And not one mention of the Eco catastrophy of shark nets on beaches in this area, attempting to save idiots from themselves! The same idiots well described here no doubt. (a bit disappointing from an environmentalist).

But there is hope for sue yet, finally she realises the true nature of the greens.

Could I suggest to Byron residents, look to the example from a coastal resort town further south, (which all beach side towns in the Northern rivers of NSW are), where until the same brain dead rioted and burned police cars in the street, nothing was done.
Maybe a hint there for Sue!

So calling police on 000 gets no response? eh...
If all locals have broken roads and faece parks there are council elections. If there are 3million visitors then profits bring shops.
I'm working on sharks, um..

No. Can't have tourists ruining your paradise. If it wasn't for tourists, you would be living in grass huts, you wrinkly old fool. All environmentalists are selfish people who want to lock up bits of real estate for themselves. For mine, they are welcome to it. You need to be a deluded , leathery old hippy living in the past, to want inhabit such places.

" If it wasn't for tourists, you would be living in grass huts, you wrinkly old fool."
Look at Qld , they built potato sack humpies, eating sugarcane and green mangos in mosquito swamps as their skin hung off in shreds.
Jap and Chinese camera busloads saved the wretched moonlight state from 5th world poverty.

What pray (or prey) tell have any of the previous comments got to do with the contents of this reasonable enough essay?

Meanwhile all over the world both in cities, and country towns both large small, including the very rich green leafy suburbs of Melbourne such as Canterbury, Surrey Hills, Mont Albert, Balwyn, Brighton and Toorak too, people are in way or another fighting to save or preserve the relative quietness and cool leafiness of their suburbs from "outsiders" who want to demolish beautiful "old-fashioned" stately homes and mansions and replace them with soul-less monstrosities, especially of the fortress-like and treeless kind that the Chinese are building on these demolition bomb-sites.

And of course the ultimate expression of that desire are gated-"communities" which are very big in the USA and increasingly more so here in Australia.
Some such "communities" even prohibit the presence of children.

And of course another way that that is/was done in the USA is/was via the way in which "darkies" and "white trash" and Asians too were in one way or another excluded from buying into, or renting houses in whites only towns and suburbs via various local government regulations and of course of an unspoken but very real prejudice which was dramatized in all kinds of ways both in-your-face, and subtle too.

Byrons' a crappy place, so move, you, unlike billions of others around the world living in crappy places, have that option ... or you can expend an enormous amount of energy unsuccessfully trying to turn the tide. Move to Uki.

Daffy
Sadly those comments are all on topic while yours is off on a wild goose chase. We have ducks here and galahs. Parrots come on the verandah and mess it up with Byron Bay park litter. Cockatoos make a mess of wattle trees chewing the bark for grubs. It might rain soon.

What a lot of rot.

Back in the early 70s, when Byron Bay was starting to be mentioned, but not developed I anchored there on a passage from Sydney. I found a totally unremarkable bay, of no particular attraction, & wondered why anyone would chose it above other far nicer bays.

I stopped overnight by car a couple of times in the 80s actually looking for what all the hype was about. Then I thought about the only attraction was the improvement in eating venues.

To rave about it's beauty can only mean the lady has very little knowledge of our east coast. I could name at least 50 much more beautiful spots, & a few hundred of equal attraction.

D.D. gets it and the asinine absolutism by cloud dwelling (lock it and leave it) green advocates, of replacing productive manufacturing; and or, value adding processing, with (volume) tourism and tourists, who love you to death!

And now that their preferred (nightmare) die is cast? Finally see the light and the idiot in the mirror, who along with other equally like minded cloud dwelling idiots, created a catastrophe, going somewhere to happen?

We can't all be doctors, lawyers and forelock tugging (a penny Sir, how generous, my family will bless you) door openers!
Alan B.

I live in an area hat doesn't attract many tourists, tourism around here is a cottage industry with a few B&Bs making a go of it.
The result is that local businesses are rock solid and don't depend on passing trade; anywhere that depends on tourism leaves itself open to feeling the brunt of economic fluctuation very quickly.

I'm with Hasbeen. What is there to like? My one and only visit left me with a sense of a Miami golf resort.

Yes the park with the faeces may in fact be a Greenie organic golf course. Turds are for practice driving and putting.

I've found that dogs do a pretty efficient job cleaning up human faeces ...
But seriously, (and I am being serious), Byron Shire has shown innovation with the problem of feral humans, AKA back packers; being the first Council in Australia to zone an exclusive area on the edge of town, for legal homeless dwelling.
I drove past it not so long ago. It looks like what you would expect!
I think, in spite of the cynical nature of the zoning, it is an advance on the USA version of official approach to homelessness, IE to render homelessness a criminal offence.

Did I mention above, I was driving in a $90k Lexus looking out and down onto the homeless camp with natural disdain! No? how I love that feeling of superiority!

My brother lives in Byron.
Has done for years and wouldn't live in a
big city for quids. He loves his early morning
beach walks (good exercise for his heart
condition). He has a wide variety of native
animals around him where he lives from kukaburras,
bush turkeys, owls, snakes, and so on. He sends me
photos which I frame and at times get very
nostalgic over. He's fit,
healthy and most of all happy, which is important.
The only thing he doesn't like about Byron is
"Schoolies Week," but that only happens once a year
so it's bearable.
I've only ever visited him once and found it very
relaxing. He's visited us quite a few times (loves
my cooking - the old traditional recipes that mum
passed on to me). Anyway, what is important even
though we're poles apart in our choices of where
to live (we're in Melbourne), we are family and
we care for each other. That's what matters.

And just another aside here, off topic I'm sorry, but Hasbeen will be interested. Don't think for one moment that removing and replacing a window regulator in a Lexus is a simple project.
Lexis have timed the opening and closing operation with a computer chip. A code is required from Lexus to retime this action! It counts the revolutions required to finalise the operation correctly. It actually counts the number of revolutions to open or close from any given stop position!

My guess Dan is that there will be half a dozen bits of electrickery hidden in there, so that if an mere owner should try to muck with it himself, it will cause such chaos that it will triple the charge at the dealer when you resort to them.

It is probably similar to my problem with the Honda S2000. The hood will not go down, because it is not getting the signal that the passenger's window is down. It requires both windows down to operate.

The passenger's window will not go up, because it has been told the hood is coming down. Even my very good local auto electrician has suggested this is better sorted by the Honda dealer, who can bung in a sensor, supply the codes & sends me on my way. Pity they are 35 kilometres away, & want the thing for a day to do a 5 minute job.

This explains why I so love my 37 year old triumphs, with manual window winders, & even steering. No electrickery there.

Sounds like a NIMBY whinge to me.

Tourists bring money to support the conservation for the rest of the year.