Around The Traps Archive

ABC Landline TV recently did a segment on Byron Bay. The focus was balancing the high demand for developable land while maintaining enough fertile farmland. It’s still an ongoing issue. It’s worth a look – click here to watch.

Chris Hanley is a long-term Byron local and the principal of First National Real Estate Agency. He has been involved in the Byron Bay Writers Festival, and his podcast ‘Our Byron Community’ has been going on for a while now. For anyone interested in local history, I commend the Oliver Dunne episode. If you are interested in the housing debate, listen to the one with Rob Doolan and Jack Dodds, who have much knowledge in this area.

Big things are afoot in Mullumbimby. The next stage of the master plan’s rollout will involve changes to the main drag, Burringbar Street. It will become more pedestrian-friendly, and more traffic will be encouraged to use the bypasses.

I was a participant in the Mullum Master Plan Reference Group before COVID-19. Each of the attempted innovations since then has been scaled back, amended or ignored, mainly by vocal opposition from a few and people who don’t want change. Let’s hope the walking street concept gets through the gauntlet, as I think it will be positive.

Kaleido Mullum

Mullum will soon be alive with its Laneways Activation events. The centrepiece will be a three-day culture and arts fest on the first weekend of May. You can get involved by contacting Kaleido Mullum.

Local politics is ugly when you watch how the sausages get made. Byron Council finally landed the contentious legislature, the Residential Land Strategy 2041. It was supposed to be delivered in 2016 but is only eight years late. The state government threatened to take their planning controls away, giving them the incentive to deliver.

The result is fairly safe and predictable. It will not deliver much of the ‘missing middle’ that the shire desperately needs: medium-density units and townhouses that will, in time, be more accessible and affordable. Most of it will be greenfield residential lots, which are safe and easy. The council does not have consent controls over developers to deliver the necessary housing mix.

We will get more housing in South Bangalow, Mullumbimby, and Brunswick Heads sometime. Only the one on Saddle Road, Brunswick Heads, has the possibility of delivering more interesting diversity. It also has a good developer team behind it (who brought us The Habitat). A late entry to get approval is the 1982 Coolamon Scenic Drive, Mullumbimby, which also has the potential for something interesting.

Don’t hold your breath for those suffering in the housing crisis. It will be many years before these sites are shovel-ready. To those who say this will cause an oversupply, take a deep breath. Yes, we are under enormous pressure because this is a desirable place to live, but we have had decades of minimal growth because of our anti-development ethos. This has come at a cost.

The highest-rated TV show is called Married At First Sight on Channel 9. It allows narcissistic sociopaths a platform to display their worst personality defects. This season, a Byron Bay local named Lucinda Light is one of the participants. She at least shows a degree of humanity, self-awareness, and goodwill and, as a marriage celebrant, has a legitimate reason to be on it as it promotes her business.

The other star is the property where they housed the couple’s retreat – Hinterland House in Bangalow. The property is at 1390 Hinterland Way, Bangalow and prior to this recent makeover was known as Jeblon Leigh, a stately manor house built in 1906. Luckily, the original inhabitants are not around to see the mismatched couples preening and bickering around the elegant rooms, pool and rolling green hills.

Byron Council’s introduction of Rural Dual Occupancy has been a success. This is where rural property on acreage is allowed to build a second home but not have a second title. For council, it means they can get more residences in place without having to spend big on roads and infrastructure. For rural land owners, it is a way to provide a second dwelling for family members, friends, or tenants.

The rule used to be it needed to be 100 metres from the main house and use that same driveway. That has now been scrapped and owners can now site their 2nd home anywhere they want (STCA).

That did not help the 50 or so property owners in Ballina’s boutique Fig Tree Hill estate near Lennox Head. They have been denied from building second dwellings indefinitely owing to sewage concerns. The existing sewerage system servicing this area is not able to handle any more sewerage. There aren’t any plans to increase the network’s capacity, Ballina Council staff say because the project is considered too costly.

Thanks to long-term resident Kerry McDonald Baunach for putting together this website of old and gold images of Byron Bay. It’s easy to forget that Byron was not long ago a sleepy, little, coastal town where the main industry was either killing whales or cows. What happened? I have selected just a few of them here with some commentary. Thanks to ex-councillor Jan Hacket who donated a lot of the pics.

The sign we used to have entering Byron Bay before the new one was put there: Cheer Up, Slow Down, Chill Out. The new sign was put there by an independent wag and was not planned or authorised by the council. It is now very popular and council should provide a small parking bay there as it is dangerous with people stopping to take selfies.

Byron Landmark on the Jonson and Lawson St roundabout. It was the Orient for many years and home of many restaurants.

For a time in 80s the corner shop was called Get Frocked which I thought was a pretty good name for a dress shop.

This is a pic of the BB surf lifesaving clubhouse during the 1974 floods. Apparently, one of the houses on Border Street, Belongil Beach was also hanging over the edge during this storm and decided to sell for $1000 at the Great Northern on the night. The house is still standing there.

This is an aerial of the old Byron Bay meat works. It was used for whale processing as close as the 60s. It was then an abattoir and after that had a life as the Epicentre, where it was a venue and used for artist studios. John Cornell and Paul Hogan even used it to shoot a few scenes of Crocodile Dundee there. It was torn down and eventually developed into residential building lots. John Cornell and Delvene Delaney bought a chunk of it and the remaining ones have now the beachfront lots have been selling for over $20 mil.

The original Byron Bay School of Arts building was erected in 1895. It went through a variety of names and uses and the iteration pictured was after a renovation in the early 1980s. The murals were added by two local artists. The Byron Bay Community Centre we know now was completed in 2002 after nearly 20 years of fundraising. It was designed by architect Ian McKay and faced fierce opposition by opponents wanting to keep and restore the original.

An aerial of Wategos beach – probably circa 1970s. In 1933 Murray (Mick) Watego leased some of the land. He and his wife, Mary and 10 children grew bananas and other fruits and vegetables to supply local and Sydney markets. In 1961 Council put up for auction approximately 86 lots of land. The average price in 1961 was $700, and in 1970, $2320. It would take over 25 years for all of the lots to be sold and built on. The last Wategos record for a house was $22.5 mil and blocks with tear-down houses on them have sold for $5-7 mil.

A disheartening picture of a Bunjalung man – the original, and only true local resident of the time. SAY YES TO THE VOICE!

Byron council last week made the wearing of leg ropes in the surf compulsory. The fine is $1100 if not wearing one. This occurred because a regular surfer at the pass, Mathew Cassidy, nearly lost a leg when hit by someone else’s runaway board.

Whether this will make any difference at all is doubtful to many locals. Most people wear leg ropes for their own convenience. Who wants to go swimming all the way to shore to retrieve it? Yes, there is a small posse of Mal riders who like to be unshackled when ‘walking the plank’. It is very rare to see no leg ropes in a big swell where a runaway board can do real damage. The issue of how they are going to police it is the main head scratch.

This is skirting around the edges of the real issue: good breaks when they are working, are now getting too crowded. Accidents will happen because there are too many people vying for the same waves. How to police that is the main dilemma. I see a day when surfers will be able to surf only after buying a ticket and having a maximum number allowed in the water. That will be interesting to police.

A dilemma for any branch of government is the cost of enforcing regulations. It is easy to make new laws, but if some of the population ignores them, an LGA has to police them.

That is the case with secondary dwellings and studios that were approved a few years ago by BSC. Council contribution fees, approx $20-25K, were waived with the understanding that the infill dwellings would be used for affordable housing. It is true that many people took the money but still went ahead and listed them on the Short-Term Rental Accommodation market. This article outlines how the council is preparing to enforce these properties to be used for permanent rental, as agreed.

While they are talking about it, I wonder if they are aware of this new platform that does exactly that. Deckard.com is software that uses existing public and private domain data to track and find listing and leasing anomalies. The recent debate about the 90-day HL limit, yet to be decided on by the Independent Planning Commission, would do well to have had accurate data.

The Deckard name was inspired by the main protagonist in Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. The book was turned into one of my all-time favourite films, Blade Runner. The character Richard Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, is a bounty hunter in the future, locating, testing, and ultimately ‘retiring’ genetically engineered humanoid beings.

Aquarius 50 Festival

One of the things that made this region special is the Aquarius Festival held in Nimbin in 1973. Like Woodstock a bit earlier, it defined the times and a generation and many more people say they were there than really were. I was not there, I was thinking about it and decided not to go at the last minute as did not want to sleep rough.

It has been 50 years now since that seminal event and the 50-year anniversary is in full swing. It happening between the 12 – 23rd of May and you can go here for the full program.

Harvest Food Trail

Northern Rivers Food runs the successful Harvest Food Trail each year. On the weekend of the 6thth and 7th of May, you can travel to a number of fab foodie outlets and suppliers, doing tours and eating good locally produced food.

Northern Rivers Rail Trail

If you haven’t done it yet, you need to get on your bike! The Northern Rivers Rail Trail is open from Crabbes Creek to Murwillumbah and it’s fabulous. This is the perfect weather and season to be doing it. I did it with Steve from Beyond Byron E-bikes as they trailer the e-bikes to Moobal and pick them up when you have done the return trip. Allow about 4 – 5 hours for the ride and lunch. Also, dont forget to keep pushing for Byron to do their bit to finish it all the way from M’bah to Casino.

Our Byron Community Podcast

Real estate agent and long-term chair of the Byron Writers Festival, Chris Hanley, has started a podcast. He interviews local residents who have interesting stories to tell about their time in Byron. This episode talks with the architect and urban planner, Jack Dods. You can download the podcast here on Spotify or Apple Podcast

Crying Baby Festival

Unfortunately, you just missed the Crying Baby Festival which just spat the dummy in Japan in April. This festival has been running for over 400 years and involves Sumo Wrestlers holding one-year-old babies until they cry. The Japanese believe giving a baby a good cry is good for their health and longevity.

With all the talk of AI and chat botts taking over, it seems NSW planning is going digital as well. To the consternation of many and the enthusiasm of some, processing DAs and the approval process will be handled online in the future.

Development Applications are being lodged on the Department of Planning portal and not individual councils like in the past. Once the DA is logged, stored, and a fee taken, it is then sent to the respective council for processing and (mostly) approval. In time this digitising process will probably eventuate in council staff processing DAs on behalf, and for, state planning and not under their own auspice.

Some councils in Queensland are already fully digitized. The cost-saving exercise has the potential to cut the DA process from 32 man-hours to 4. Many applicants interacting with of Byron Shire Council will be happy to see this introduced here. NSW LGAs are supposed to have a turnaround time of 40 days per DA. Byron council can take anything up to 10-12 months.

Could it be that the long delays in BSC applications are a strategy to hold up excessive development? Could it be that the state government is conducting LGA amalgamation by stealth? The cost and efficiency savings of council amalgamations looks tempting but amalgamations have turned out to be a no-go option with the electorate.

Many readers will not be aware of my side hustle which is leading small group tours to Sri Lanka. Obviously, this venture was put into mothballs during Covid but now is a good time to resurrect it and get back on the road.

Planned for this June is the first tour I have put together following the work of famed Sri Lankan architect, Geoffrey Bawa. He is an innovator and protagonist of what has become known as Tropical Modernism – polished concrete floors, white walls, dark teak posts and beams, and red tile roofs. We stay at many Bawa hotels and some signature architectural places of interest.

November is the Mountain to the Beach tour. The classic Best of SL tour as it sees the best of the tea country, the Cultural Triangle as well as relaxing and pampering at the beautiful beaches and hotels on the south coast.

Early next year I am putting together a tour for Byron locals and lovers of Byron. This will start of on the south coast at Talalla Retreat and then take a leisurely through the tea country and more.  Limited places on all of these so look forward to talking to anyone interested sooner rather than later.

Details are available on the website and click through to VEIW TOURS.

In 2010, Byron council spent $50,000 on changing the signage and rules to stop ‘rear in’ parking. These days it is ‘front in’ parking only. The complaint was that all the roadside diners were being gassed with exhaust fumes while they were eating and coffee-ing.

It seems this expensive signage is not popular with everyone. The ‘front in only’ wording is only small and at the bottom of the sign and easy to miss. Many visitors and tourists are stunned and annoyed when they get the $120 fine – also not spelled out in the signage.

Be a good host. If you see people who are not aware of the ruling and parking the wrong way, inform them of the issue before it costs them a fine.

If you are sitting on a large parcel of rural land and wondering what to do with it, here is an idea. ZEB, Zero Emissions Byron, is compiling stories of local landowners who have been regenerating their property with forests. There are a number of grants and support systems available to help people reforest their vacant land and it is a good way to improve your land quality (and value) without a lot of expense.

Our own local community radio station Bay FM got a major award for excellent programming. The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia held its national conference in Cairns last week and Bay FM was gonged for providing necessary coverage during the flood event in February and March of this year. Station President, Ange Kent as well as on-air news presenters Mia Armitage and Kate Payne were on hand to accept the award.

We need to appreciate this terrific local FREE service more. Please donate to support Bay FM at this link when you can.