This is a very thoughtful and useful article. I was told by locals that "Everyone in Byron Bay is running away from someone, or something". It might be true in some cases. It is certainly a very different town in July ( not in school holidays) and January.
I once caught a bug in Byron, was throwing up in the street and was told "oh that happens every day". There are some great locals, some really kind and gentle people and some tough ones, too. Backpackers can be anything - English or other yobbos, thoughtful travellers, American surfers. One backpacker I met was a Swiss banker having a year bumming round.
Given the economic circumstances described, some kind of community college or similar might be a good idea. Perhaps a middle-range resort, if they could tuck it away. And please solve those traffic problems!
Cheers

“The benefit of Byron Bay’s occasionally torrid experience is that it gives coastal towns undergoing population growth a glimpse of the sorts of challenges they may face.”

Indeed.

And these sorts of difficulties should be viewed in a wider sense when it comes to population growth in small centres in general.

Those who espouse decentralisation from our large cities should sit up and take notice.

And those mayors and councils who actively promote population growth in regional centres with growth pressure and label it as being good and only good, should be immediately sacked (I refer in particular to my region – Townsville, Cairns, Port Douglas, Airlie Beach and Mackay)

Been to Byron Bay several times. Its like being in a busy Sydney shopping district.

Nearby Lennox Head is the next town on the list for noisy settlement by the wealthy who ironicly crave peace and quiet.

Pete

Byron Shire Council has had a Green majority since 1988 so there is no doubting who has presided over this debacle. Let the world know that greens with power make lots of noise and posturing but actually exacerbate whatever problems confront them.

They maintain power on the basis of a transient third of the population who go through their "Byron phase" but are gone by the next election. After voting for policies that restrict job creation, they slip back to the city when the funds run out. And often remain on the electoral rolls so they can "continue to make a difference".

They have imposed their values on the original community without any respect for any forms of diversity that are outside their tribe. And most of all, they have ignored the most important rule for anyone who 'discovers' a special place. That is, for pity sake, KEEP QUIET ABOUT IT.

No, it seems the first duty of every new arrival is to announce to the whole world that they have arrived and look what a wonderful place it is. They couldn't simply object, effectively, to Club Med etc. No, they had to tell the whole damned planet about how they won't let them in. They had to tell the whole damned planet about keeping out Maccas and every other product that did not come with free colonic irrigation.

And surprise, surprise, the whole damned planet came to see what the fuss was about. And did that make them shut up? No, they had to nit pick with Gerry Harvey, in the national and international media.

Instead of encouraging sustainable local jobs and industries, the greens have turned "development" into a "big boys game". If you can't afford a team of lawyers don't even bother. Like some new age Gilbert & Sullivan, Byron Greens are environmental guardians bold but wary but when common sense looms they're never there. But when they meet a helpless local, with reasonable plans that do no harm,
they run them in, they run them in, ... in the brave new green utopia.

I first drove through Byron Bay in October, 1997 where I felt incredibly relaxed. The energies from Byron was immense making me want to set up my tent near the beach and just rest there for a day or two or three before moving onto Brisbane. Well, almost stayed there.

The last time I was at Byron was September, 2005 and wow, hasn't the local council destroyed such a beautiful town. Now it is only about stuffing the pockets of the business's. Were you to drive through the town feeling fatigued from driving all those hours, you must sleep in a motel as you can't park on the road long enough at day and not at all at night to have a nap.

All I felt was money. Money like the plague taking over the beautiful town of Byron that was once a place to regenerate that was over taken by people who have enough money to rule everyone else, not caring a bugger at all.

My spirituality is earth driven. I feel the energies of the earth around me and what I felt at Byron last year made me feel tense and couldn't wait to leave.

R.I.P. Byron Bay

And so it is Spider that rampant population growth in many coastal towns will greatly diminish our freedom and quality of life….. unless it is very carefully regulated.

But when there’s growth potential afoot, you can expect practically all local councils to actually facilitate it… and appease their big-business buddies, especially the real estate moguls, rather than take any meaningful steps to mitigate it.