I WAS there when the first XPT from Sydney made a dramatic arrival in the Byron Shire 30 years ago this month (February) – and I was there on the platform at Byron Bay for the last one in May 2004.
And both events could not have been more different.Read More…
I WAS in Byron Bay the other day and picked up the latest edition of Rusty’s Byron Guide which has been a Byron Shire summer institution for many years.
These days it seems to run like a well-oiled machine – although I know from my many years in newspaper publishing, things don’t always go that smoothly – but it wasn’t always like that as this story I wrote for the Northern Star in August, 1990, shows.
The headline, as you can see from the photo, read, ‘Guide book bout ends with a TKO’
This is the story:Read More…
AS a soccer goalkeeper, Australian international film and TV star, Anthony LaPaglia, was no mug.
He played keeper for Adelaide City and West Adelaide in the old NSL competition in the 1980s and also for Hollywood United in later years.Read More…
DRAINAGE problems in the CBD have made Byron Bay susceptible to flash flooding when it really buckets down.Read More…
JETTIES have a strong historical connection with Byron Bay and sporadically the idea of building a new jetty gets a public airing.
The biggest push I recall in my time with the Northern Star and Byron News was in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Read More…
WHO remembers this? On May 24, 1988, thousands of people, including hundreds of schoolchildren, lined Main Beach at Byron Bay from early morning to welcome First Fleet Re-enactment tall ships making their way to Sydney for major Bicentennial celebrations.Read More…
IT was the best Christmas community initiative in my time as editor of the Byron News and it’s a great pity that it is still not happening.Read More…
EASTER has always been a busy time at Byron Bay. In the 36 years that I have lived on the Far North Coast, it has just got progressively busier.
It was no different back in 1990, except for one edgier aspect – the town was ‘invaded’ by 200 bikies.Read More…
BELOW is a column I wrote for the Northern Star back in 2012 with the headline, ‘My Favourite Place in the World’. I don’t get there as often as I should these days, but it still inspires me. The reason I am posting it is to give me an excuse to display just some of the many photos of Wategos I have taken over the years.Read More…
BYRON Bay was one of many communities across Australia which felt the devastating impacts of the cowardly terrorist Bali bombings on October 12, 2002 which claimed so many lives.
Byron Bay businessman, Barry Wallace’s daughter, Jodi, 29, died in the Sari Club blast, as did Marc Gajardo, partner of Hannabeth Luke, daughter of Doug and Maggie Luke.
It was an indescribable tragedy for both families which they shared at the time for readers of the Byron Shire News.
Sevegne Newton, who went on the become president of the Byron Bay Chamber of Commerce, was also there on that terrible night.
Five years after the bombings in 2007, Sevegne spoke to me about her experience and this is the story below I wrote for the Byron Shire News.
She is pictured below launching the Byron Naturally campaign during her time as chamber president.
