Byron Bay

Mia Robertson (second from right)  ”I can’t wait to come back next year and tell everyone how I have changed the world.”
The Students Using Sustainable Strategies (SUSS) Forum was held from May 26 to 28 for the fourth year at Linnaeus Estate, Broken Head. Enthusiastic students and teachers from 15 high schools across the region spent two days and nights sharing their skills and ideas on environmental issues and sustainability. According to organisers, the result was ‘a lot of excitement and students buzzing and bursting with ideas and actions to take back to their schools and communities’.
A student from Mullumbimby High, Mia Robertson, said, ‘The forum was fun, a great opportunity and I was proud to be a part of it. I can’t wait to come back next year and tell everyone how I have changed the world.’ Andrew Turbill, a climate change facilitator [...]

THE Byron Shire Council yesterday voted to adopt its draft coastal zone management plan (CZMP).
The move, which was opposed by councillors Diane Woods and Ross Tucker, is sure to anger many property owners along the Byron foreshore, because it is a further step to enshrining the controversial policy of ‘planned retreat’ in law.
The draft plan, which was on public exhibition between October and December last year, received 654 submissions from 622 people, the majority of them saying they believed the strategies proposed would cause unacceptable adverse impacts on the shire.
But the council stated its staff had ‘assessed all the submissions and provided advice against many of the comments and the issues raised’.
Cr Tucker asked what the point of a public [...]

It’s Midwinter, the time of year when Persephone travels to the underworld and ritual celebrations follow the shortest day of the year as we head towards spring and times of harvest and fertility. This transformation of the seasons is being mirrored in Laura Skerlj’s debut solo ‘The Exquisite Beast’ and a fantastic group show now on at Retrospect Galleries highlighting metamorphosis, hybridity, folklore, shape shifting and the darkly poetic emergence of the feminine subconscious in art.
We invite you to join us for an exciting panel with four of our beloved women artists who will discuss the inspiration and processes held in their subconscious and what they draw on to create their multi-layered masterpieces. Retrospect Galleries Curator Bree Delian will host [...]