Byron Bay

The annual Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival held every year in the northern New South Wales town over the Easter weekend was announced today. While the line up lately has been less blues and roots than ever, there are still plenty of bands that clearly stem from this discipline of music. There are some odd ones like Sigur Ros and Bob Geldof (who was announced last year, but mysteriously fell off the bill). Other highlights include the Blind Boys of Alabama, who played at the festival two years before, as well as Eric Burdon and the Animals (named as such purely because Eric owns the name, not because of the original line up).
The full line up is as [...]

Brothel plan draws objection
What place in Byron Bay can a girl work and leave with $3000 in her pocket at the end of the week? Well, soon there may be such a place. Crystal Palace, the first legal brothel proposed for Byron Bay, is presently before the Byron Shire Council for approval. If approved, the brothel will operate from premises in Wollongbar Street on the Byron Bay Industrial Estate, 24 hours, seven days. Owner of the proposed brothel, John Thompson said he would be providing a safe, clean, discreet place for women to work and a fun facility.
Mr Thompson said it would be a high-class brothel that would be purpose built with three electric gates [...]

Schoolies week is a journey for parents also, writes Corrie Perkin after seeing her daughter head off to Byron Bay.
JUST before 7am yesterday, I watched my teenage daughter board a Virgin Blue flight to Coolangatta. Destination: Byron Bay. Event: schoolies week. Purpose: fun. “You’re letting her go to Byron Bay?” How many people have asked this question since last month’s Rex Hunt incident? When the high-profile football commentator went public about his family’s fight with local Byron youths, a collective knee-jerk reaction followed.
There were anti-Byron stories. Anti-schoolies week stories. Tales of similar local-versus-tourist tensions at Noosa and the Gold Coast. At the same time, thousands of year 12 students were trying to focus on their exams. For many, schoolies week [...]

Belongil Beach
An open beach located north of the town centre. It’s named after the creek that empties nearby and is usually a bit quieter then the popular Main Beach.
The Wreck
More a surf break created by the wreck of the SS Wollongbar. Located just off the Main Beach car park at the end of Jonson Street.
Main Beach
A popular beach with a patrolled swimming area located at the end of Jonson Street. A park with plenty of shade and play equipment for children make this a popular area for those taking a break from the activity of the town centre.
Clarks Beach
Located further south along Main Beach before the headland of The Pass begins. Usually a bit quieter than Main Beach [...]

The great Australian tradition of backpackers flogging their second-hand cars on the side of the road, complete with handwritten ‘For Sale’ signs slung across the dashboard, is to be outlawed in Byron Bay. Byron Shire Council has declared the well-practised habit of many a cash-strapped backpacker an eyesore that is creating an ugly focal point in an otherwise beautiful town. But it is not only about aesthetics: too many cars on the road for sale means there are fewer car spaces for everyone else, the council says.
The practice will become “an inappropriate commercial activity conducted on public land” from today, but those who plan to fund the next leg of their trip by selling up in Byron Bay will be [...]

THE mayor and a senior police officer insist violence and crime are under control in Byron Bay. But new figures reveal a disturbingly different story: a person is more likely to be assaulted by a youth walking around this coastal mecca than in the city. Drunken teenagers are being blamed for attacking tourists in Byron Bay – where in 2004 they committed nearly double the offences against a person than were recorded in Waverley , where Bondi Beach is found. According to the Bureau of Crime Statistics, there were 361.4 offences committed against a person by under 18s in Byron Bay, while in Waverley there were 173.2.
There were also more motor vehicle thefts with three more cars stolen in Byron [...]

Byron Shire Mayor Jan Barham said she had received “numerous” emails from people explaining they’d cancelled their holidays. “His comments have resulted in bookings being cancelled, particularly from Victoria where this has had enormous coverage. People are staying away because they think Byron Bay is unsafe,” she said. Cr Barham, extremely angry at the smear the incident has cast upon her town, has a deal she wants to put to Hunt, provided he makes a complaint and allows police to investigate. “If there’s any truth to his account I’m willing to send him an apology,” she said. “If his account isn’t right then he should apologise, for the sake of our community.”
Local business owners shrug and suggest that Rex Hunt [...]

My only comments about ‘the incident’ are that Rex didn’t press charges and neither did the police (and I believe the police can lay charges themselves if they feel it’s warranted, and they have done that in the past with underage boys). Also as far as I know the only person seriously hurt was one of the boys who had stitches in his head from the stilleto shoes. The whole thing has had major consequences for the young people and their families who have been hounded by the media. There are many similiar incidents and many concerning adult violence and none of them receive this sort of publicity for obvious reasons.
I feel the broader issues are more important, [...]

We can never imagine what fate has in store for us when we make a new journey. Byron Shire yogi, Rachel Zinman, left the green hills of Goonengerry nearly five years ago for the concrete jungle of New York City. She went there with her husband, Nyck Jeanes. His plans were to explore the possibility of broadcasting in NY. Many readers will be familiar with his Letter from New York on BayFM and often printed in the Echo. For Rachel it was a journey that led her to an authentic yoga teacher in an urban setting.
The yoga scene in New York is diverse; in every section of the city there’s a loft or warehouse space dedicated to yoga; yoga mats [...]

Byron Bay locals’ warning to tourists :: TOURISTS be warned. That’s the message Byron Bay residents are telling visitors after football and fishing guru Rex hunt and his family were attacked at the holiday mecca. Residents told the Herald Sun yesterday they were tired of playing second fiddle to the thousands of tourists who flock to their shores each year. While many acknowledge the tourist dollars splashed around the town, the growing frustrations are believed to be behind the vicious assault.
Hunt claims a gang of up to 15 teenagers attacked his family after telling them visitors were not welcome in the northern NSW town. “It’s a regular occurrence and if you’re a tourist in Byron Bay go there at [...]