immigrant doctors, nurses, and cleaners. I’m not going to lie, seven hours waiting in pain and discomfort, exhausted and hungry did not bring out my best self. I wanted to scream out of utter frustration. I could have kicked the noisy vending machine dispensing only junk. Has nobody at NSW Health been to Japan? Vending machines could stock warm blankets, small pillows and hot miso soup. When my name was finally called at 3am, the medical care and kindness I received from the sole doctor on duty was exemplary. The blessing in all this is the opening of the heart to the suffering of others. What do we become if we are inured to the suffering of others? Look around. We can become monsters who want to livestream the execution of a prisoner, or people who turn a blind eye to genocide and children having limbs amputated without anaesthesia in Gaza. I’m lost for words. Our humanness is inextricably bound with suffering. It tells us apart from AI machines that learn to speak our language, but do not feel our suffering or come to the aid of a stranger in need of human comfort. ■ Jo Immig is a former advisor
to the NSW Legislative Council and Coordinator of the National Toxics Network. She’s currently a freelance writer and researcher.
The Byron Shire Echo
Volume 41 #19 October 21, 2026
Established 1986 • 18,000 copies every week
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10 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
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Letters to the Editor www.echo.net.au/letters Council enquiry I make reference to the most extraordinary article presented in the Echo (7 October). Jan Barham’s article is very comprehensive and without a doubt demonstrates her ability to articulate a situation with the clarity equivalent to a doctorate submission. Her skill at research and sniffing out the undisclosed and the obvious is close to that of a hound dog. Jan has been a real force to be reckoned with over the decades, including her stint as our Shire mayor for a full term, then as a NSW Greens MLC, and continuing to be a vocal member of our community when something really needs to be said, opened up, and the bones of the matter exposed. This issue of Council’s special rates rise is very contentious, so expose it she has. I’m calling for an independent enquiry into the management of Council funds and to lay bare the mechanisms used to reach this point whereupon the Byron ratepayers are being inflicted with a second rise in their rates in over three years. Jan has pointed out so many discrepancies that show a very sloppy accounting management system and upgrading or reforms to
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PACIFIC BITUMEN Sad Wallum. Cartoon by Alain Raymond address shortcomings. It makes sense to me, as Jan has suggested, to wait until the review that’s been proposed by the state government is completed, and understood, before just asking the community to fork out more money, especially in these present times with the hardships being endured. Savaad Churcher-Wells Byron Bay
What say on SRV? I went online to yoursay. byron.nsw.gov.au/srv to have my say about the looming SRV [Special Rate Variation]. If implemented this (35 per cent) rates increase will flow through to rents
Letters to the Editor Send your letters to the Editor: editor@echo.net.au Deadline: Noon, Friday. Letters longer than 200 words may be cut. Letters already published in other papers will not be considered. Please include your full name, address and phone number for verification purposes. Letters edited for length will be able to be read in full (if a reasonable length) online at: www.echo.net.au/letters.
and services – so not only will rent / rates rise 35 per cent but also the cost of a mechanic, plumber, pizza etc will rise. Rates are already high and have risen above inflation for years. If Council can’t maintain services with the existing increases, I think that’s mismanagement. Millions of tourists visit and we’re told they’re good for the economy. If Council can’t figure out how to get the required revenue from them we’d be better off without both. This SRV will be a massive burden for all – landowners, renters, and visitors. The information Council has provided to justify this is very vague. How the money will be spent is given in percentages – for good things like roads and infrastructure – but never mentions how many dollars bureaucrats are getting etc. There are no specific costings, commitments, or guarantees given. It’s worth remembering that we fund Council. They are our service provider; we are their client(s).
As a contract between provider and client, Council’s vague presentation is way dodgy – more like a child having a tantrum in a lolly shop than a seriously costed request. Council seems to have forgotten the nature of the relationship and taken the attitude that they have us over a barrel and can treat us however they want. Sadly, as things stand, this may be true. I have little faith that going online to have your say will make any difference. Elected councillors tasked with ‘selling’ this to the community are probably not to blame either. I suspect the rot is deep and needs a huge shake up. As individual ratepayers we are pretty powerless, but if we unite as a block and refuse to play this rigged game or comply with this junk scheme we might have a chance. I think it’s time. Alistair Bell Byron Bay
▶ More letters on page 13,
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BYRON BUSINESS AWARDS 2026 Celebrating the best in business This year’s Awards Gala will be at Loft, Byron Bay on 26 November. Set against a vibrant backdrop of incredible food, great music, and a packed room of local leaders, we come together to honour the outstanding achievements of Byron’s business community.
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Celebrating what makes Byron unique 12 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
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Letters to the Editor www.echo.net.au/letters A postapocalyptic landscape
I arrived to find Mum sitting quietly framed by rubbish and graffiti, backdropped by the boarded-up, burnt-out, cyclone-fenced remains of the old dyb dyb...
Recently, my mother made the long trek from the big smoke to visit Mullum. She likes to check in on younger family members every couple of years, and it’s an excellent excuse to shake up Mr Sheen. True to form, she travelled entirely by public transport for the princely seniors’ rate of less than three dollars. Born at the tail end of one of last century’s analogue wars, her body is a little marked by time, but she fiercely guards her independence and never misses a chance to save a buck. We texted throughout the day, tracking her progress. When she transferred from rail to rubber at Casino, this was the official cue to start preparing dinner for her arrival. In years past, TransLink would roll into our once celebrated train station not long after dark, and I would drive to meet her amongst the campers. But this time she was not there. The touchdown point had since migrated. We spoke on the phone. ‘I’m at the Mullum Coach Terminal’ she announced. Mmm, where might that be? I pondered. Outside Janelle’s newsagency? No, not there. ‘It’s very dark here, there are no cars,’ she responded, ‘… but I can hear music in the distance’. Ahh, she hears the Middle Pub, I concluded. She may have disembarked at the bus shelters behind the post office. I arrived to find Mum sitting quietly framed by rubbish and graffiti, backdropped by the boarded-up, burnt-out, cyclone-fenced remains of the old dyb dyb dyb, dob, dob dob hall (past members must be wiping teardrops with their scarves) that also entertained stylish tango lessons in the evenings, and Echo transfers at sparrow’s. This location is now a truly spectacular introduction to our town. When will we get our ‘landscaped parklet’? And will this demolition job also include a giant scout woggle installation as art? Should we assist by gathering funds? We could submit photos to film location companies. The location is the perfect backdrop for an indie postapocalyptic piece. Or the poor sister to a wealthier tourist destination. Karen Harborow Myocum www.echo.net.au
Data centres I have just read a report from National Public Radio in the US that huge tech companies are aggressively developing data projects in Australia because there is so much resistance to them in the US. We need to show them that we don’t want their greedy, water-stealing and energyconsuming (subsidised by local Aussies), ugly and noisy buildings. They will create no jobs and all the profits go back to the one per cent in the US. They are also part of developing the ‘surveillance state’. Since it appears Albanese (and the LNP and One Nation) and Minns are all on board to sell out Australia to Big Tech we need to organise like we did to stop the fracking in the Northern Rivers. One data centre has already been stopped near Sydney so it can be done. Karen Wagner Myocum
Don’t smoke Will whomever is responsible for the remaining heritage railway cottage in Railway Park please get it occupied, used, and loved before it too, goes up in smoke? Phoebe Havyatt Byron Bay
Preserve the green Ocean Shores is a residential suburb bound by nature reserves. Billinudgel, Marshalls Creek, Jinangong, and North Head Reserve all have higher conservation values than any national park, which is a measure of their extraordinary biodiversity, and they were specifically set aside for species conservation, not for human use. Ocean Shores has more left to protect than other parts of Byron Shire because of historically strong environmental activism but sadly, in recent years the diminishment of biodiversity has been striking. Where are the pheasant coucals? Spike the echidna and Ruby the python have gone, and seeing a bluetongue is rare. The plovers and bush stone curlews on Shara Boulevard, and the wood ducks on Orana Road are trying to co-habit, but their success rate isn’t great. Preservation of endemic plants and animals must
be a priority in this extinction crisis as we face rapid climate change and the threats expand: specific locations advertised on social media brings a level of tourism our northern villages cannot support. The level of tourism that Brunswick Heads now attracts cannot be accommodated here (and isn’t something the locals want expanded). Clearly reserves cannot become cycling highways without huge environmental impacts. And increased density has brought new residents to the area who clearly don’t understand what they’ve bought into and choose to prioritise their view over an existing wildlife corridor. Small gestures counter the impacts: they matter and they add up collectively. Complacency is the enemy. Plant local species, enjoy a view through the trees, keep your moggie inside and your dog on a lead, put a birdbath in your garden, drive slowly, leave green space around your house design, join a local Dunecare group, look around you and bring in the gratitude. Catherine Lane Ocean Shores
Pacific and climate Now that the focus on climate change is shifting from prevention, to containment, to hopefully adaption, our neighbours in the Pacific, with their feet in salt water, are justifiably asking for help from their wealthy neighbour, whose Labor government is much busier increasing the risk to these island communities by excessively contributing to the climate change problem. Let’s remember Suzuki’s ‘Think Globally’. Let’s also look at the random events of unkindness. Who’s next for unprecedented fires, deadly hot days, floods, sliding glaziers, cyclones, crops famers can’t grow anymore. Can we seriously fear being left behind (from what) if we don’t host giant data centres powered by massive amounts of the gas we don’t export? Climate change is getting politically unfixable. Let’s start focusing on where there might be some politicians we can vote for who will start working out how we can adapt and live more safely with the changes we can’t even imagine – and globally help other communities to do likewise. We owe this much to the little people we have produced and keep producing. Sandra Heilpern Ballina
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BOOK BEST SEATS HERE October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 13
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14 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
www.echo.net.au
Business in Focus / Articles
Aston Private: personalised care, close to home Aston Private has expanded its Northern Rivers services by launching Aston at Home, an outpatient service for people who would benefit from treatment while staying at home and connected to daily life. Based in Byron Bay, Aston Private offers private residential rehabilitation and outpatient support for alcohol and drug use, mental health, stress and trauma. Every program begins with understanding the person, their health, circumstances and goals. Aston Private’s residential programs give clients space to step away from everyday pressures and focus on their health with dedicated, oneon-one support. Depending on individual needs, care may include medical
support, therapy, recovery mentoring, physical wellbeing and holistic therapies. The focus is on helping clients build healthier habits, practical coping skills, and a strong foundation for returning home. Aston at Home can support people after detox or residential treatment, or serve as a starting point for people receiving care in their own homes. ‘For many people in the Northern Rivers, leaving work, family and community is not practical. Aston at Home gives them access to clinical support without requiring them to step away from their everyday lives,’ said Aston Private Clinical Director, Dr Damien Ford. Programs can include
Aston at Home is a Byron-based personalised support service. Photo Broken Open Productions
medical check-ins, therapy, recovery coaching, personal support and wellness
sessions. The type, frequency and length of care are customised to each
person and adjusted as their needs evolve. Both residential and
outpatient services strongly emphasise confidentiality, coordinated care, and ongoing support. Families can be involved when appropriate, with the client’s consent, to help them understand how to support their loved one. Available in Byron Bay and selected Northern Rivers locations, Aston at Home offers another pathway to personalised treatment close to home. Whether you’re exploring options for yourself or someone close to you, Aston Private welcomes every enquiry with kindness, discretion and complete confidentiality. ■ Article provided by
Aston Private. To learn more, please visit www.astonprivate.com.
The plan to reduce floods by flooding our local communities Annie Kia
mostly 20m deep. That’s the height of a six-storey building. The CSIRO report reveals that the Booyong detention holds 82GL – that’s nearly six times the volume of Rocky Creek Dam. Corndale is equally huge. Despite the enormous size of the ten detention dams, they don’t even eliminate flooding of Lismore. A February 2022 flood would be 2m lower but still go over the levee.
T
he CSIRO report on flood mitigation in the Richmond River was released in June to enthusiastic proclamations from Lismore business leaders. ‘We must act without delay!’ they urged. ‘The science has spoken!’ I understand the urge to grasp what looks like a miracle cure for Australia’s most flood-prone town. The trouble with miracle cures is that they often fail to match the promise. Sometimes they have awful side effects – in this case, flooding communities who live upstream. But we should not describe this as a ‘side effect’ since the goal of the project is engineered flooding of these localities. CSIRO modelled several engineering interventions, the most aggressive of which involves ten detention dams in the upper catchment. Huge walls would be built across valleys. When floods threaten, sluice gates in these walls would close to hold phenomenally large volumes of water for up to two weeks. When CSIRO released the report, they did not consider it important to include inundation maps so that families in these valleys could see what was planned for them. Without an understanding of the huge extent and depth of these ‘detention dam floods’, few rural people knew why they should participate in consultations. Even more extraordinary was the callous disregard www.echo.net.au
Cut off from help
Pictured are the detention flood areas of just two of the ten proposed detention dams, located at Corndale and Booyong. The online interactive map shows indicative depths and extents of all the proposed detention dam floods. To view the map scan the inset QR code or visit richmond-flood-maps.projects.earthengine.app/view/richmond-flood-maps. of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) which oversaw the CSIRO project and ‘consultations’ in which the targets of intentional flooding were kept in the dark. Although NEMA has done excellent work in disaster preparedness and recovery, they did not think about the impact on people who had lived through the flood and landscape collapse event of 2022. National guidelines on post-disaster mental health were forgotten as they progressed a project to flood communities. Questions should be asked about how this project was allowed to proceed without proper ethics oversight.
Flooding our homes But then something happened which shone a
light into the void created by CSIRO/NEMA neglect. A skilled community volunteer produced an interactive map which shows indicative extents and depths of the detention dam floods. To say that people are shocked when they examine the map is an understatement. It can be accessed using the QR code shown. CSIRO/NEMA have not ‘approved’ the interactive map. However, the map was built using coordinates for the dam walls obtained from CSIRO. The height of the dam walls is given in the CSIRO report. Inundation is determined by the contours. NEMA, which commissioned the CSIRO report, and was present at the Lismore consultations, announced that they would produce
maps within two weeks of the Lismore event – but these have not materialised, months later. The interactive map reveals the astonishing scale of engineered flooding at Nashua, Booyong, Corndale, Bentley, Nimbin, Rock Valley, Larnook, Dunoon/The Channon and Collins, Fawcetts, Eden and Barlings creeks.
No meaningful flood reduction By placing a finger on the map, we can see the indicative depth at that location: 10m over Pearce’s Creek Road, Booyong Road, and Corndale Road. That’s more than the height of a two-storey building. The map reveals the extents – stretching 10km up Rock Valley,
The proposed detention dams flood roads essential for emergency services and for communities coming to each other’s aid during floods, cyclones, and landslides. This is not temporary water-over-road. This is not gentle rain collected in a pond. It is high-velocity creeks hitting a wall, bearing logs, rocks, soil, dead cows, and occasional shipping containers. After the detained water is released, councils will have to scrape all this off the roads before they can even assess what is left of the road surface. It is likely that engineers will find extensive damage, with sections requiring intensive remedial work before they are safe. After drawdown, it is unlikely that these roads will be functional. Roads essential for emergency capability would be disabled.
Valleys unite CSIRO’s modelling of interventions to reduce flooding in the Richmond River was theoretical. The NSW
Reconstruction Authority will now coordinate a feasibility study covering geotechnical, engineering, dam safety, cost-benefit, and Indigenous heritage, ecology, agriculture, communities, and emergency capability. This is a big task as the proposals include some downstream engineering as well as ten detention dams. The targeted communities are organising within their valleys so they can have a voice in this study. An alliance of these communities has emerged called Valleys United. Upstream communities know the 2022 flood brought immense suffering and loss on the Wilson and Richmond Rivers. Many volunteered to help in Lismore, for weeks. What is not so well known is that upstream people also suffered loss and trauma in that flood. In the upper catchment, rain intensity was extreme. Houses and roads were demolished by landslides, and farms and livestock destroyed. These were life-threatening conditions and the communities self-organised their own emergency response, clearing roads with farm machinery so they could reach each other. They are now experiencing another shock – the plan to subject them to flooding. Given the disregard with which they have been treated, it would be in their interests to examine the interactive map and organise. ■ Annie Kia is an advocate
for rural flood safety.
October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 15
The
Good Life Good Taste Dining Guide
Check the vital details of some of the region’s finest foodies. BRUNSWICK HEADS
PACIFIC BISTRO AT BRUNSWICK HEADS BOWLING CLUB
Good food, great value, and no fuss! Enjoy fresh meals, pub favourites, burgers, weeknight specials, fortnightly chef’s specials, and Sunday roasts in a relaxed, family-friendly setting. Open: Tuesday–Sunday, 12–2pm and 5–8pm. Address: 107 Tweed St, Brunswick Heads Check Facebook for the latest menu! brunswickbowlingclub.com @brunswickheadsbowlingclub
BYRON BAY
BOMBAY TO BYRON AUTHENTIC INDIAN FOOD
Serving Indian food to Byron Bay for last 12 years. Open: Monday 4.30pm–9.30pm, Tuesday to Sunday 12 noon–3pm and 4.30pm–9.30pm Address : 3/93 Jonson Street Byron Bay Contact: 02 6680 7437 bombaytobyron@gmail.com
MANNA HAVEN
100% whole food, plant-based, house-made meals that are delicious and full of love. Celebrating 20 years in Byron! Open: Mon to Fri 11am–3pm Address: 97 Jonson Street, Byron Bay mannahaven.com.au
THE BELONGIL
A world-class, multi-venue dining and lifestyle destination at the heart of Belongil Beach, Byron Bay. Belongil Kiosk: 7 days a week, 6:30am–4pm Belongil Bistro: Wednesday–Sunday, 11:30 til late Feu - Dinner: from 5pm Thursday to Saturday, Lunch from 12pm Friday to Sunday Address: 33-35 Childe Street, Byron Bay Contact: 02 5643 9377 reservations@belongilgroup.com belongilgroup.com - @thebelongil
BAYSIDE YAKINIKU CLUB BY YUKO
Authentic Japanese Charcoal Restaurant Premium Australian Wagyu, homemade sauces, fermented food, rice bowls and deli salads. Open: Wednesday to Sunday Lunch 12pm–3pm Dinner 5.30pm–8.30pm Address: 1/14 Bay Street, Byron Bay Contact: 0493 565 508 @bayside_yakiniku _club
16 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
THREE BLUE DUCKS
At The Farm enjoy a wander in the fields, meet the animals, and picnic in the sun… there really is something for everyone. Open: Monday – Friday 8am–4pm Saturday 8am– 6.30pm Sunday 8am–8pm Address: The Farm, 11 Ewingsdale Rd, Ewingsdale www.threeblueducks.com/byron
NO BONES BYRON BAY
Vegan Kitchen + Bar $20 Carbonara Mondays – every Monday until sold out Happy Hour – $14 cocktails from 5-6pm every night Live Jazz – First Friday of every month from 6.30pm Open: 7 nights from 5pm Address: 11 Fletcher Street, Byron Bay @nobonesrestaurants
ROCA BYRON BAY
Latin fusion restaurant blending deeply rooted Latin American traditions, with innovative techniques and a flair for presentation. Open: every day except Wednesday 6.30am to late Address: 14 Lawson Street, Byron Bay www.rocabyronbay.com.au
FOREST BYRON BAY
Rainforest views, farm-to-table dining, and a menu showcasing the best of Northern Rivers produce. Open: 7 days: Breakfast 7.30–10.30am Lunch on verandah from 12–3pm Dinner 5.30–9pm Address: 77-97 Broken Head Road, Byron Bay crystalbrookcollection.com/byron/forest
WILSONS CREEK
THREEWAYS OF THE VALLEY
Nestled in the lush Wilsons Creek rainforest, Threeways is a vibrant, family-friendly cafe where nature, nourishment, and community meet. Open: Wednesday – Sunday 8am–3pm and Saturday night. Address: 10 Huonbrook Rd, Wilsons Creek Contact: 0421 054 804 www.threeways.store @threeways_of_the_valley
www.echo.net.au/good-taste
www.echo.net.au
The
Good Life
Warren Wiggins from Boorabe Local Dorper Lamb
Spring into summer with local Dorper Lamb Allie Godfrey As we move from spring into summer, it’s time to fire up the barbecue, enjoy long lunches with family and friends, and make the most of fresh, local produce. I recently spoke with Warren from Boorabe Dorper Lamb about the different cuts of lamb and how to get the best out of them. Boorabe’s Dorper lamb is grass-fed, and Dorper sheep are bred specifically for meat. They are also a self-shedding breed, meaning they don’t require traditional shearing. Their meat is known for its marbling, giving it a richness that Warren likens to the marbling prized in Wagyu beef. For warmer days, lamb cutlets and loin chops are ideal for the barbecue, while sausages are an easy crowd-pleaser for relaxed outdoor meals. Pair them with colourful salads, grilled seasonal vegetables and fresh herbs for a simple meal that celebrates the best of the season. Dorper lamb is also well suited to slow cooking. Warren recommends neck chops for stews and curries, where the marrow bones add depth and richness as the meat becomes beautifully tender. www.echo.net.au
Shoulder is another favourite for a relaxed family lunch or dinner. For a slowroasted shoulder, place the meat in a roasting dish with your choice of vegetables, and cook at around 140150°C for six to seven hours. There’s no need to sear it first. The natural fat renders as it cooks, keeping the meat moist and helping create a delicious finish. The result is tender lamb that pulls easily from the bone. A leg roast is another option, generally taking around three to three-anda-half hours, depending on its size. Whether you’re planning a spring barbecue, a summer gathering, or a Sunday roast, there are plenty of ways to enjoy grass-fed, locally produced Dorper lamb throughout the year. Next time you’re at the farmers’ market, stop by and have a chat with Warren from Boorabe Dorper Lamb for advice on choosing the right cut for your next meal. ■ Find Boorabe Dorper
Lamb every Tuesday at New Brighton Farmers Market from 7am to 11am and every Friday at Mullumbimby Farmers Market from 7am to 11am.
Foreshore Italian Foreshore Italian brings the warmth, generosity and simplicity of Italian cooking to Elements of Byron, celebrating the pleasure of good food, fresh ingredients and shared dining experiences. Inspired by the traditions of Italian cuisine and the abundance of the Northern Rivers, the restaurant offers a relaxed approach to dining, where familiar flavours meet the best of the region’s seasonal produce. Led by Executive Chef Craig Robertson, the culinary direction embraces the philosophy that great Italian food begins with quality ingredients, prepared simply and with care. The menu celebrates fresh pasta, seafood, meats and vegetables, with generous dishes designed to be shared and enjoyed together. Rather than reinventing Italian classics, the focus is on allowing ingredients to speak for themselves, bringing a distinctly Northern Rivers influence to traditional Italian cooking. Locally sourced and seasonal produce plays a central role in the kitchen. Australian buffalo mozzarella and burrata, mushrooms from the Tweed Valley, and an abundance of fresh regional ingredients reflect the restaurant’s connection to its surroundings. Native ingredients including
COFFEE SH
saltbush, karkalla, river mint and native thyme – foraged from the Elements of Byron property – introduce subtle local flavours that complement the Italian foundations of the menu. These regional ingredients sit alongside carefully selected Italian staples, including mascarpone and traditional cheeses, chosen for their authenticity and importance to particular dishes. This thoughtful balance between local provenance and Italian tradition creates a dining experience that feels both familiar, and distinctly connected to Byron Bay. Much of the preparation takes place in-house, with fresh pasta, sauces and desserts crafted by the kitchen team. From comforting pasta dishes and handcrafted pizzas to seasonal seafood, vibrant vegetables and classic Italian desserts, the menu celebrates the diversity of Italian cuisine while remaining approachable and generous. The atmosphere reflects this same philosophy. Warm, welcoming and effortlessly relaxed, Foreshore Italian is a place to gather around the table, share a bottle of wine, enjoy a refreshing spritz and linger over conversation. Whether it’s an intimate dinner for two, a family gathering, or a celebration with
friends, the experience is centred on the simple joy of dining together. Open for dinner seven days a week, Foreshore Italian welcomes both Byron Bay locals and guests of Elements of Byron, offering a taste of Italy shaped by the flavours, ingredients and easy-going spirit of the Northern Rivers. ■ More info from
elementsofbyron.com.au (02) 6639 1500
OP
Open 6am – 12pm Monday – Saturday Shop 6/108 Stuart Street Mullumbimby. @bimbi_coffee_shop ALLPRESS ESPRESSSO
CELEBRATIONS Cakes by Liz Jackson
lizzijjackson@gmail.com 0414 895 441 Gluten-free and special dietary needs catered for. October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 17
Mungo from the Bardo Soapbox www.echo.net.au/soap-box
Crossword by Mungo MacCallum 1
2
3
4
5
6
#32
7
8
9 10
11
12
H
13
14
15
16 17
18
19
20
21
22 23
24
26
25
27
28
29
Cryptic Clues
Quick Clues
ACROSS
ACROSS
1. Next to second rate team on radio (6) 4. Telepathy with festering sores – have a drink (8) 10. Drive back policeman, and ring, see the traveller! (5,4) 11. Penny bun – how amusing (5) 12. Confused chaps, incontinent and memory loss (7) 13. Santamaria’s agent, a very big fish (7) 14. Hostile old you holds back troops (5) 15. Knight to frequently make the cut, by report (8) 18. Pressure, or high pressure band, produces lagging (8) 20. Refuse to declare club (5) 23. Author takes the lead back holding strange book (7) 25. Act to bet on The Widow (7) 26. Animal decapitates cad (5) 27. Wake up shortly after service; firm but bitter (9) 28. Pretend to be ill and hang around after mother (8) 29. Strikes out at small parasites (6)
DOWN
1. Next to, adjacent (6) 4. Type of coffee (8) 10. Legendary Italian traveller (5,4) 11. Funny, amusing (5) 12. Loss of memory (7) 13. Type of very large fish (7) 14. Adversary, foe (5) 15. Best of King Arthur’s knights (8) 18. Dish of oatmeal eaten for breakfast (8) 20. Stick, wand (5) 23. Author of Lolita (7) 25. Widow, especially of a nobleman (7) 26. Amphibious mammal (5) 27. Bitter, resentful (9) 28. Feign illness to escape work (8) 29. Strikes out, overwhelms (6)
DOWN
1. Bewailed, lamented (8) 2. Hypodermic needle (7) 3. One who forecasts disaster (9) 5. Enforced marriage (7,7) 6. Contest for cowboys (5) 7. Sign of the Zodiac (7) 8. Those who lubricate (6) 9. Blameless dissolution of marriage (2-5,7) 16. Scope, space to expand (5-4) 17. Commits, gives responsibility (8) 19. Circling around another body (7) 21. Craft used for towing bigger ships (7) 22. Notify, fill in (6) 24. Islam’s sacred book (5)
1. Extinct bird found in rising Alpha Cygni. Loudly mourned (8) 2. Scorch around unknown radius, giving the needle (7) 3. Leo follows party chant, the pessimist (9) 5. Twinned dogs hug wildly, an unplanned union (7,7) 6. Resistance to poetry zero at cowboy carnival (5) 7. Sign of southern association X (7) ■ The lost files for #31 remain an 8. Steam engines take lid off for some unsolved mystery. #32 circa 2009. of those who service them (6) 9. Correct service, and princess takes Last week’s solution #30 M U S T A R D G A S C U S P broken cover for rent – it could A T O R I A K follow 5 down (2-5,7) C R E O S O T E M A R T I N 16. Spin bowler with low back finds R R S A I E L space to move (5-4) O V I D T A T T L E T A L E P L I D E A E 17. Commits, certain about territory O P E N E N D E D S K A T E and way back (8) D A G P A E A 19. Piece spoken about in roundabout S C E N E I R O N C R O S S manner (7) H N Y E A S T E A S Y D O E S I T S T Y E 21. Vessel holds German with grain; R G R S H R R it’s a tower of strength! (7) N A P O L I I D E A T I O N 22. Scoring well? Do tell! (6) D A C O M C E 24. Knockout service in holy book (5) B E E T K I N G A R T H U R
STARS BY LILITH This week’s triple whammy of personal planets in Scorpio intensify even further with Mercury and Venus retrograde. We’re talking steam heat …
SCORPIO
Bring Out Your Dead aving a dead father made me different to other kids. I was six when he died, and in a small town even I knew that for the week of his death, our family was all anyone was talking about. The 30-year-old, wild and misunderstood Robert, who drove his powder blue Valiant, drunk, head on into an oncoming vehicle, killing the grandfather of someone who I was to later meet in high school. It was a collision that changed my life forever. I could feel the spectre of death on my skin. It didn’t feel good. I hated the pity. I heard old women in doctors’ surgeries say: ‘Oh that poor little girl.’ But they didn’t say it to me. Just about me. I remember attending a birthday party of a girl I didn’t know. I was invited because everyone felt sorry for me. I heard the mother instruct her unknowing daughter – a stranger to me, to ‘be nice to Mandy – her dad died.’ I felt so alone. A town observant of my grief and circumstance filled me with shame. The edges of the birthday party are still so sharp in my memory. I’m wearing my bright yellow halterneck sun dress. It has hot pink and green geometric designs. My hair is cut short in a replica of Mia Farrow’s famous Vidal Sassoon pixie chop. My mother was a hairdresser and so in the absence of a willing country-town wife, who preferred the set and comb up, had used her tiny daughter as an unwitting hair model. Unaware she would soon be starring in her own horror. Ironically it was the perfect haircut for the horror and violence of my tiny life. And like Farrow, not only did I not win an Oscar for my performance, I didn’t even get nominated. Grief to me felt like a performance with no rehearsal. Then after a week or so when my father was dead and buried, when I sat quietly with my mum, who wept softly as she fed my baby brother, I realised that was it. In my small town, I became the girl with the dead father. No one talked to me about it. Life just went on and death got put in a bottom drawer and closed. We don’t know how to do death well. Which when you think about it is nuts. Death isn’t a surprise. In fact it’s the most ordinary biological
MANDY
N O LA N
’S
Illustration: thinkblinkdesign.com
In my small town, I became the girl with the dead father. No one talked to me about it. Life just went on and death got put in a bottom drawer and closed. occurrence. We all die. It’s the same end for us all. Yet we have this strange denial. This discomfort in our own death, and a discomfort with knowing how to witness the grief of another. My initiation into grief as a small child has made me strangely familiar with death. The wordless sound of loss – the primal moan that comes from somewhere deep in the bones, is a sound I recognise immediately. I know there is nothing to say. I know how to sit in discomfort because that’s the place where I had my childhood. It’s familiar. Zenith Virago has stood in this space for decades. She has patiently midwifed our community into a kind of unique comfort with death. She has been the quiet witness to grief and loss. She has held the space of compassion and kindness. She has a kind of knowing that has allowed so many the space to feel their grief unencumbered. I think it’s why I love her. Her comfort with the uncomfortable. As a child born into grief, I recognise those not scared by it. To be honest, there’s not many. And Zenith, has definitely been the rock in a wild sea for so many.
For the last 20 years Zenith has hosted The Day of the Dead – a community ceremony that honours all our dead. Not just those who have just departed. Because loss of someone you love isn’t something that goes away, it grows into you. And these gatherings provide a shared space to acknowledge this beautiful complexity. To remember our dead. This will be Zenith’s last time hosting Day of the Dead, as she hands it to the next person who will carry it forward. Because endings are as important as beginnings 20th Day of the Dead Ceremony. Sunday, 25 October from 3pm to 5pm. Shrine making at 3pm. Ceremony at 4pm. The fig trees, Heritage Park, Mullum.
■ Mandy Nolan’s column has
appeared in The Echo for almost 25 years. She is a writer, comedian and artist, is the preselected Greens candidate for Ballina and was the Greens candidate at the past two federal elections.
ARIES: This week’s sextet of planetary retrogrades, three of them in your sign, predict some delays and frustrations. So have a backup Plan-B for important arrangements. Stay calm, keep cool, maintain your sense of humour. Any effort at self-generated wellbeing that doesn’t depend on external circumstances is recommended.
CANCER: There are creative ways of dealing with heavy retrogrades, so you lunar beings might consider making, or doing something beautiful as an antidote to this week’s irritations. As in taking your cranky heart and making it into art: dressing in something elegant, buying flowers, writing a poem, giving someone a gift.
LIBRA: When your planet ruler Venus is retrograde, partnership themes often intensify, as relationships bring us face to face with parts of ourselves that can only be understood through honest reflection. Which makes this week an ideal time for therapeutic, solution-oriented conversations, and yes, it’s good to have them.
CAPRICORN: In a changing world it’s necessary to regularly check in to ask the hard questions about whether old plans and behaviours are still workable. Retrogrades, when planets gear down and go slow, are the perfect time for humans to take stock, revisit, reassess, revise, reposition and restore what’s important.
TAURUS: With Uranus retrograde already delivering a shakeup to stagnant daily habits, the best way of navigating this week could be by anchoring in sustainable, soul-nourishing routines that include savouring life’s sensual pleasures – by tuning into your physical body and the greater body of earth, our planetary home.
LEO: This week’s astrological weather forecast predicts the kind of climate where nothing can morph into something epic in the blink of an eye. Considering your majesty’s naturally dramatic capacities it would be wise to pick your battles very carefully. Better still, refrain from battling at all and just spread kindness instead.
SCORPIO: Happy birthday and welcome to your magnetic month in the sun, Scorpion clan. With incisive Mercury and sultry Venus both backtracking in Scorpio, your words pack extra power (ditto the sting) so dial back sarcasm and channel that natural intensity into healthy, helpful, creative outlets and celebrations.
AQUARIUS: Your planet guide Uranus retrograde and turning up the volume on its new agenda can be quite a lot to process. So pay attention to whatever is resurfacing from the past for your attention, whether it’s a feeling, thought or discomfort, because this is an auspicious time to seek experienced counsel.
VIRGO: What are Mercury retrogrades good for? The re- words. Remembering what’s important and retiring what’s not. Retraining the mind to think reinvigorating thoughts. Repurposing where that can be achieved. And also about having the foresight to check before offering feedback, whether it’s asked for, welcome, or even necessary.
SAGITTARIUS: With the machinery of misinformation in full flood, best not leap to conclusions or believe everything you hear. This week’s retrogrades recommend reining in impulses to charge ahead, because an offhand comment could set off a chain reaction you didn’t intend. Fortunately there’s plenty of healing potential available.
PISCES: Communications can get lost in translation this week, and relationship dynamics experienced early in life could show up in current partner issues – though it’s usually not the relationship that’s the problem, it’s our personal narratives. This week offers a unique opportunity to rewrite an old life script.
GEMINI: As if changemaker Uranus reversed in your sign wasn’t already enough, now this week your ruler Mercury heading retrograde could challenge even your effervescent spirit with surprise disruptions, confusing communications and exasperating system glitches. Best approach? Tread slowly, carefully, and double-check everything before pressing ‘Send’.
18 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
www.echo.net.au
Sleigh Whaat!? Make It a Celebration to Remember It’s been a big year, so why not finish on a high? Christmas parties and end-of-year get-togethers are the perfect excuse to say thanks, celebrate the wins, and enjoy some well-deserved time together. From lively clubs and waterfront cruises to laid-back outdoor spaces, food trucks, and cosy cafes, the Northern Rivers has plenty of great spots for every gathering, big or small.
Whether it’s a work party or a catch-up with your favourite people, the right venue makes all the difference. Let the local experts take care of the details, so you can relax, enjoy the food and drinks, and celebrate in style. Check out Sleigh Whaat!? and find the perfect spot to raise a glass to the year that was!
Make Your Christmas Party a Bowlo Affair!
Celebrate Christmas at Common Hearth
Planning a Christmas party in Brunswick Heads? Forget expensive venues and overpriced packages. Brunswick Heads Bowling Club is the place to celebrate!
Looking for the perfect place to celebrate this festive season? Gather your crew at Common Hearth, located at Wandana Brewing Co. in Mullumbimby for great food, cold beers and good times.
Bring your workmates, gather your friends and enjoy a Christmas party without breaking the budget. We offer FREE venue hire, FREE barefoot bowls, affordable drinks and delicious meals from our Pacific Bistro. That’s right, no venue hire fees! Enjoy great food, cold drinks, friendly competition and plenty of laughs in a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. No fuss, no formality, just good times with good company. Whether it’s your office Christmas party or a festive get together with friends, celebrate locally at Bruns Bowlo. Book your Christmas party today! 107 Tweed Street, Brunswick Heads brunswickbowlingclub.com Check Facebook for our latest menu!
Whether you’re planning a work Christmas party, catching up with friends or celebrating the end of another big year, we’ve got you covered. Enjoy delicious, locally sourced food, freshly brewed beers and a relaxed brewery atmosphere that’s perfect for bringing everyone together. With three Christmas party packages to choose from, there’s something to suit every celebration, from casual gatherings to larger groups. We’ll take care of the food, so you can focus on celebrating! Enquire today at hello@commonhearth.com.au to secure your preferred date and celebrate in style!
Celebrate this festive season at
BRUNSWICK HEADS BOWLING CLUB
Common Hearth at Wandana Brewery
CELEBRATE THE SEASON Featuring the Pacific Bistro for great food Friendly, relaxed atmosphere www.brunswickbowlingclub.com 107 Tweed Street, Brunswick Heads www.echo.net.au
GOOD FOOD, GOOD PEOPLE Common Hearth Wandana Brewing Co. 20 Manns Road, Mullumbimby hello@commonhearth.com.au
October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 19
Sleigh Whaat!? Tweed Eco Cruises Swap the traditional Christmas party for an unforgettable experience on the Tweed River. Tweed Eco Cruises combines stunning scenery, great hospitality and the very best of the Tweed. Choose from three vessels. Step aboard the charming M.V. Golden Swan, a vintage ferry with an onboard bar and scenic upper deck, or eco-explorer VIP1 for beach landings, swimming and onboard BBQs.
Christmas Celebrations Sorted!
New to the fleet, M.V. Easeland offers spacious entertaining areas for up to 140 guests, ideal for larger corporate celebrations and private events.
Looking for somewhere a little different for your Christmas party this year? Bring the team, your colleagues or a group of friends together for a Christmas celebration at Ocean Shores Country Club.
With flexible itineraries and bespoke packages with other local venues, the possibilities are endless. Let Tweed Eco Cruises create a Christmas party that’s anything but ordinary. Dates are filling fast, so get in touch with the friendly team to start planning. Tweed Marina 07 5536 8800 tweedecocruises.com.au
Forget the usual sit-down Christmas party. Get everyone outdoors for a round of golf, some friendly competition on the bowling greens, or enjoy great food, drinks and spectacular views from the clubhouse. Whether you’re organising a staff Christmas party, a social group gathering or an end-of-year celebration with friends, we have plenty of options to make it a memorable occasion. Just minutes from Brunswick Heads and Byron Bay, it’s a great place to bring everyone together and celebrate the year that’s been. Your group. Your celebration. Your way. Contact our friendly team to get your Christmas party sorted! Call 02 6680 1008 or visit oceanshorescc.com.au
CELEBRATE
on the Tweed River
PRIVATE CHARTERS CHRISTMAS PARTIES CLIENT CELEBRATIONS tweedecocruises.com.au • 07 5536 8800 20 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
Celebration Sorted! Ditch the boring Christmas party! Swap the office for the outdoors.
Golf, barefoot bowls, great food plus incredible views. Enquire today. Call 02 6680 1008 or visit
oceanshorescc.com.au
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Make It a Celebration to Remember It’s been a big year, so why not finish on a high? Christmas parties and end-of-year get-togethers are the perfect excuse to say thanks, celebrate the wins, and enjoy some well-deserved time together. From lively clubs and waterfront cruises to laid-back outdoor spaces, food trucks, and cosy cafes, the Northern Rivers has plenty of great spots for every gathering, big or small.
Whether it’s a work party or a catch-up with your favourite people, the right venue makes all the difference. Let the local experts take care of the details, so you can relax, enjoy the food and drinks, and celebrate in style. Check out Sleigh Whaat!? and find the perfect spot to raise a glass to the year that was!
A Little la Dolce Vita on the Water One year, a new chef and a summer of celebrations. M.V. Jasmine has plenty to toast. Just north of Byron Bay, M.V. Jasmine is bringing a little Mediterranean magic to the Brunswick River. Celebrating its first birthday this November, the luxury charter vessel has become a favourite for sunset cocktails, long lunches and unforgettable celebrations on the water. With a new Mediterranean-inspired menu by chef Davide, formerly of Raes on Wategos, guests can indulge in beautiful seasonal produce, creative sharing plates and cocktails as the river drifts by. From leisurely afternoon cruises to exclusive midweek VIP experiences, Christmas parties and private celebrations, M.V. Jasmine offers something truly special.
Eat. Drink. Celebrate. From end-of-year gatherings and festive feasts to unforgettable parties and celebrations, it’s time to bring people together in style! Big events or intimate gatherings? We’ve got you covered. Discover the Northern Rivers’ best caterers and most inspiring venues, all featured in Eat drink magazine. From delicious menus to beautiful spaces, find everything you need to make your next celebration truly special. Get inspired. Gather your people. Let’s Eat drink. echo.net.au/eat-drink
Your crew. Our crew. A little taste of the good life. Discover more at mvjasmine.com
BOOK YOUR XMAS PARTY ON THE M.V. JASMINE
A celebration of the amazing food, drinks, and delights of the Northern Rivers The Echo’s biannual magazine that is essential reading for those seeking the best our region has to offer
MADE FOR CELEBRATIONS
READ IT ONLINE
cincin@mvjasmine.com
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0407 522 422
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echo.net.au/eat-drink October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 21
health & healing Learn, grow and make a difference Explore ways to care for yourself, others and the environment with Byron Community College. Join First Aid*, Mental Health First Aid* and Introduction to Swedish Massage*, running before the end of 2026. Looking ahead to 2027, pursue a career with Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing and Disability)* or Certificate IV in Community Services*. Reconnect with nature through Certificate III in Permaculture*, exploring sustainable living and regenerative practices.
Brunswick Heads Pharmacy Brunswick Heads Pharmacy is proud to support the local community with friendly, trusted, health advice and personalised care that goes beyond the counter. Combining modern pharmacy services with a genuine commitment to health and wellbeing, the team provides expert support for everyday healthcare needs. Services include prescription management, medication repeats and health advice, with prescriptions accepted in-store or via email for e-script collection. The pharmacy also embraces a holistic approach to wellbeing, recognising the connection between physical health, mind, and lifestyle. Customers can explore a thoughtfully curated range of health and wellness essentials, including vitamins, skincare and beauty products, with the team available to offer recommendations tailored to individual needs. Whether a local resident or visiting Brunswick Heads on holiday, customers can find everyday essentials alongside professional guidance and caring service at Brunswick Heads Pharmacy. 4-16 Mullumbimbi St, Brunswick Heads Hours: Mon-Fri: 8:30am - 5:30pm, Sat: 8:30am - 1pm, Sun: Closed 02 6685 1219 brunspharmacy.com.au
Explore courses at byroncollege.org.au or call 02 6684 3374 fee-free for eligible applicants. *This training is subsidised by the NSW Government. Limited subsidised places may be available for eligible applicants.
CO₂ laser skin resurfacing Frangipani Skin & Body Clinic Change the way you age. Backed by science. Driven by results. Leading the way in advanced anti-ageing in the Northern Rivers. The only clinic in Ballina offering CO₂ laser resurfacing, Frangipani Clinic specialises in treatments designed to stimulate the skin’s own natural collagen production, improving firmness, texture and visible signs of ageing. From pigmentation, sun damage and fine lines, to wrinkles, acne scarring and skin laxity, the clinic combines advanced technology with award-winning skin care for maintenance and clinically proven cell application to speed up recovery times. Offering CO₂ laser resurfacing, candella radiofrequency skin tightening, HIFU, microchannelling, IPL pigmentation treatments, medical grade LED therapy, Frangipani takes a science-led approach to healthier, younger-looking skin. No fluffy facials. Real skin transformation 0474 226 554
Wanderlust community night market Wanderlust invites the community to a magical evening celebrating connection and conscious living at the Wanderlust Night Market. Set beneath the festoon lights in the heart of Mullumbimby, the market brings together a beautiful gathering of local artisans, wellness brands, delicious flavours and live music. Offerings include Loco Love, The Beauty Chef, Mamma Chai, Byron Bay Tea Co, Lematch, AUyurvedic, SAAN Rituals, Synthesis Organics, SISUU, Ochre Ceramics and many more, alongside Wanderlust, with cosy spaces styled by Wandering Folk.
Bodyworkz Byron Bay More than just a gym - it is a complete health and wellness destination designed to support every aspect of wellbeing. Located in the heart of Byron Bay, Bodyworkz offers a welcoming and inclusive environment where people of all ages and fitness levels can improve their health, strength, and vitality. Alongside a fully-equipped gym and expert coaching, members have access to Reformer Pilates, yoga classes, traditional and infrared saunas, steam room facilities, and ice baths for recovery and relaxation. Whether the goal is building strength, improving mobility, enhancing recovery, reducing stress, or achieving long-term wellness, the experienced team provide personalised support every step of the way. Bodyworkz combines fitness, recovery, and community to help members feel their best, both physically and mentally. 46-48 Centennial Circuit, Byron Bay 02 6685 6620 admin@byronbodyworkz.com.au https://bodyworkz.com.au/ @bodyworkzbyron | F: BodyworkzByronBay
Releaf Integrative Clinic & Dispensary Releaf Integrative Clinic & Dispensary brings a fresh, modern approach to traditional healthcare in Byron Bay. Located at 91 Jonson Street, Releaf specialises in alternative medicine, offering natural, evidence‑informed therapies for those seeking a more holistic path to wellbeing. Our clinicians blend integrative care with a personalised approach, supporting patients who want options beyond conventional treatments. With Medicare‑rebated consultations and an onsite dispensary, Releaf makes accessing alternative care simple, streamlined, and supportive. Whether you’re exploring natural therapies for chronic health concerns or looking for a new way to approach your wellness, Releaf provides compassionate guidance and modern solutions. Want to learn more? Book in for a free discovery call today. Visit releaf.com.au and discover a more natural way forward. 91 Jonson Street, Byron Bay releaf.com.au
Visitors can enjoy nourishing tastings, handcrafted treasures, aromatherapy rituals, Ayurvedic experiences and meaningful moments of connection. A celebration of the vibrant Northern Rivers community, bringing people together through creativity, wellbeing and shared experiences. Friday, 30 October, 4.30–7.30pm Mullumbimby Civic Memorial Hall - free entry Everyone welcome!
22 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
www.echo.net.au
byronhealing.com.au
Byron Healing is a go-to website featuring informative and entertaining articles on health and wellbeing. It features a host of practitioners and businesses in the industry, offering a range of modalities and services across the Northern Rivers.
Vo lu m e 9 Your free
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Upcoming Byron Healing client events October 2026
November 2026
5 Elements Coaching Training
Advanced Fusion Acupressure Training (Level 2)
Held by: Adria Ellis Date: 23–25 October Time: 9am–7pm Address: Krishna Village, 525 Tyalgum Road, Eungella Bookings: krishnavillage‑retreat.com/courses/5‑elements‑ coaching
Vedic Fire Ceremony: Dhanvantari Yagna
Held by: Narahari Date: 24 October Time: 5pm Address: Krishna Village, 525 Tyalgum Road, Eungella Bookings: krishnavillage‑retreat.com/courses/yagna
Embodied Restoration – Nervous System Reset Held by: Somatic Movement Therapy Date: 25 October Time: 10am–12pm Address: The Engine Room, Ignite Studios, Ballina Bookings: somatic‑movement‑therapy.com/embodied Contact: Fiona – 0478 690 003
Sound Journey to Release Inherited Fear & Trauma
Held by: Elizabeth Huxtable Date: Sunday, 25 October Time: 2.30–3.30pm Address: Yellow Church Yoga, 9 Myokum Street, Mullumbimby Bookings: elizabethhuxtable.com/events Contact: 0477 526 955
Fusion Acupressure Practitioner Training
Held by: Adria Ellis Date: 30 October–5 November Time: 9.30am–6pm Address: Krishna Village, 525 Tyalgum Road, Eungella Bookings: Fusion Acupressure Practitioner Training
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guide to the flour industry ishing he of Byron al and the No th and wellbein g rthern Ri vers
ling.com .au
Held by: Adria Ellis Date: 6–10 November Time: 9.30am–6pm Address: Krishna Village, 525 Tyalgum Road, Eungella Bookings: Advanced Fusion Acupressure Training
Breathwork Practitioner Training
Held by: Mimmi Ebbersten & The Nalu Breathwork Team Date: 13–15 November Time: 7am–5pm Address: Krishna Village, 525 Tyalgum Road, Eungella Bookings: Breathwork Practitioner Training
Vedic Fire Ceremony: Laxmi Yagna
Held by: Narahari Date: 21 November Time: 5pm Address: Krishna Village, 525 Tyalgum Road, Eungella Bookings: krishnavillage‑retreat.com/courses/yagna
Reiki Practitioner Course
Held by: Shadi Kennedy Date: 27–29 November Time: 9.30am–4pm Address: Krishna Village, 525 Tyalgum Road, Eungella Bookings: Reiki Practitioner Course
Krishna Cuisine Cooking Workshop (Mexican Style) Held by: Radha Ickrath Date: 27–29 November Time: 9am–3pm Address: Krishna Village, 525 Tyalgum Road, Eungella Bookings: Krishna Cuisine Cooking Workshop
Learn to Lead Kirtan Immersion
Held by: Lila Kirtana & Michael Laxmivan Date: 30 November–4 December Time: 9.30am–6pm Address: Krishna Village, 525 Tyalgum Road, Eungella Bookings: Learn to Lead Kirtan Immersion Learn Ankhara™ Technique – An Egyptian Emotional Clearing
Technique Practitioner Training
Held by: Aromatica Date: 22–29 November 2027 Time: 7‑day residential retreat Address: Ewingsdale (address provided upon booking) Bookings: TryBooking
Regular Community Events Yoga Flow with Flo – Community Yoga Class
Held by: Flo Fenton’s Intouch Yoga Date: Every Saturday Time: 10am–12pm Address: Suffolk Park Community Hall, 145 Alcorn Street, Suffolk Park Bookings: Intouch Yoga – Community Class Contact: flo@intouchyogabyronbay.com or 0418 441 437
Articles Farming and the environment working together to rebuild resilience
B
anyula is a farm of around 850 acres that brings together regenerative farming and ecological restoration. Recent ecological surveys of formerly ‘lifeless paddocks’ record an astonishing 121 bird species and sightings of threatened species, including koalas, which now make the property home. The farm has seen 300,000 trees and shrubs planted since 2022 including koala feed trees, rainforest species and extensive riparian vegetation along the Wilsons River, with support from Reforest Now. Banyula’s large-scale planting project was delivered under the Koala Friendly Carbon Initiative, a partnership between Climate Friendly and WWFAustralia. Banyula is restoring endangered Big Scrub rainforest along the Wilsons River and growing critical koala habitat elsewhere on the property. Around eight kilometres of restoration corridors reconnect previously fragmented habitats, allowing www.echo.net.au www.echo.net.au
Banyula farm then and now. Photo supplied wildlife to move across the landscape. Banyula’s Natural Sequence farming practices continue to support overall landscape health. Several previously quiet paddocks have become a thriving refuge for wildlife. But far from removing productive farmland, productivity and nature are thriving together, with Banyula’s cattle benefiting from improved pasture, shade and shelter. Among the discoveries in recent surveys conducted by Wildbnb Wildlife Habitat and Byron Bird Buddies were the vulnerable
rose-crowned fruit dove, vulnerable white-bellied sea eagle and endangered blacknecked stork, alongside an extraordinary 15 species of raptors, several showing evidence of breeding.
Exciting outcomes for nature The results have surprised even those closest to the project. ‘We are thrilled with the ecological survey results,’ said Banyula Director Matt Bleakley. ‘Just a short time ago,
we had all these paddocks with not much sign of life. Now there are more than 150 varieties of trees, all thriving, and some more than six metres high. And in this forest life is flourishing, including koala life.’ WWF-Australia’s Tanya Pritchard, said the survey results highlight a much bigger story than koalas alone. ‘Koala habitat provides amazing advantages for a whole range of species. This is a biodiversity project, not just a koala project, and the results of the recent
ecological surveys show the extraordinary number of species now making Banyula their home,’ Ms Pritchard said.
Slows floodwater Another benefit is that during recent floods, Banyula observed floodwaters moving significantly more slowly through restored rainforest sections. While no single property can prevent major flood events, landscape-scale restoration such as this may help reduce the speed at which water moves downstream toward
communities including Lismore. The project has already generated 13,000 premium carbon credits, with both the expanding koala forest and Big Scrub rainforest sequestering carbon under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) scheme, administered by the Clean Energy Regulator. Climate Friendly’s Simon Brown says Banyula demonstrates the multiple benefits that can be delivered through a single carbon project. ‘Banyula shows what’s possible when carbon farming is designed around whole-of-landscape outcomes. The same project is generating carbon credits while restoring Big Scrub rainforest, expanding koala habitat, supporting wildlife recovery, improving catchment function and strengthening a productive farming enterprise. It is a powerful example of the multiple benefits Australia’s carbon farming scheme can deliver for communities, agriculture and nature.’
October The Byron Byron Shire October 21, 21, 2026 2026 The Shire Echo Echo 23 23
seven days of entertainment
Volume 41 #19 21–27v October, 2026 Editor: Eve Jeffery Editorial/gigs: gigs@echo.net.au Copy deadline: 5pm each Thursday Gig Guide deadline: 5pm each Friday Advertising: adcopy@echo.net.au P: 02 6684 1777 W: echo.net.au/entertainment
Wanderlust come to Mullum Wanderlust invites the community to a magical evening celebrating connection and conscious living at the Wanderlust Night Market. Set beneath the festoon lights in the heart of Mullumbimby, the market brings together a beautiful gathering of local artisans, wellness brands, delicious flavours, and live music. Offerings include Loco Love, The Beauty Chef, Mamma Chai, Byron Bay Tea Co, Lematch, AUyurvedic, SAAN Rituals, Synthesis Organics, SISUU, Ochre Ceramics, and many
more, alongside Wanderlust – with cosy spaces styled by Wandering Folk. Visitors can enjoy nourishing tastings, handcrafted treasures, aromatherapy rituals, Ayurvedic experiences and meaningful moments of connection. A celebration of the vibrant Northern Rivers community, bringing people together through creativity, wellbeing and shared experiences. Friday, 30 October, from 4.30pm to 7.30pm at the Mullumbimby Civic Hall, entry is free and everyone is welcome!
A timeless story of self-discovery A husband with a promotion, two adorable children and a lovely new house. Nora thought she had it all. But did she? What was the discontent that was whispering to her in the shadows? Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a timeless story of self-discovery, courage, and the fight for independence. Witness the sparks fly as Nora confronts societal expectations, personal betrayal, and the cost of true liberation. Bold, provocative, and deeply moving, this production invites audiences to explore what it means to step out of the shadows and claim one’s own life. A Doll’s House is the next production by Lismore Theatre Company at the Rochdale Theatre, Goonellabah. Director Kylie Fuad has adapted this threeact play to present an engaging and relevant human relationship drama to a 2026 audience. A Doll’s House has a talented local cast including Yasir Assam, Gabby Le Brun, John Rado, Isaac Smith, Jane Carr, and Elyse Dallinger playing the pivitol role of Nora Helmer. Lismore Theatre Company’s A Doll’s House runs from 9 October to 24 October at the Rochdale Theatre, Ballina Road, Goonellabah. With new, allocated seating, book now to ensure great seats. Tickets are $30 adult, $25 LTC members and concessions, $20 under 25 years of age. Tickets available at www.lismoretheatrecompany.org.au/events/a-dolls-house.
35–43 JONSON ST BYRON BAY 6685 6454 THENORTHERN.COM.AU @thenorthernbyronbay
24 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
THUR 22 OCT
Zee Gachette | DJ Davi Bangma 9.15pm Duelling Piano Bar 8pm
FRI 23 OCT
Kane Muir Trio 7pm | DJ Quendo Duelling Piano Bar 8pm | Iration Steppas 8pm
SAT 24 OCT
JB’s Blues Breakers 7pm | Matt Armitage Trio 10.15pm Duelling Piano Bar 8pm | My Happy Place 9pm
SUN 25 OCT
Alby Damm 5pm | Vinyl Sundays ft. Eric Downer 8.15pm Mudhoney 7pm | Duelling Piano Bar 9pm
MON 26 OCT
Jerome Williams 6pm | DJ Renee Simone 9.15pm Duelling Piano Bar 9pm
TUES 27 OCT
Marshall Okell 6pm | Duelling Piano Bar 9pm
WED 28 OCT
Hayley Grace 6pm | Duelling Piano Bar 9pm
NORTHERN BOTTLESHOP
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seven days of entertainment
Something for everyone at the Picture House From Australian superstar musos, to brand new documentaries, to comedians at the top of their game, there really is something for everyone at the Brunswick Picture House.
INK
Thirty-six unmissable films
For those who love documentaries, there’s no excuse not to check out the film program this weekend as Byron Bay International Film Festival wraps up its milestone 20th anniversary run, which includes the spotlight on local filmmakers, Through The Local Lens only screening Saturday. Kate Bush fans or not, An Evening Without Kate Bush has rightfully been on everyone’s lips for the last two years and you’ll want in on the chatter as the Picture House brings back this great show. Scooping up numerous awards around the world, this cult cabaret pays tribute to the music, fans and mythology of one of the most influential voices in music. One show only on Sunday.
DAN RATH
As the Picture House gears up for one of its biggest summer comedy programs yet – watch this space – they play host to two unmissable acts making their Bruns debut. The frenetic and self-deprecating Dan Rath lands on Friday, 30 October, meanwhile, demand for the razor-sharp Daniel Muggleton has hit such heights that a second show has been added on Saturday, 7 November.
The 2026 Russell Hobbs British Film Festival features an unmissable line up 36 films, including five retrospectives which will screen from 28 October to 29 November at Palace Byron Bay and Ballina Cinemas. Audiences can look forward to performances from a host of Britain’s finest actors including Dame Helen Mirren, Sir Ian McKellen, Saoirse Ronan, Andrew Scott, Olivia Colman, Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo and Bill Nighy. New works from directors Danny Boyle, Mike Leigh, Anton Corbijn and Andrew Haigh, plus James McAvoy’s directorial debut are highlights of this year’s program which features stirring dramas, fascinating documentaries, retrospective anniversaries, and delightful comedies. The key highlights include opening night drama My Duchess from acclaimed director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) starring Dame Joan Collins as Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. After the Duke’s death, Wallis retreats to her Paris châteaux surrounded by aides including her exploitative lawyer Suzanne Blum, played by Isabella Rossellini. In a Festival exclusive, Prima Facie starring Cynthia Erivo will screen in special Centrepiece Premiere sessions. Erivo commands the courtroom in this gripping legal drama that follows a brilliant barrister
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forced to confront the justice system she once fiercely defended. The film is adapted from Suzie Miller’s award-winning play. Directed by Anton Corbijn (Control), mystery thriller A Talent For Murder stars Academy Award-winner Dame Helen Mirren as Patricia Highsmith, the legendary author behind The Talented Mr. Ripley. Based on the play Switzerland from Joanna Murray-Smith, the story imagines a strange confrontation between a literary agent and Highsmith, deliciously entangling history and myth.
A who’s who of Australian stars are hitting the Bruns stage over the next few weeks including beloved songwriter and novelist Holly Throsby on Friday, 6 November; Little Birdy’s Katy Steele on Wednesday, 18 November; local favourite Smokey Fields celebrating Dead Legends on Saturday, 31 October; the hilarious and ridiculous Melia Naughton on Thursday, 26 November; and the mind-blowing jazz collective The Vampires on Saturday, 28 November. Bruce Wolpe will be in conversation on Wednesday, 28 October to discuss the impact of US politics on Australia; and finally – don’t miss the 18+ burlesque bonanza Wild Women on 5, 12 and 13 November, and the sexy art event Kinky Drawers on 20 November. Tickets for all shows at brunswickpicturehouse.com.
From award-winning director Danny Boyle, intoxicating drama Ink follows the tumultuous rise of The Sun, the newspaper that Rupert Murdoch and Larry Lamb moulded to become Britain’s most influential tabloid. Starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, Ink presents a fierce, funny and deeply unsettling examination of the moment news learnt how profitable it could be to provoke outrage. Closing the Festival is the Australian premiere of the highly anticipated biographical drama Elsinore directed by Australian Simon Stone. Andrew Scott delivers an unforgettable performance as the legendary actor Ian Charleson as he embarks on his final role in London’s National Theatre production of Hamlet. For session times, tickets and more visit britishfilmfestival.com.au.
October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 25
INTERVIEW
BOSS CAT AT BBFF When Sonja (Olivia Hargroder) loses her mother without warning, the only steady presence left in her life is her grandmother, Doris. But Doris’s idea of stability means dismantling everything Sonja has built. For Sonja, who lives with Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) and has spent her life fighting to be underestimated by no one, Doris’ plan feels less like protection and more like erasure. Directed by Genevieve Clay-Smith, Boss Cat is a vibrant, big-hearted Australian dramedy about independence, family and self-determination, anchored by a fearless lead performance. Seven spoke to Clay-Smith about the upcoming screening at the Byron Bay Film Festival.
NORTHERN RIVERS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROUDLY PRESENTS
h p m u i r T y k s v Tchaiko & Tragedy
CONDUCTOR Warwick Potter
PROGRAMME Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique” Op. 74 DATE TIME VENUE TICKETS
Sunday 25th October 2026 2.30pm (NSW) Tweed Heads Civic Centre Adults $60 | Concession $50 | Students $25
Under 18 free of charge with ticket holder
0478 012 324 | www.nrso.com.au
GROW
seven days of entertainment Where did the story come from? About 13 years ago, I was teaching filmmaking workshops through Bus Stop Films to people with disability. At the end of one class, a student with Down syndrome performed a tap dance. Everyone joined in, and I felt uplifted by her joy and the way it brought people together. At the same time, I was studying directing for my master’s degree at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. My short film was about a young Sudanese refugee expressing post-traumatic stress through krump, a street dance style that can help people channel difficult emotions in a positive way. I started wondering what might happen if those two characters met: what they might teach each other and how their friendship could develop. That idea became the starting point for the friendship between Sonya and Hakim in Boss Cat. The film took 13 years to make. When did production actually begin? The project took a long time to develop, but production itself moved quickly. We began pre-production in May 2025, finished shooting in early August, and delivered the film around December. So, after all those years of development, we premiered roughly a year after starting the shoot. Did you picture a particular actor as Sonya during all those years of development? I had a very clear sense of who Sonya was, and I trusted that I would find the right actor. I met Olivia about six years before the shoot at a Bus Stop Films launch in Brisbane. When I first saw her, I had a strong instinct that she might be Sonya, but I didn’t offer her the role then. I later worked with her on a short film and saw more of her ability, but I still wanted to run a proper audition process. We received around 30 self-tapes, then narrowed the field to in-person auditions. Olivia was one of two finalists. She showed unusual professionalism for someone who hadn’t yet carried a lead role on a feature: she stayed positive through repeated takes, responded well to direction, and could adjust her performance. Since Sonya carries so much of the film, getting the casting right early was important. We also wanted to show potential investors that we had found someone capable of carrying the role. As writer, director and producer, did you have someone to challenge you when things might not work? I understood that the budget was finite. We had $5 million, which was a significant amount, but the film’s locations, dance numbers and stunts made it a stretch; I felt it could have been a $10 million film. The producing team would look at what I wanted to achieve and work out whether it was possible, or whether we needed another approach. When I felt something was essential to the story,
I made the case for it and explained why. I wanted the team to know that I was willing to compromise, so that when I pushed back, it was because I believed something genuinely mattered. One important scene in the climax was only half-shot. There was a lot of discussion about whether, and how, we could return for pickups, but when everyone saw the footage in the edit, it became clear we needed to finish it. We had to balance the creative vision with the budget – and leave money for marketing, so people could actually discover the film. It was a rigorous process, but we came through it without any hard feelings. Why do you think people should go to film festivals? Shared experiences matter, particularly when technology can leave us feeling isolated. Festivals let people watch a film together, talk about it, and consider what the filmmaker was trying to say. They also give audiences a chance to experience work made by artists and to support Australian stories. Audiences have real influence over what gets made. Australian films rely on box-office success, and when a film is perceived as unsuccessful, it can make it harder to produce more local work. Festivals offer a way to connect with other people, see life from someone else’s perspective and support the filmmakers telling stories from our own community. What would you hope audiences take away from the film? I hope people feel that every human being has inherent value. We’re capable of kindness, forgiveness and positive change; we can recognise our flaws and choose to do better. The film deals with difficult realities, but it approaches them through hope and joy. I’d like audiences to leave feeling uplifted, hopeful and entertained – and to have laughed along with the comedy of being human. Genevieve – are you having enough fun? Yes! I have five-year-old twins, so there’s plenty of fun in everyday life. They remind me to find joy in ordinary moments. A Boss Cat accessible screening with captions will screen at Palace Ballina Cinemas on Thursday at 12pm. Find out more at: bbff.com.au/boss-cat. Olivia Hargroder who plays Sonja, will be at the Ballina screening.
Read full interview online www.echo.net.au/entertainment
YOUR BUSINESS Join switched-on local operators sponsoring BayFM BayFM sponsorship is a low-cost, highcred way to reach potential customers in our area. Companies large and small swear by us and stick with us, including • Stone & Wood • Lismore Toyota • Akubra • Santos • Beach Hotel • Birds of Condor • Howl & Moan Records • Byron Bay Denture Clinic Give us a call and we’ll explain how little it takes to build your business with BayFM.
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26 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
With special guest
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Wanderlust Community Market An evening of local artisan brands, food, drink and live music. Free Entry Friday 30th October Mullumbimby Civic Memorial Hall 4.30 – 7.30pm
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YUVAL ABRAHAM AND RACHEL SZOR
CINEMA NAZA: Must-see, award-winning documentary investigating AI warfare in Gaza
Fresh from winning the Special Jury Prize at the 2026 Venice International Film Festival, NAZA, the latest documentary from Academy Award-winning filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (No Other Land), examines artificial intelligence and surveillance in Israel’s military operations in Gaza. Produced by The Guardian and JW Films, the documentary draws on interviews with 24 Israeli soldiers and intelligence personnel, conducted by Abraham over three years. Filmed at night on Tel Aviv rooftops, interviewees appear as silhouettes, with their voices altered to protect their identities. Their accounts explore how AI-assisted intelligence and mobile phone surveillance were reportedly used to identify military targets, raising questions about civilian casualties and accountability. The film takes its title from ‘Nezek Agavi’, a Hebrew military term meaning ‘collateral damage’. Interviewees describe a system in which potential targets were assigned a figure representing anticipated civilian deaths. The documentary also examines the reported use of ‘Lavender’, an AI-assisted system described in earlier investigative reporting as helping identify individuals suspected of links to Hamas. According to interviewees, communications data could be used to identify potential targets, including people at home. Several interviewees reflect on the distance between making targeting decisions and witnessing their consequences, raising questions about the reliability of AI-generated intelligence and responsibility for its use. Night-time footage of Tel Aviv contrasts with scenes from Gaza, where destroyed homes and the search for missing family members reveal the human cost of the conflict. Following the international recognition of No Other Land, Abraham and Szor turn their attention to the systems behind modern warfare. NAZA asks what happens when life-and-death decisions are increasingly shaped by data, algorithms and remote surveillance. The documentary invites audiences to consider the relationship between technology, military power and civilian protection, and who is accountable when decision-makers are far removed from the consequences. NAZA screens at Palace Cinemas Byron Bay, all week. Check the cinema’s website for session times and bookings. www.palacecinemas.com.au/cinemas/palace-byron-bay.
GIG GUIDE
IT’S FREE TO LIST YOUR GIGS IN THE GIG GUIDE e: gigs@echo.net.au w: echo.net.au/gig-guide. DEADLINE 5PM ON FRIDAYS
seven days of entertainment
WEDNESDAY 21
■ HOTEL BRUNSWICK 6PM BABE RAINBOW
■ THE PARK HOTEL, SUFFOLK PARK, 6PM ALEX TILLEY
■ RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, MATT DAY ■ BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 6PM ALBY DAMN ■ THE NORTHERN, BYRON BAY, 6PM DAN HANNAFORD + DUELING PIANOS ■ THE PADDOCK PROJECT, MULLUMBIMBY, 4PM CURRY JAM ■ OTTILIES, MULLUMBIMBY, 6PM MONDO HUM JAZZ ENSEMBLE ■ ELTHAM HOTEL 7PM THE BURES BAND W/ STERLING DRAKE ■ M-ARTS, MURWILLUMBAH, 6PM PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION OPENING – ENTWINED
■ WANDANA BREWING CO., MULLUMBIMBY, 4PM DJ MONSIEUR DIOP
■ BANGALOW HOTEL 4PM CARLY MACKERRAS
THURSDAY 22 ■ RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, CINNAMON SUN DUO ■ BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 6PM HEIDI KAAL BAND ■ HAVEN, BYRON BAY, 7PM OPEN DECKS VINYL NIGHT ■ GARDEN BAR, BYRON BAY, 7.30PM TEMPLE OF FIRE ■ FOXY LUU’S @ COORABELL HALL 5.30PM DJ MOUDSY ■ HOTEL BRUNSWICK 6PM CALLUM CREELMAN ■ BRUNSWICK HEADS PICTURE HOUSE 7PM KATIE NOONAN ■ SAINT MARIES, BRUNSWICK HEADS, 6PM MONDO HUM JAZZ ENSEMBLE ■ BROADWATER HOTEL 5.30PM BAD ELVIS ■ LISMORE CITY BOWLO 7PM THE SUPPER CLUB SOUL BAND ■ ROCHDALE THEATRE, GOONELLABAH, 7.30PM LISMORE THEATRE COMPANY – A DOLL’S HOUSE
FRIDAY 23 ■ RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, RAGGA JUMP ■ BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 5PM BEN WALSH + PINK ZINC ■ ELEMENTS OF BYRON 5PM JOSH HAMILTON ■ THE PARK HOTEL, SUFFOLK PARK, 5.30PM HAYLEY GRACE
■ MIDDLE PUB, MULLUMBIMBY, 5.30PM BALCONY BEATS + KRAPPYOKEE WITH JESS, 7PM LEMON CHICKEN ■ CLUB LENNOX 7PM JOE CONROY ■ LENNOX HOTEL 9PM VELVET ARCADE ■ KINGSCLIFF BEACH BOWLS 5PM JASON DELPHIN + GREEN VELVET ■ SALTBAR, KINGSCLIFF, 5.30PM HENRY WEST, 6PM CHRIS SINGING ■ SALT & STONE, FINGAL HEAD, 6PM SAM BUCKLEY ■ CLUB TWEED 1PM TOMMY MEMPHIS ■ COOLANGATTA HOTEL 7.30PM THE BON JOVI LEGACY ■ CHINDERAH TAVERN 7.30PM ROKUSTIX ■ TWIN TOWNS, TWEED HEADS (QLD TIME), 8PM ANTHONY CALLEA ■ V-BLOCK STUDIOS, SCU LISMORE, 5PM SCU GRADSHOW 2026 ■ ROCHDALE THEATRE, GOONELLABAH, 7.30PM LISMORE THEATRE COMPANY – A DOLL’S HOUSE ■ REGENT CINEMA, MURWILLUMBAH, 5PM DJ YAZMINDI ■ MURWILLUMBAH SERVICES CLUB 6PM CHRIS SINGING
SATURDAY 24 ■ RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, TIM STOKES AND THE HOT COALS ■ BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 6PM NUFARRAGO + LATIFA TEE + JESSIE BELTERS ■ BYRON THEATRE 6.30PM THE ROAD TO PATAGONIA ■ HAVEN, BYRON BAY, 5PM KIA, JONO MA, ZAC STARS, MILLIE, & DIGITAL LOVE ■ NORTH BYRON HOTEL 5PM JEROME WILLIAMS ■ HOTEL BRUNSWICK 12PM LAZY GHOST, VINTED VINEER, COSMIC VICE, + DJ HONEY
■ MIDDLE PUB, MULLUMBIMBY, 3PM THE BILLY BONES IRISH SINGALONG, 6PM PIANO BAR WITH JOHN HILL ■ WANDANA BREWING CO., MULLUMBIMBY, 4PM DJ DARLAN
■ BRUNSWICK HEADS PICTURE HOUSE 6PM AN EVENING WITHOUT KATE BUSH ■ BANGALOW HOTEL 3PM KATIE WOODLAND ■ OCEAN SHORES COUNTRY CLUB 3PM OPEN MIC WITH DR BAZ ■ BILLINUDGEL HOTEL 1PM HENRY WEST
■ MULLUMBIMBY EX-SERVICES CLUB 3PM OPEN MIC WITH THE SWAMP CATS ■ CHERRY STREET SPORTS CLUB, BALLINA, 8PM PISTOL WHIP ■ LISMORE WORKERS CLUB 6PM WOMEN UP NORTH 2025 GLITZ GLAM GALA ■ ROCHDALE THEATRE, GOONELLABAH, 7.30PM LISMORE THEATRE COMPANY – A DOLL’S HOUSE
■ SHAWS BAY HOTEL, BALLINA, 3PM LIVING IN THE 70S ■ LENNOX HOTEL 4PM LILLI SHEEN ■ CLUB TWEED 1PM RHYDIAN LEWIS + LANN LEVINGE
MONDAY 26 ■ RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, JON J BRADLEY
■ MURWILLUMBAH SERVICES CLUB 6PM STEPHEN LOVELIGHT ■ THE CITADEL, MURWILLUMBAH, 7.30PM #1 DADS ■ REGENT CINEMA, MURWILLUMBAH, 8PM VINCE JONES ■ KINGSCLIFF SURF CLUB 3PM JON J BRADLEY ■ KINGSCLIFF BEACH BOWLS 5PM BILL JACOBI
■ BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 6PM TAHLIA MATHESON ■ THE PARK HOTEL, SUFFOLK PARK, 5.30PM TAHLIA MATHESON ■ KINGSCLIFF BEACH BOWLS 12PM TOMMY MEMPHIS
TUESDAY 27 ■ RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, BEN WALSH ■ BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 6PM JOE CONROY
■ SALTBAR, KINGSCLIFF, 6PM STEPHEN LOVELIGHT
WEDNESDAY 28
■ SALT & STONE, FINGAL HEAD, 3PM ELLA JONES, 6PM FRANK SWABY
■ RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, PAT TIERNEY
■ CLUB TWEED 1PM LIVING IN THE 70S ■ WILLIAMS STREET KITCHEN & BAR, LENNOX HEAD, 6PM JOSH LEE HAMILTON ■ CLUB LENNOX 7PM ISAAC FRANKHAM ■ TWIN TOWNS, TWEED HEADS (QLD TIME), 8PM KENNIE SIMON
SUNDAY 25 ■ RAILWAY HOTEL, BYRON BAY, MATTY ROGERS + JC & THE TREE + DJ AROC ■ BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 4.30PM COL GERMANO + KATCHAFIRE & MIKE LOVE ■ HOTEL BRUNSWICK 4PM KOOII
■ BEACH HOTEL, BYRON BAY, 6PM NOAH ROBERTSON ■ BRUNSWICK HEADS PICTURE HOUSE 6PM BRUCE WOLPE IN CONVERSATION ■ PALACE CINEMAS, BYRON BAY, BRITISH FILM FESTIVAL ■ BANGALOW HOTEL 7PM OPEN MIC WITH SLIM PICKENS ■ THE PADDOCK PROJECT, MULLUMBIMBY, 4PM CURRY JAM ■ OTTILIES, MULLUMBIMBY, 6PM MONDO HUM JAZZ ENSEMBLE ■ PEARCES CREEK HALL 6PM YOU, ME EVERYBODY ■ KINGSCLIFF BEACH BOWLS 6.30PM KINGY COMEDY
PALACE BYRON BAY
STORYTELLERs
SPECIAL SCREENINGS SESSION TIMES THURSDAY OCTOBER 22 TO WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28
ALI G: WHO IZ I? (CTC) Fri: 6:00PM. Sat, Sun: 8:20PM MY DUCHESS Wed: 7:00PM – British FF Preview (CTC)
WICKER Fri: 6:30PM – British FF Preview (MA15+)
COMING SOON
HADESTOWN: THE MUSICAL (G) Thurs: 1:30PM. Sat: 1:00PM. Mon, Tues: 7:00PM OZZY & BLACK SABBATH: BACK TO THE BEGINNING (CTC) Wed: 8:00PM SCREAM (MA15+) Mon: 6:30PM – Cult Vault
NOW SHOWING
FAMILY FILMS
A NEW DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR NORTHERN RIVERS THEATRE MAKERS
COYOTE VS. ACME (PG) Thurs, Mon, Tues, Wed: 11:00AM, 1:30PM. Fri: 10:50AM, 1:30PM. Sat: 10:30AM, 1:30PM. Sun: 11:10AM, 1:30PM
APPLICATIONS OPEN UNTIL 1 NOV
FORGOTTEN ISLAND (PG) Thurs: 11:10AM. Fri, Mon, Tues, Wed: 10:45AM
APPLY: byrontheatre.com
SCAN TO BOOK ONLINE
www.echo.net.au
SUNDAYS (M) – Previews Fri, Sat, Sun: 12:45PM
BALLINA FAIR CINEMAS SHAUN THE SHEEP: THE BEAST OF MOSSY Mon, Tues: 11:10AM, 4:20PM, 6:20PM. Wed: 11:10AM, 4:20PM, 6:00PM BOTTOM (G) Thurs: 11:00AM. Sat: 4:00PM. Sun: 10:50AM. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (PG) Mon, Tues, Wed: 11:00AM, 1:10PM Thurs, Mon, Tues, Wed: 11:00AM, 1:40PM, 5:45PM. Fri: 11:15AM, 1:00PM, 8:20PM. Sat: ALL FILMS 10:50AM, 1:10PM, 7:00PM. Sun: 11:30AM, 2:30PM, 7:00PM (MA15+) NFT CLAYFACE Daily except Fri: 2:30PM, 4:50PM, 6:15PM, STREET FIGHTER (M) 8:30PM. Fri: 2:05PM, 4:10PM, 5:45PM, 8:15PM Thurs, Fri: 3:40PM, 8:10PM. Sat, Sun: 8:10PM. Mon, Tues, Wed: 3:40PM, 8:30PM HEART OF THE BEAST (M) Thurs, Fri, Tues: 3:50PM, 8:30PM. Sat: 10:30AM. THE ODYSSEY (M) Sun, Wed: 3:50PM. Mon: 3:50PM, 8:40PM Thurs: 1:30PM. Fri: 1:10PM. Mon, Tues, Wed: 3:00PM HOLY CANNOLI (M) NFT Daily except Sat, Sun: 10:45AM, 1:10PM, THE SOCIAL RECKONING (M) 3:15PM, 6:00PM. Sat: 10:50AM, 1:30PM, Thurs: 12:50PM, 7:10PM. Fri: 4:40pm 3:15PM, 6:00PM. Sun: 11:00AM, 1:30PM, Sat, Sun: 3:40pm, Mon, Tues: 12:50PM, 3:15PM, 6:00PM 8:15PM. Wed: 12:50PM KLARA AND THE SUN (M) NFT Daily except Sat, Wed: 10:50AM, 1:15PM, 6:00PM. Sat: 10:50AM, 2:00PM, 6:00PM. Wed: 10:50AM, 1:15PM, 6:10PM
VERITY (MA15+) Thurs, Mon: 4:30PM, 8:20PM. Fri: 4:30PM Sat, Sun: 4:30PM, 8:30PM. Tues: 4:30PM, 6:10PM, 8:20PM. Wed: 4:30PM, 6:30PM, 8:20PM
LA BOLA NEGRA (MA15+) Thurs, Sat: 11:20AM, 3:50PM, 7:00PM. Fri: 11:00AM, 1:00PM, 7:15PM. Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed: 11:20AM, 1:30PM, 3:50PM, 7:00PM
WHALEFALL (M) Thurs, Mon, Tues, Wed: 3:30PM, 8:30PM. Fri: 3:30PM. Sat, Sun: 4:00PM
NAZA (M) Thurs: 11:10AM, 4:20PM, 6:15PM. Fri: 11:10AM, 3:45PM, 6:15PM. Sat: 11:10AM, 3:50PM, 6:15PM. Sun: 11:10AM, 6:15PM.
FOR ALL BYRON BAY FF SESSIONS, PLEASE VISIT BBFF.COM.AU
WILDWOOD (M) NFT Daily except Fri, Sat: 10:45AM, 1:00PM, 7:15PM. Fri: 10:45AM, 2:10PM, 7:15PM. Sat: 11:00AM, 1:00PM, 7:15PM
MY DUCHESS (CTC) Wed: 6:30PM – British FF Preview WICKER (MA15+) Fri: 6:30PM – British FF Preview COYOTE VS. ACME (PG) Thurs, Sun, Wed: 9:45AM. Fri: 12:20PM. Sat: 10:15AM. Mon, Tues: 10:00AM HEART OF THE BEAST (M) Thurs, Fri, Mon, Tues: 4:50PM. Sat: 2:45PM. Sun: 12:00PM. Wed: 2:10PM SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (PG) Daily except Fri: 10:30AM, 4:00PM, 6:45PM. Fri: 10:10AM, 3:40PM STREET FIGHTER (M) Thurs, Fri: 3:50PM, 6:45PM. Sat, Sun: 1:10PM, 6:45PM. Mon, Tues: 12:10PM, 3:50PM, 6:45PM. Wed: 1:20PM, 4:10PM, 6:45PM VERITY (MA15+) Thurs, Fri, Mon, Tues: 1:15PM. Sat, Sun: 4:00PM. Wed: 11:50AM WHALEFALL (M) Thurs, Fri: 2:30PM. Sat: 12:30PM. Sun: 7:00PM. Mon, Tues: 2:40PM, 7:00PM. Wed: 4:20PM WILDWOOD (M) NFT Daily except Fri: 10:15AM, 1:10PM. Fri: 10:15AM, 12:50PM
6686 9600 BALLINA FAIR • 6680 8555 BYRON BAY
October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 27
Classifieds
North Coast news online
ECHO CLASSIFIEDS – 6684 1777 CLASSIFIED AD BOOKINGS
DEADLINE TUES 12PM
PHONE ADS
Publication day is Wednesday, booking deadlines are the day before publication.
Ads may be taken by phone on 6684 1777
AT THE ECHO HEAD OFFICE Ads can be lodged in person at the Mullum Echo office:
Village Way, Stuart St, Mullumbimby
EMAIL ADS Ad bookings only taken during business hours: Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm. Ads can’t be taken on the weekend. Account enquiries phone 6684 1777.
These prices include GST.
DISCLAIMER
Cash, cheque, Mastercard or Visa Prepayment is required for all ads.
COMMUNITY FREE HOT BRUNCH
Advertisements placed in The Byron Shire Echo do not reflect the views or opinions of the editorial staff. The Byron Shire Echo does not make any representations as to the accuracy or suitability of any content or information contained in advertising material nor does publication constitute in any way an endorsement by The Byron Shire Echo of the content or representations contained therein. The Byron Shire Echo does not accept any liability for the representations or promises made in paid advertisements or for any loss or damage arising from reliance on such content, representations or promises.
FIRST SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH • Sausage sizzle • Hot dogs • Sandwiches • Coffee & tea • Fruit Salad
EVERYONE WELCOME Come one come all and join us in a meal or just a chat. Takeaway most welcome: COVID safe rules apply. Frozen takeaway meals now available.
10am to 12pm
In the Ballina Presbyterian Hall
PUBLIC NOTICES
SEEKING INFORMATION
Corner of Cherry & Crane. Just behind the Presbyterian Church.
HEALTH
about effectiveness or otherwise of FENBENDAZOLE treatment. Ask for Johannes 66847420
KINESIOLOGY
Clear subconscious sabotages. Reprogram patterns and beliefs. Restore vibrancy and physical health. De-stress. 0403125506 SANDRA DAVEY, Reg. Pract.
WHERE TO GET
THE ECHO
Supporting humans of all ages to thrive. Stress, sleep, learning, behaviour, posture, muscles, healthy emotions, trauma release & more...
0413 003 301
www.katemessengerkinesiology.com.au
Masti Adler
HAWAIIAN MASSAGE Ocean Shores, Michaela, 0416332886
Now available again in private practice Individual and Relationship Therapy 0403 730 304 awarecounselling.com.au
BEETU FULL BODY MASSAGE A divine experience. Nurturing, healing, regen. 28 yrs exp. Lucy 0427917960
KINESIOLOGY
Clear subconscious sabotages. Reprogram patterns and beliefs. Restore vibrancy and physical health. De-stress. 0403125506 SANDRA DAVEY, Reg. Pract.
IGA Lennox Head, Seagrass Lennox, Lennox pub drive-through, Station St Grocer Lennox, Epiq Marketplace Hutley Dr Lennox ***
MULLUMBIMBY
HYPNOSIS & EFT
Mullumbimby IGA; Mullumbimby Newsagent; Liberty and Carsburgs servos, Echo office stand. ***
Simple and effective solutions. Anxiety, Cravings, Fears & Trauma. Maureen Bracken 0402205352
BYRON BAY
Byron Bay Newsagent, Community Body Based Centre, supermarkets, cafes, servos Soetc matic Prac tice Body Base d Psychoth *** erapy Somatic Practice ALSO: Julie
Psychotherapy
Wells
ch. FEDERAL Store CliDipnic. Soal m.PAPsy CF A Reg.Julie Wells MAIN ARM Store SuIndividual and Couple Th erapy pervision and CoAnne Goslett aching BILLINUDGEL Newsagent Facilitations (nee Mannix) Pty. Ltd. Ph: 02 66 BILLINUDGEL General Store & Pub 85 5185 Dip.Som.Psych, Clinical PACFA Reg. Mobile: 04 01 277 68 CRABBES CREEK Store Individual and Couple Therapy 8 Supervision and Coaching NEW BRIGHTON Store
(02) 6685 5185 9 Fletcher St, Byron Bay
28 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
To my darling son My greatest teacher Always in my heart Love you Munch.
Mandy
Mindfulness @ Work
18/7 2000
Tamlyn Alexander 20/9 Cargill-Strong 2026
FUNERAL NOTICES
Monday 26th October 2026 2pm Durrumbul Hall
In Loving Memory
Family & friends, come in colour, bring your stories, your memories and your love.
Gladys Todd
13/11/1925 - 15/10/2026 Late of Mullumbimby. Formerly of Ocean Shores. Much-loved wife of Arthur Todd (dec). Loved Aunty of Pauline and friend to many. Family and friends are warmly invited to attend Gladys’s funeral service to be held at St Martin’s Anglican Church, Mullumbimby on Monday 26th October at 11am NSW time.
Michael John McMahon 31/5/53 – 27/9/26
0427 743 817
John ‘Robbo’ Robson
HYPNOSIS & EFT
Simple and effective solutions. Anxiety, Cravings, Fears & Trauma. Maureen Bracken 0402205352
LENNOX HEAD
OCEAN SHORES Country Club
31 Dec 2005 – 25 Oct 2023
LINE ADS: $17.00 for the first two lines $5 .00 for each extra line
DISPLAY ADS (with a border): $14 per column centimetre
Richies IGA Ballina, Ballina RSL, One Stop Shop Ballina, Ballina Golf Club East Ballina, Brighton St Takeaway near The Shawsy ***
In Loving Memory Orlando Albert Handley
$17 for two lines is the minimum charge.
classifieds@echo.net.au
BALLINA
LIFE CELEBRATIONS
RATES & PAYMENT
Display (box ads) and line classifieds, email:
*** If you live in NEWRYBAR, LENNOX HEAD, BALLINA MAIN ARM, BILLINUDGEL, LISMORE but outside our current home delivery area, you can pick up an Echo from many locations. For example: LISMORE: Dragonfly Cafe NEWRYBAR: Newrybar Providore ***
IN MEMORIAM
9 th January 1947 – 12 th October 2026 John passed away peacefully at Byron Hospital. Much loved husband of Virginia. Loving father of Fiona & Todd, and Adam & Briony. Wuffy to Ruby, Brooke and Claire.
Mike and Clare arrived in Upper Main Arm in the early 70s from Geelong, Victoria, and settled in Verdue Valley, Upper Main Arm. Mike built an A-frame and a workshop where he started his journey to become a maker of musical instruments, and started a family. In 1978 Mike travelled to India where he met Cecelia. They returned to Upper Main arm in the early 80s and married at Nerada. He travelled to Chicago to study instrument making and over the next 40 years became a renowned Luthier – working with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and players internationally. He also had many other private contracts out of his studio in Bondi. Cecelia passed in 2025. Mike is survived by his two daughters Jasmin and Lali and his grandchildren Emme, Zac, Ruby and Hamish.
Forever in our hearts
See you in the soup, Mike …
Friends are warmly welcome to join the family for John’s celebration of life at Melaleuca Memorial Gardens, Chinderah, on Saturday, 24th October at 11am. In lieu of flowers please donate to Prostate Cancer Research.
Lola June Fenwick
7 September 1936 – 15 October 2026
Bring greater focus, clarity and calm into your workplace.
Late of Mullumbimby, Lola passed away peacefully and surrounded by her loved ones on Thursday, 15 October 2026.
Your guide to the flourishing health and wellbeing industry of Byron and the Northern Rivers www.healing.echo.net.au
Passed away on 9 September 2026 aged 74 after a long illness. Friends and family are warmly invited to join us at Torakina Park, 11am on Saturday 7 November 2026, to honour and celebrate Ken’s life.
Certified Mindfulness Educator Paul Bibby 0401 926 090
health & healing
Kenneth Hughes
TRADEWORK
Dearly loved Wife of Alec (dec.). Loving Mother and Mother-In-Law of Carol & Duncan, Terry & Glenda and Debbie & Je. Adored Nan of her Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren. Cherished Sister of Carmel and Les.
Septic Waste Removal
Forever in our hearts
The Liquid Waste Specialists!
All are warmly invited to attend a celebration of Lola’s life with a Requiem Mass to be held at St John’s Catholic Church, 11 Murwillumbah Road, Mullumbimby NSW 2482 on Friday, 23 October 2026 at 10:00am.
Summerland Environmental • Septic tank cleaning • Grease trap servicing • Oily Liquids • Portable toilet hire • 24 hour service
6687 2880
www.echo.net.au
Classifieds / Community at Work SALES & CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE
LEAF IT TO US - Tree Care Specialists Local, qualified, insured, free quotes. Big to small we enjoy it all 0402487213
Join AlkaWay, an established water filtration company operating since 2000. Help customers find the right water filtration products and health solutions by providing friendly customer service, product knowledge and expert advice.
20 years local experience • 19 inch chipper • Stump grinding • Cherry picker • Crane truck • Bob Cat
Fully insured • Free quotes
0427 347 380
WANTED TREE FERNS Any shape, size. Royalties paid. Ongoing supply needed. 0414904396 LP RECORDS: good condition no op shop crap! Matt 0401955052
GARAGE SALES BANGALOW 1/2 Bugam Pl Sun 8am-2pm LOTS OF VINTAGE: Suitcases, ladies shoes and handbags, lace, kitchen stuff, jewellery, glassware, mens and ladies clothes, baskets, Leather scraps, fabric, cotton for sewing, ceramics, tools, art, local designer-made bags and sandals and leather shorts, furniture, tools and collectables.
Tip Runs & Rubbish Removal
The position • Permanent part-time • 4 days per week, Monday to Thursday, 9am–5pm • Location: Mullumbimby • Training provided What we’re looking for: • Warm, friendly manner with excellent communication skills • Good computer skills and attention to detail • Genuine interest in health and wellbeing • At least 3 years’ sales or customer service experience (water filtration or health industry experience an advantage) • Good technical aptitude and confidence explaining products and recommending suitable solutions • Customer-focused, proactive and practical, with strong problem-solving skills Please email your resume and cover letter to accounts@alkaway.com.au
WORK WANTED
BIRTHDAYS
WORDPRESS WEBSITE CREATION Fair rates info@wordpressit.com.au
VOLUNTEERS WANTED Mullumbimby & District Neighbourhood Centre Connecting the Byron Shire Community
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Kitchen Hands - Retail Assistants Drivers and Co-driver Community Support Assistants MDNC is in need of dedicated volunteers to be part of a big loving family. All skill sets welcome. Contact Sylvia Volunteer Coordinator Mon-Fri - 6684 1286
Single men, enquire today
Happy Birthday Neil from the Echo Crew
Local news matters
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Who else is going to tell you what happened down the road, congratulate your neighbour, expose the council potholes, and occasionally embarrass your mate? Support your local paper
CAN YOU SPARE 3 HOURS ONCE A WEEK OR ONCE A MONTH? Every minute of your time helps towards re-homing dogs, desexing dogs, and helping people in desperate situations with housing and difficult home lives. Please call Astro (shop manager) at 0492 861 905 or visit the shop to chat about helping us to help dogs in need
TO LEASE
Volunteer at the many Bangalow Lions Club community events!
A fun, busy Not-For-Profit Club with all funds raised going to worthy causes. All welcome! Contact President John Singh 0418 662781 or punjab@byronbaypork.com.au
BANGALOW OFFICE Old Bank Building main street $150/day or $260/2 days inc. Suit counsellor/therapist. 0414 438 080 STUDIO WITH AMENITIES Upstairs, Billinudgel $402pw Ph Lifestyle Group 66851206
PRIME BUSINESS LOCATION
Mullumbimby: 59 Burringbar St Ph 0455 222 877
POSITIONS VACANT LADIES WANTED, MUST BE 18+ Work available in busy adult parlour. Travellers welcome. 66816038 for details. PRIVATE MODELLING, young women 1825yo. Express your naked beauty artistically in complete privacy/confidence, good pay, Andrew. Ph 0431393320 LADIES WANTED, MUST BE 18+ Work available in busy adult parlour. Travellers welcome. 66816038 for details. TAXI DRIVERS WANTED Flexible work hours – perfect 2nd income Email operations@byronbaytaxis.com
www.echo.net.au
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED for Bush regen work 0431 636 608
Fergus is a smoochy young boy who has a beautiful medium length coat & a manx tail! As he arrived as an intact male, Fergus has now been desexed & had all his vet work done. He’s now ready to go & is waiting to be snapped up. To meet Fergus & our other cats & kittens, please visit the Cat Adoption Centre at 124 Dalley Street, Mullumbimby. OPEN: Tues 2.30-4.30pm Thurs 3-5pm Sat 10am-12 noon. Call AWL 0436 845 542 Like us on Facebook!
AWL NSW Rehoming Organisation Number: R251000222
regen@reforestnow.org.au
TUITION
Adobe Tutoring Experienced Professional Trainer • Photoshop • Indesign • Illustrator contact@thinkblinkdesign.com www.thinkblinkdesign.com
21 W
LOW TIDES, height (m)
6:03 14:08 05:35 1.06 11:05 0.53 18:58 2:52 17:45 1.40
6:02 15:05 06:22 1.18 00:20 0.37 22 TH 18:58 3:23 18:31 1.45 12:01 0.46 6:01 16:03 07:04 1.31 00:53 0.28 18:59 3:53 19:13 1.47 12:51 0.39
6:00 17:03 07:45 1.45 01:25 0.20 24 SA 19:00 4:23 19:53 1.47 13:38 0.32
www.byrondogrescue.org
5:59 18:06 08:26 1.57 01:57 0.14 25 SU 19:00 4:55 20:32 1.44 14:25 0.27 5:58 19:12 09:08 1.68 02:30 0.09 26 M 19:01 5:29 21:13 1.38 15:13 0.24 5:57 20:22 09:51 1.76 03:05 0.08 27 TU 19:02 6:09 21:56 1.30 16:02 0.23 5:56 21:33 10:36 1.79 03:43 0.10 28 W 19:02 6:56 22:42 1.21 16:57 0.26 6:02 15:05 06:22 1.18 00:20 0.37 22 TH 18:58 3:23 18:31 1.45 12:01 0.46
23 F
6:01 16:03 07:04 1.31 00:53 0.28 18:59 3:53 19:13 1.47 12:51 0.39
6:00 17:03 07:45 1.45 01:25 0.20 24 SA 19:00 4:23 19:53 1.47 13:38 0.32 5:59 18:06 08:26 1.57 01:57 0.14 25 SU 19:00 4:55 20:32 1.44 14:25 0.27
Mr Magoo is a 2.5 year old, Dingo/Cattle X. This clever boy is looking for an active home with good fencing, where he’ll have plenty of space to run and explore. He would do best as the only dog in the home. Location: Murwillumbah M/C # 991003001704141 For more information contact Yvette on 0421 831 128. Please complete our online adoption expression of interest. friendsofthepound.com/adoptionexpression-of-interest/
5:58 19:12 09:08 1.68 02:30 0.09 26 M 19:01 5:29 21:13 1.38 15:13 0.24 5:57 20:22 09:51 1.76 03:05 0.08 27 TU 19:02 6:09 21:56 1.30 16:02 0.23 5:56 21:33 10:36 1.79 03:43 0.10 28 W 19:02 6:56 22:42 1.21 16:57 0.26 Data sourced from Bureau of Meteorology. Times adjusted for Daylight Savings when applicable.
Visit friendsofthepound.com to view other dogs and cats looking for a home.
ABN 83 126 970 338
Who gives a Cluck?
Billy was rescued in early August, with 2 other rooboys in the Northern Rivers area. He’s a medium sized boy, bigger than an ISA Brown hen. Very friendly. Lovely boy. Temperament & Health Checked
MATRIX
LOCAL REMOVAL
& backloads to Brisbane. Friendly, with 10 years local exp. 0409917646
DATE DAY, SUN MOON HIGH Oct MOON RISE / RISE / TIDES, PHASE SET SET height (m)
23 F
Adopt a Rooster.
TO LET
SUN, MOON & TIDES
– TIMES FOR NEXT 2 WEEKS
PETS! PET SITTER AVAILABLE Kind, confident animal carer available for your four-legged fur baby. References available. Call Pawla on 0415340744
0408 210 772
Byron Dog Rescue (CAWI)
mr magoo
TREE SERVICES
Meet Matrix your future favourite housemate. This handsome four-year-old tabby is friendly, affectionate and loves being around people. He’s left the kitten chaos behind but still has plenty of playful spirit and personality. With his striking markings and lovable nature, Matrix has all the makings of a wonderful companion. He’s ready for a loving home where he can feel safe, cherished and truly belong. Could that be with you? Rehoming Number R251000060
T: 6681 1860 E: shelter@nras.org.au W: www.nras.org.au
whogivesacluck.org/shop/ roosters-to-adopt/ whogivesacluck.org @whogivesacluck
ONLY ADULTS BALLINA EXCLUSIVE 34 Piper Dr. Open 7 days 10am till late. In & Out Calls. 66816038. Ladies wanted Find us on Facebook and Twitter! KRYSTAL ADULT SHOP Large variety of toys and lingerie 6/6 Tasman Way, A&I Est, Byron Bay 0416 899 048
Exclusive Exquisite Intelligent Erotica Private experience Not cheap, not for the faint-hearted enquire.venusinfurs@gmail.com
SOCIAL ESCORTS LOTS OF GORGEOUS LADIES available for your pleasure nearby. Spoil yourself. In-house & outcalls. 7 days. 0266816038.
EMERGENCY NUMBERS AMBULANCE, FIRE, POLICE 000 AMBULANCE Mullumbimby & Byron Bay 131 233 POLICE Brunswick Heads 6629 7510 Mullumbimby ......... 6629 7570 Byron Bay ................. 6685 9499 Bangalow.................. 6629 7500 STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE Storm & tempest damage, flooding .............132 500 BRUNSWICK VALLEY RESCUE Primary rescue .................................... 6685 1999 BRUNSWICK MARINE RADIO TOWER ............................... 6685 0148 BYRON CENTRAL HOSPITAL6639 9400 BYRON COUNCIL: EMERGENCY AFTER HOURS .......................... 6622 7022 NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRE (Mullumbimby) ................................... 6684 1286 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 24 hour crisis line ..........................1800 656 463 LIFELINE ............................................131 114 MENSLINE .............................1300 789 978 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS 24 hours .................................1800 423 431 AL-ANON Help for family and friends of alcoholics .......................... 1300 252 666 NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS Meets daily ....................................... 6680 7280 NORTHERN RIVERS GAMBLING SERVICE ....................................... 6687 2520 HIV/AIDS – ACON Confidential testing & information ........ 6622 1555 ANIMAL RESCUE (DOGS & CATS) ............................... 6622 1881 NORTHERN RIVERS WILDLIFE CARERS ....................................... 6628 1866 KOALA HOTLINE ...................... 6622 1233 WIRES – NSW Wildlife Information & Rescue Service .......................... 6628 1898
The Echo’s Market Guide Find it online: www.echo.net.au/market-guide
MONTHLY MARKETS:
Brunswick Heads Markets – 8am–2pm Byron Community Market – 8am–3pm Pottsville Beach Markets – 7am–1pm 2nd SUN: The Channon Craft Market – 9am–3pm Chillingham Markets – 8am–1pm Coolangatta Arts & Craft Markets – 8am–2pm Tabulam Community Market – 9am–1pm 3rd SAT: Mullumbimby Community Market – 8am–2pm Murwillumbah Makers & Finders Market – 9am–2pm Salt Beach Markets, South Kingscliff/Casuarina – 8am–1pm 3rd SUN: Federal Village Market – 8am–2pm Uki Buttery Bazaar Market – 8am–2pm Pottsville Beach Markets – 7am–1pm Lismore City Bowlo Markets – 9am–1pm 3rd SUN (Dec & Jan): Byron Community Market – 8am–3pm 4th SAT: Kyogle Bazaar – 9am–2pm Last SAT: Evans Head Rotary Market – 8am–1pm 4th SUN: Bangalow Market – 8am–2.30pm Nimbin Markets – 9am–3pm Murwillumbah Showground Market – 8am–1pm 4th SUN (in a 5-Sunday month): Coolangatta Arts & Crafts – 8am–2pm 5th SUN: Nimbin Markets – 8.30am–3pm 1st SAT: 1st SUN:
Seasonal: Byron Beachside Market – four times a year: Wed 7th Jan 2026, Easter Friday, Sat 11th July and Sat 26th Sept
FARMERS/WEEKLY MARKETS:
Each TUE: New Brighton Farmers Market – 7am–11am Lismore Organic Market – 7.30am–10.30am Each WED: Murwillumbah Farmers Market – 7am–11am Nimbin Farmers Market – 3pm–6pm Newrybar Hall Twilight Market – 3pm–7.30pm Each THU: Byron Bay Farmers Market – 7am–11am Lismore Produce Market – 3pm–6pm Each FRI: Mullumbimby Farmers Market – 7am–11am Evans Head Farmers Market – 2.30pm–6.30pm Each SAT: Bangalow Farmers Market – 7am–11am Duranbah Road Farmers Market (Tropical Fruit World) 8am–11am Uki Farmers Market – 8am–1pm Lismore Farmers Market – 7.30am–11.30am Byron Twilight Market (October to April) 4pm–9pm Each SUN: Ballina Farmers & Producers Market – 7am–11am The Echo updates this guide regularly, however sometimes markets change their routine without letting us know. Please get in touch if you want to advise us of a change.
October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 29
Service Directory
North Coast news online
BUILDING TRADES
ECHO SERVICE DIRECTORY RATES, PAYMENT & DEADLINE
• DEPT OF FAIR TRADING: A licence is required for all residential building work where the reasonable market cost of the work to be done (labour and materials) exceeds $5000 (including GST).
Deadline: For additions and changes is 12pm Friday Line ads: $99 for 3 months or $340 for 1 year prepaid Display ads: $70 per week for colour display ad. Minimum 8 week booking 4 weeks prepaid. Please supply display ads 85mm wide, 38mm high. New ads will be placed at end of section. Contact: 6684 1777 or adcopy@echo.net.au
B&B Timbers 66867911
110 Teven Road, Ballina New logo - Same quality & service Structural – Landscaping Fencing – Composite Decking Hardwood – Pine – Hardware
COASTAL RESTORATIO
sales@bbtimbers.com.au
www.bbtimbers.com.au
MOULD KEEPS COMING BACK COASTAL RESTORATION COASTAL RESTORATION COASTAL RESTORATION COASTAL RESTORATION The problem may be underneath your h MOULD KEEPS COMING BACK? MOULD KEEPS COMING BACK? MOULD KEEPS BACK? Moisture &your Mould inspection MOULD KEEPS COMING COMING BACK? - $299 The problem be underneath home Themay problem may be underneath your home
www.echo.net.au/service-directory
SERVICE DIRECTORY INDEX
ARCHITECTS
Cinzel home The The problem problem may may be be underneath underneath your your home Moisture & Mould inspection -inspection $299 Decorative Cinzel Moisture & Mould $299 Cinzel Mould Moisture inspection Cinzel Moisture & & Mould inspection -- $299 $299
OCEANARC ARCHITECTS Reg. 6042 www.oceanarc.com.au..........................................0412 251392
Accountants & Bookkeepers.30 Hypnotherapy..................... 31 Acupuncture....................... 30 Landscaping ....................... 31 Air Conditioning & Refrigeration...................... 30 Painting.............................. 31 Architects........................... 30 Pest Control........................ 31 Automotive......................... 30 Photography....................... 31 Bicycle Repair..................... 30 Physiotherapy..................... 31 Blinds, Awnings, Curtains, Shutters.............................. 30 Picture Framing.................. 32 Bricklaying.......................... 30 Plastering........................... 32 Building Trades................... 30 Plumbers............................ 32 Bush Regeneration & Weed Control...................... 30 Removalists........................ 32 Carpentry & Joinery............ 30 Roofing............................... 32 Cleaning............................. 30 Rubbish Removal................ 32 Computer Services.............. 31 Self Storage........................ 32 Concreting & Paving............ 31 Curtains.............................. 31 Solar Installation................ 32 Decks, Patios & Extensions... 31 Television Services.............. 32 Design & Drafting............... 31 Tiling.................................. 32 Driveway Maintenance........ 31 Earthmoving & Excavation.. 31 Tree Services....................... 32 Electricians......................... 31 Transportation Services....... 32 Fencing............................... 31 Upholstery.......................... 32 Floor Sanding & Polishing... 31 Valuers............................... 32 Garden & Property Maintenance....................... 31 Veterinary Surgeons............ 32 Gas Fitters, Suppliers & Water Filters....................... 32 Servicing............................ 31 Welding.............................. 32 Guttering............................ 31 Handypersons..................... 31 Window Cleaning & Repairs.32 Health................................ 31 Window Tinting.................. 32
ACCOUNTANTS & BOOKKEEPERS LOCAL BOOKKEEPER Reg BAS provider, payroll, A/P, A/R. Xero & MYOB. Local, reliable..........0410 206627 BLOOMING BOOKKEEPING and BAS Agent................................................... Ph Leah 0434 121077
ACUPUNCTURE
AUTOMOTIVE
0404 184 079
Cinzel coastalrestoration.au Cinzel 0404Decorative 184 079 Cinzel Cinzel Decorative 0404 184 079 Cinzel Decorative 0404 184 079 Cinzel Decorative 0404 184 079 coastalrestoration.au
WE PAY FOR
UNWANTED CARS $50–$1500
coastalrestoration.au BUILDER – JOHN MCGAURAN Personalised Service. 20 yrs exp. Lic 170208C........... 0415 793242 coastalrestoration.au coastalrestoration.au HAVEN BUILDING All aspects of building. Lic 326616C................................................0432 565060
CARPENTER / JOINER 30 years experience. Prompt efficient service. Fully insured. Other licensed trades avail, incl plastering/painting etc. 24/7 Emergency 4WD call-out avail. Lic 43794C.........0423 500693
very exp. All aspects: comm/residential + bthrm/ktchn renos Lic348357c.......0483 279644 6684 5296 BUILDER BUILDER Asher Landini All aspects: building, renovations, extensions Lic498385c...........0488 150778
Free metal drop off Locally owned
TRADIE DAN MULLUM - Building work/repairs under $5k.................................................0410 284550
ABSOLUTELY FREE
VIDLER BUILT decks, extensions, bathrooms, kitchens, timber fencing Lic 304237c .......0413 502281
BUSH REGENERATION & WEED CONTROL
CAR BODY REMOVAL CASH ON THE SPOT GUARANTEE
$50 – $1000
reforestnow.org.au
WE BUY UNWANTED CARS, UTES & VANS
Bush Regen Tree Planting Native Forest Nursery Weed Management
PHONE 0466 113 333 24/7 EMAIL: enquires@adrians.com.au
BICYCLE REPAIR
0461 164 911 enquiry@reforestnow.org.au
MOBILE BICYCLE REPAIRS & servicing. All bikes/e-bikes: twowheelstoday.com........0474 148450
BLINDS, AWNINGS, CURTAINS, SHUTTERS
CARPENTRY & JOINERY ALL CARPENTRY Doors & stairs, all repairs. Reliable. 20 years exp...............................0437 202050 BYRON BAY CARPENTRY & CONSTR. Decks, kitchen, bath, laundry. Lic 337421c........0432 549082
LOCAL
LOCAL
SHOWCASE DEALER SHOWROOM
CLEANING
SUNSCREENS
SHOWCASE DEALER SHOWROOM
SUNSCREENS
Services List Locally owned and Operated (Low Pressure Softwashing) Residential and Commercial Houses, Gutters, Roofs, Awnings, No job too big or small LOCAL SHOWCASE DEALER SHOWROOM SUNSCREENS LOCAL SHOWCASE DEALER SHOWROOM Solar panels, Retaining walls Obligation free quote SUNSCREENS Driveways, Paths, Pavers, Fully insured CURTAINS SHOWCASE DEALER SHOWROOM CURTAINS 1/84 Centennial Circuit Byron Bay Fences, Decks, Patios, 1/84 Centennial Circuit Byron Bay SUNSCREENS AQUA PRESSURE CLEANING Pool areas. LOCAL SHOWCASE DEALER SHOWROOM CURTAINS SUNSCREENS Bay F1/84 REECentennial MEASUCircuit RE QByron UOTE PLANTATION SHUTTERS 0426 119 550 info@nraquapressurecleaning.com.au ABN: 47576013867 on our complete range of BLINDS
SHUTTERS
AWNINGS
80 8862 66668 0 8862 6680 8862
FREE MEASURE QUOTE
CURTAINS
PLANTATION SHUTTERS
interior & exterior
on F oR urEcM ompletR e rQ an g e of CURTAINS wiE ndowEtArSeU atmEen tUsOTE PLANTATION SHUTTERS HOT WATER 1/84 Circuit Byron Bay in rmCentennial &pleex terr iogr o n toeur rio co te an e of CURTAINS SPECIALISTS IN HOME AUTOMATION CURTAINS AWNINGS PRESSURE CLEANING i n t e r i o r & e x t e r i o r w indow tCircuit r eatmByron enBay tsBay 1/84 Centennial 1/84 Centennial Circuit Byron www.blinddesignbyronbay.com.au window treatments ROLL BLINDS
6 6 860 8AWNINGS 862 6 6 8 0 8 8 2 6680 8862
ACUPUNCTURE CHINESE HERBAL MEDICINE M Collis..............................................0490 022183
AIR CONDITIONING & REFRIGERATION
SPECIALISTS IN HOME AUTOMATION SPECIALISTS IN HOM E AUTOM ATION
AWNINGS
www.blinddesignbyronbay.com.au www.blinddesignbyronbay.com.au BLINDSBLINDS ROLL ATS UOTEROLL FREE MF ER ASE UE REM QE UO EURE QPLANTATION SHUTTERS PLANTATION SHUTTERS
ROOF CLEANING & PAINTING • DECK RESTORATION
n BLINDS ouU rR co oE mpo lQ e tU erIndoor r an eOutdoor o LUXURY BYRON BAY Blinds, Manual, n u c og&m pflet e rMotorised ang eor o f Shade Awnings, FREE M EoA S O T E PLANTATION SHUTTERS interior & exterior
Mullumbimby Refrigeration & Airconditioning Services
45 Manns Road, Mullumbimby Lic: 299433C ARC: AU40492
Commercial Residential. Measure................0480 304 755 ienn tm ee rorito r & eFree xtQuote er&io r on our Zipscreen, compRoman edtBlinds. wlin oe wr tra atg eno sf – Sales – Installation – Repairs interior & extew n dow treatments riio r SPECIALISTS IN HOME AUTOMATION
AWNINGS BRICKLAYING
Fr quote
Call or scan today
0455 573 554 FCRTEAM.AU
– All Commercial Refrigeration www.blinddesignbyronbay.com.au window treatmSPECIALISTS ents ROLL AWNINGS BLINDS IN HOM E AUTOM ATION – Residential & Commercial Google reviews www.blinddesignbyronbay.com.au Airconditioning SPECIALISTS IN HOM E AUTOM ATION AWNINGS ROLL BLINDS5.0 – Coolroom Design & Construction www.blinddesignbyronbay.com.au ROLL BLINDS – Freezer Rooms Mould inspections · Cleaning · Remediation
WALLFIX
6684 2783
COOLMAN AIR CONDITIONING 36+ years exp. Lic 178464C AU30147.......................0422 291433 ARTISAN AIR Airconditioning and refrigeration. ...............................................................66809394
REMEDIAL
• 20 years’ experience in lintel replacement • Crack stitching installation • Repointing • Retaining walls and all damaged brickwork Call: 0403 141 760 • Email: wallfixremedial@gmail.com www.wallfixremedial.com.au Servicing the Northern Rivers Lic no. 292267C Master Builder No. 3029326
Locally owned · Northern Rivers
0419 964 797
unmould.com.au
BETTY’S CLEANING & HOUSEKEEPING SERVICES............................................... Text 0476 984649
SKIP AIR: Airconditioning installation, servicing, repairs. Free quotes. 5-star rated......0406 485187 BRICK/BLOCK LAYING Contractors. Lic 291958C. Phone Mark.........................................0409 444268 CLEAN AND GREEN BYRON residential cleaning. All areas.................................... 0494 823880
30 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
www.echo.net.au
Service Directory COMPUTER SERVICES
ELECTRICIANS
HANDYPERSONS HANDY ANDY Carpentry, plastering, welding.......................................... 66884324 or 0476 600956
One-on-one, patient, experienced teacher offering digital support for seniors needing help with phones, laptops and computers.
AWESOME REPAIRS Professional, commercial & domestic. Wayne................................0423 218417 ABSOLUTE HANDYMAN Repairs, renovation, maintenance, painting. Call Mark..........0402 281638
Phone or email: 0420 235 624 contact@thinkblinkdesign.com
0439 624 945 AH 02 6680 4173
A HANDY GUY All trades & small construction. Bruns, Ocean, SGB & Mullum................0411 858201
DOMESTIC ALL JOBS: SMALL COMMERCIAL OR LARGE 24 HOUR SERVICE Lic: 154293c
HEALTH
HOME MAINTENANCE Carpentry, painting, repairs, gardens, jet washing. Insured......0434 705506
ACUPUNCTURE & COSMETIC MEDICINE Dr Adam Osborne............................................66857366
THE COMPUTER THERAPIST home callouts, repairs, Wi-Fi, printers, new PC setup......0422 697586
AYURVEDA, NATUROPATH, Herbs, Jacinta McEwen – Om Healing...............................0422 387370
CONCRETING & PAVING
MASSAGE THERAPIST Sports, remedial, Swedish, relaxation. ................Contact Mark 0448 441194
SALISBURY
HYPNOTHERAPY
ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE Jonathan Flantz. Mullumbimby. ...........................................0400 677672
CONCRETING Over 30 yrs’ local experience. All forms of concreting. Residential • Civil • Industrial
Lic.136717c
DARYL 0418 234 302
MOONLIGHT HYPNOTHERAPY QHHT, RTT for clarity, healing, insight, purpose. Teresa.0422 179941
SHAKA CONCRETING Driveways, sheds, slabs, p/ways, patios. Insured & Lic#391742C.....0402 728207
CURTAINS
LANDSCAPING JP ELECTRICAL All electrical. Level 2 ASP. Solar, data, TV, TV Antennas. Lic 133082C.....0432 289705 BEN FORSYTH, Electrician. Lic:240691C. Ocean Shores & surrounds. No job too small....0422 136408 JIM LABELLE ELECTRICAL O.Shores, Mullum, Byron, Bruns. Lic 176417C........................0415 126028 HARVEST POWER Solar. Batteries. All electrical Lic 141097C............................................0422 033757
FENCING
QUALITY CUSTOM MADE Curtains and Soft Furnishings. ............................Call Michelle 0412 771872
DECKS, PATIOS & EXTENSIONS
EDL FENCING Installations & repairs. Prompt service. ...................................................0432 107262
Swim Ponds, Landscaping, Water Features, Earth Moving
0448 401 638
FLOW FENCING Pool fencing, timber/colourbond, local, professional and reliable........0416 424256
DECK REFINISHING EVANS HEAD Customer satisfaction guaranteed..........................0413 786879 TOM’S FARM MAINTENANCE Fencing, orchards, cattle work. Experienced & reliable..0412 860132 FCR DECK SANDING, OILING Local, 12 years exp. 190x5-star reviews. Free quotes ... 0419 789600
DESIGN & DRAFTING
FLOOR SANDING & POLISHING THE FLOOR SANDER New & old floors, decks, non-toxic finishes, special effects, free quotes..0407 821690
MIRO HALFORD BUILDING DESIGN mirohalforddesign.com.......................................0402 613638 HOLM.STUDIO architectural drafting & planning services. holmstudio.com.au...........0488 216555
GARDEN & PROPERTY MAINTENANCE
ROCKWALL CREATIONS • BUSH ROCK RETAINING WALLS • STEPS • EARTHWORKS • LICENSED & INSURED Lic #059505C Designed and built by Roland Otte (Rolly)
FREE QUOTES 0408 860 543
www.rockwallcreations.com.au
DRIVEWAY MAINTENANCE
STEEP SITE SPECIALIST
LEMONTREELANDSCAPES.COM.AU Liam. Lic 277154C...............................................0423 700853
oast Asph alt st C Ea
admin@ecasphalt.com.au
PAINTING
ALL ASPECTS OF ASPHALT & BITUMEN SERVICES
6677 1859
SERVICING THE EAST COAST OF THE NSW NORTHERN RIVERS Burringbar
MULLUM.MOWING@gmail.com. Ride-on, large lawns & acreage. Ph Peter.................0423 756394 GUTTERS CLEANED Solar panel cleaning, all areas, free quotes, fully insured..66841778 or 0405 922839
EARTHMOVING & EXCAVATION
LEAF IT TO US Tree care specialists & acreage mowing...................................................0402 487213
TINY EARTHWOR 0409 799 909 various implements available for limited access projects
CONSCIOUS EARTHWORKS
• DRAINAGE DESIGN • DRIVEWAYS • PADS • WATERWAYS • ALL ASPECTS OF EARTHMOVING
0451 298 363
splosh painting/decorating
TIP RUNS & RUBBISH REMOVALS 4m3 trailer..............................................................0408 210772 RICK’S PROPERTY MAINTENANCE Mowing, brushcutting, gardening, hedging..........0424 805660 GREEN DINGO for all your mowing and gardening needs. Ph Michael..........................0497 842442
HOUSEHOLD PAINTING inside/out. Northern Rivers - 10 years exp..............................0488 278220
PEST CONTROL
THE GREEN WAVE: Land management, regen. gardening, maintenance, handyman...0491 117656
GAS FITTERS, SUPPLIERS & SERVICING
Locally Owned No Rental Fees Servicing your area Free Call: 1300 727 013 Email: swapabottle@bigpond.com
GUTTERING 8 Tonne Tipper
Retaining & Rockwalls
Attachments:
Bulk & Green Waste Removal
Rock Grabber, Auger
All Earthworks Requirements
350/450, Compactor
✔ Gutter guard ✔ Gutter cleaning ✔ Locally owned ✔ Fully insured ✔ Free quotes Call Junior for friendly, genuine advice and service.
BEN - 0499 985 555 License 479630C. Fully Insured.
NORTHERN RIVERS TRENCHING 65hp chain trencher, excavator, cable locating & tpr..0402 716857
10% discount applies to full-priced services only.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Professional • Commercial • Personal
5T Excavator & Skidsteer
Landscaping Install & Supply
Protect your home this season. Save 10% on our Termite Inspection & General Pest Control Package, covering cockroaches, ants and spiders. Or save 10% on mosquito treatments. Contact our friendly team. Phone 02 6685 4490 • service@sanctuarypest.com.au
Tree Faerie Fotos
Phone Zac: 0468 344 939 www.360earth.com.au
www.echo.net.au
•30+ Years Experience •Interior & Exterior •Reasonable Prices
GW MOWING Ride-on /acreage. Tip runs...............................................Call George on 0408 244820
Philip Toovey
Drainage Consultation & Installation
Professional Painter/Decorator
www.spotlessgutters.com.au
0405 922 839 or AH 6684 1778 ABN 94 239 089 086
30+ years experience in commercial photography and photojournalism
www.treefaeriefotos.com • 0417 427 518
PHYSIOTHERAPY OCEAN SHORES PHYSIOTHERAPY Manual therapies, dry needling, custom orthotics, shock wave therapy, real time ultrasound. Nigel Pitman.........................................................66803499
October 21, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 31
Service Directory PICTURE FRAMING MULLUM PICTURE FRAMERS Studio located in Ocean Shores...................................0403 734791
North Coast news online
SOLAR INSTALLATION
Martino TREE SERVICES
Serving Northern NSW since 1998
PLASTERING PLASTERER, TRADE QUALIFIED repairs, renovations, cornices, quality assured. .Kurt 0431 015414 CAPE BYRON PLASTERING. Gyprock/Venetian. 30 yrs exp, free quotes, lic + insured.. 0402 538155 PLASTERING cornices, partition walls, water damage repairs etc Guaranteed quality. 0413 338203
Your local, qualified team Specialists in standalone and grid interact system designs
0428 320 262 sunbeamsolar.com.au team@sunbeamsolar.com.au
PLUMBERS
Ben The Plumber
Servicing Mullumbimby, Ocean Shores, Brunswick Heads, Byron Bay & Surrounds 30 years’ experience Lic: 321191C
Taking on work NOW! 0427 528 108 | benwilton74@icloud.com
TELEVISION SERVICES DIGITAL ELECTRONICS REPAIR & SERVICE TV. Audio. Antennas........... 66843575 or 0414 922786 INSTALL SERVICE: TV, Wi-Fi, AV, special pensioner/concession rate. ............ Damian 0414 741233
TILING WALL & FLOOR TILER/WATERPROOFER/STONEMASON Lic 24418C. ............Ph Karl 0439 232434
TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
MARK STRATTON All plumbing & emergency. Sewer drain camera/locator. Lic 57803C.....0419 019035
BYRON BUS Co-
BRAD EVELEIGH PLUMBING based in Ocean Shores, no job too small. Lic 257153C.........0438 140075 DAVE SPARKES Plumber Byron based, call out $110 incl. first hour. Lic209669C..............0418 167074
REMOVALISTS
SHIRE REMOVALS & FREIGHT CO From Middle Pocket to Middle Earth Just give us a ring
• Freight services to Brisbane weekly • Carriers of fine art • Furniture removal • E-bay pick up & delivery
0409 917 646
LEAPFROG REMOVALS BYRON BAY’S LOCAL REMOVALIST MOVING THE SHIRE FOR OVER 10 YEARS
0432 334 200 02 6680 8170 leapfrogremovals@yahoo.com.au
Door to Door Charter Services
Call 0490 183 424
arrive@ byronbuscompany.com.au
Byron Bay & Beyond
0435 019 524
TREE CARE SPECIALISTS • Local • Reliable • Insured
• 4×4 truck with 19” chipper • Qualified local arborists • 120 ★★★★★ Google reviews
0402 487 213
leafittous.com.au • kascha@leafittous.com.au 17 Years Experience as an Arborist Experienced crew ready to go. Free Quotes |Insured |Amenity Tree Pruning Removals |Chipping |Block Clearing Council DA Assistance if required
Call Sam 0456 044602 BYRON TREE SERVICES AQF Level 5 consulting arborist, insured....................... Call Alex 0402 364852 LEAF IT TO US 4x4 truck/chipper + crane truck. Local, qualified, insured. Free quotes........0402 487213 THREE TREES AQF Level 8 Consulting Arborist. ................................... Call Lisa Barnes 0427 959835 NORTH COAST SPECIALIST ARBOR: Tom Wardlaw. All tree work. Level 5 Arborist.......0411 777733
UPHOLSTERY BANGALOW UPHOLSTERY Now at Billinudgel. Re-covering specialists..............................66805255
Get a Quick Quote Now Airport Transfers | Tours | Nights Out | Walks Events | Par ties | Weddings | Corporate | Festivals
TREE SERVICES
CHOPPY CHOP TREE SERVICES The Fully Insured Professionals
• Stump Grinding • Bobcat • Cherrypicker • Crane Truck • 18" Chipper
VALUERS BYRON BAY VALUERS NSW & QLD registerd. Chartered Valuers............. 0431 245460 or 66857010
VETERINARY SURGEONS MULLUM VET CLINIC: Richard Gregory, Bec Wills, Heidi Jenal. After hours avail...............66843818 NORTH COAST VETERINARY SERVICES Dr Lauren Archer..................................................66840735
WATER FILTERS
The Water Filter Experts
RYAN’S MINI MOVES....................................................................................................0406 657 755
Mark Linder Qualified Arborist
for home, commercial and rural properties
ROOFING
choppychoptrees@bigpond.com
6680 8200 or 0418 108 181
0408 202 184
FCR ROOF PAINTING Local, 12 yrs exp, best paints avail, 190x5-star reviews. Free quotes.0455 573554
Metal Roofing & Guttering Experts
WELDING
Serving from Ballina to Gold Coast.
- A Lifetime Warranty on Workmanship - Double Satisfaction Checks - Spotless Work Sites, Every Time
WELDING & FABRICATION Structural, General, Repairs: Steel, Aluminium & Stainless...0408 410545
admin@oceanbluepr.com.au
CLEAN VIEW Prompt, professional, insured. Phone David..............................................0421 906460
WINDOW CLEANING AND REPAIRS
0429 909 433
NO STREAKS ATTACHED Local, experienced, friendly, insured.......................................0431 398358
www.oceanbluepr.com.au License # QBCC: 15327621 NSW: 381929C
PRUNING ~ REMOVALS ~ STUMP GRINDING
BLUE SKY ROOFING NSW Roof repairs Replacements
Gutters Downpipes
0450 659 114
Lic No. 304784C
• 20 years local knowledge and experience • Fully insured / free quotes • 19 inch chipper • Bobcat • Cherry picker • Crane truck
www.harttreeservices.com.au
0427 347 380
RUBBISH REMOVAL TIP RUNS & RUBBISH REMOVAL 4m3 trailer.................................................................0408 210772
SELF STORAGE BYRON BAY SELF STORAGE................................................................................................66858349
32 The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026
ALL AREAS OF THE NORTHERN RIVERS & SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND
0401 208 797
• Professional Tree Removal, Surgery & Maintenance • Stump Grinding • Weed Control • Arborist Reporting & Consultancy • EWP Cherry Picker Hire • Mulching of Green Waste • 24 Hour Emergency Call-Out • Professional, Reliable Service
www.echo.net.au/service-directory www.echo.net.au
9 MARVELL STREET, BYRON BAY
‘MARÉ’ Only 3 Residences Remain! A New Expression of Byron Bay Living 3
2
1
• Boutique collection of just eight luxury residences, with only three remaining • Spacious three-bedroom residences with 140m²+ interiors and private balconies up to 20m² • Resort-style rooftop amenities including pool, BBQ area, landscaped gardens and fully equipped gym
Su Reynolds 02 6685 8466
• Prime central Byron Bay location, moments from the beach, cafés, restaurants and boutiques
PRICE | Contact Agent OPEN | By Appointment
450 LEFT BANK ROAD, MULLUMBIMBY CREEK
A Charming Federation Farmhouse with Space to Grow 4
1
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5421M2 • Original 1903 character farmhouse with old-growth timber, VJ panelling, high ceilings and timber floors
Sally Green 0488 030 116
• Level land offering scope to update (STCA) and create your ideal rural lifestyle • North-facing rear deck with Koonyum Range and valley views • Surrounded by established gardens and rainforest, just two minutes to Shearwater Steiner School and six minutes to Mullumbimby
Jasmin McClymont 0434 029 668
AUCTION | Saturday 7th November 12pm OPEN | Saturday 24th October 10 - 10:30am
22 SCOTT STREET, BYRON BAY
Freestanding Beachside Living with Resort Amenities at Your Doorstep 3
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• Low-maintenance home in a tightly held enclave, adjacent to beach access and Arakwal National Park • Private north-east facing front courtyard, plus large backyard with landscaped gardens, fruit trees and veggie beds
Su Reynolds 02 6685 8466
• Access to resort-style facilities including swimming pool, spa, sauna, gym, tennis court, games room & BBQ areas • Ideal as a permanent residence, a lock-and-leave coastal retreat, or an investment with year-round letting potential
Renee Schofield 0400 028 594
PRICE | Contact Agent OPEN | Saturday 24th October 9 - 9:30am
4/45 PACIFIC PARADE, LENNOX HEAD
Ocean Views, Village Convenience 2
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• Top-floor north-facing apartment opposite Seven Mile Beach and foreshore parkland • Ocean views from the north-facing balcony and rooftop pool • Modern two-bedroom interior with polished floors, and quality kitchen appliances
Helen Huntly-Barratt 0412 332 232
• Secure complex with lock-up garage with internal access, walking distance to Lennox Head village
PRICE | Contact Agent OPEN | Saturday 24th October 10 - 10:30am
www.byronbayfn.com.au | sales@byronbayfn.com | 35 Fletcher St, Byron Bay NSW 2481 | 02 6685 8466
www.echo.net.au
October 14, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 33
Property
North Coast news online
Mr Property Services Palm Lake Resort – Banora
2
1243 Kyogle Road, UKI, NSW 2484 $2,299,000
Call us on 0403 713 658
Resort Style Dual Living Plus Bungalow
1
North Star – Hastings Point
1
3
$669,000
Call us on 0403 713 658
Banksia Waters – Tweed Heads West
2
$689,000
Banksia Waters – Tweed Heads West RE
Set high overlooking the breathtaking Wollumbin (Mt Warning) Caldera, this magnificent Western Red Cedar resort residence is nestled on 1.31 hectares (3.2 acres) of private manicured lawns and established fruit trees.
1
D UC
It is offered for sale for the first time outside of the family, who built it for multi-generational living.
ED
* 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms.
* Remote Double Garage, 2 x Single Carports and 4 Uncovered Bays. * Architecturally Designed by a Master Builder.
* Stunning Indoor Pool and Heated Spa overlooking the Mountains. * Massive Rooms, Open Plan Living and Soaring Ceilings.
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* Chef’s Kitchen with Marble Benchtops and Quality Appliances.
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3
$639,000
Call us on 0403 713 658
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2
* Separate Income Producing Unit and Bungalow.
Call us on 0403 713 658
* Meticulously Maintained by a Caretaker.
View over 50 homes at www.mrpropertyservices.com.au
* 2 x 3KW Fronius Inverters and 24 x 275W Solar Panels.
Sarah Rossetti 0419 838 282 rossettiscreenplays@bigpond.com
34 The Byron Shire Echo October 14, 2026
5
4
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forsalebyowner.com.au
$620,000
Email: enquiries@mrpropertyservices.com.au Phone: 07 5523 3431 Mobile: Heike Wilson 0403 713 658 Kelvin Price 0423 028 468
www.echo.net.au
Property Business Directory AGENTS
CONVEYANCING BUYING and SELLING REAL ESTATE? We are here to help
TARA TORKKOLA SALES
NP CONVEYANCING
0423 519 698 tara@byronbayfn.com
PHONE 6685 7436 FOR A QUOTE
@taratorkkolafirstnational
0411 757 425 tim@millerrealestate.com.au millerrealestate.com.au @timmiller_realestate
@taratorkkola_realestate www.byronbayfn.com.au
NPC
PERSONALISED APPOINTMENTS IN BYRON BAY NOW NOW OPERATING OUT OF CENTRAL OFFICE IN POTTSVILLE Lic No 06000098
Call today for an obligation free chat 0418 123 393
PAUL PRIOR SALES
0418 324 297 paulprior@byronbayfn.com BYRON BAY AGENT OF THE YEAR Damien Smith Sales Director Ray White Byron Bay www.rwbyronbay.com
Boutique, family-owned and proudly serving Byron Bay & beyond.
SHARON McINNES SALES
Where personalised service isn’t just a promise - it’s our way of life.
0408 659 649 sharon@byronbayfn.com
JANIS PERKINS
02 6680 8588 | 0438 841 122 janis@reodbyron.com.au Shop 9/15-19 Fletcher St, Byron Bay www.reodbyron.com.au
NSW & QLD Conveyancing, Leases, Business Sale & Purchase P: 02 6687 0548 | hello@bangalowconveyancing.com.au
FINANCE
BYRON BAY HOME LOANS
Refinance and save We’ll compare 60+ lenders to lower your repayments
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LAUREN DONNELLON Russel Shaw Finance Broker
russel@acceptancefinance.com.au 0412 833 280
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This week’s open homes
Real estate open homes, auctions and new property listings in and around the Byron Shire this week: www.echo.net.au/ofi
www.echo.net.au
October 14, 2026 The Byron Shire Echo 35
Backlash Perhaps we should hold a moment of silence for all those who lost virtual friends and lovers when the Ukrainians destroyed Russian data centres that were the nexus of right-wing propaganda. So many online voices have gone silent, they must be feeling the loss. Greenpeace activists paused Woodside’s $12.5bn Scarborough gas project in Western Australia after two activists slept overnight on their semi-submersible unit, located more than 200km off the coast. They displayed banners saying, ‘Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas. Save Scott Reef’. Scott Reef is a remote coral system and foraging area for the endangered pygmy blue whale. The Scarborough Browse Basin project aims to drill 57 gas wells around Scott Reef. Politics in preschool will be highlighting the childcare crisis in Australia that is putting children at risk. Mandy Nolan will be talking to Madeleine West, Melinda Gambley – Director, Clunes Community Preschool, and others at the Coogera Byron Bay Preschool, 49–51 Bottlebrush Crescent, Suffolk Park on Monday, 26 October from 6pm to 7.30pm. Everyone, including children are welcome to join the discussion.
PEOPLE, POLITICS AND CULTURE
FOR ADVERTISING BOOKINGS
CONTACT RUSTY 0428 847 390 rustymiller1943@gmail.com OR TRICIA 0421 422 645 triciashantz11@gmail.com
Hanson not misquoted: ‘Pauline Hanson, in her interview with The CourierMail (May 8), denies having said she would not represent Aboriginal people. Further, she accuses The Australian of misreporting her. ‘A transcript of the relevant interview with Ms Hanson, conducted by The Australian,
When a 7m juvenile humpback whale washed up at Brunswick Heads Main Beach on Friday, 9 October, local youths from Brunswick Heads Public School and Shearwater Steiner School paid respects as they watched a local Indigenous person say goodbye to the whale. Council removed the whale in consultation with Arakwal representatives and it was buried. Photo Sienna Nussbaum shows she has no interest in representing Aboriginal people. ‘The transcript says: Q: So you’re fighting for the white people of Oxley? Hanson: I think it’s gonna go wider than just the people of Oxley. I think, I can’t say yes, I’m only fighting for the people of Oxley. ‘Q: So you’re fighting for the white community? Hanson: Yeah, look, the white community, the immigrants, the Italians, the Greeks, whoever, it really doesn’t matter, you know, anyone apart from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. ‘I hope this sets the record straight. – David Armstrong, Editor-in-Chief, The Australian, Sydney.’ If you have a play, performance, or creative project that you want to manifest into reality, a new creative development program from Byron Theatre Company, ‘Storytellers’,
has applications open until 1 November. While the project already needs to be underway, you don’t
need a finished script! Find out more at: www.byroncentre.com.au/programs/ storytellers.
WOMBAT GAMES play games — help wombats!
retro nostalgia & biting satire visit:
wombatgames.au
Invest today, retire tomorrow Retirement is your time to enjoy the moments that matter. Secure a dependable income stream and look ahead with confidence. With corporate origins of more than 150 years, our advisers can help you navigate complexity with confidence. Start a conversation with one of our private wealth advisers today. Jake Blumberg on 0412 285 029 or jblumberg@ords.com.au, Sam La Cava on 0413 717 528 or slacava@ords.com.au
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36Byron The Byron Shire Echo October 21, 2026 Shire Echo Ads. 260mmW x 118mmH_Sept 2026.indd 1
www.echo.net.au 11/09/2026 11:10:30 AM