This edition Craft 7 is about estuaries. One in particular- Belongil at Byron Bay. There is much to tell specifically but this Craft 7 is, in another way, a story repeated with different players in many other regions. At Byron, its Residents Group and others, including Indigenous allies demonstrate an articulate and inspiring local resistance.

This Craft principally adopts the outlooks of these activists and draws on resources from a local publication Echnonet daily http://www.echo.net.au/. However Craft 7 includes other resources particularly those of government agencies, groups of concerned scientists and other bodies who all share, if from differing perspectives, this great concern with estuaries.

Estuaries are the critical environment for a great deal of fish and bird populations vital to our common future.

In this Craft 7, we tell the story of how the Byron Bay community is leading a resistance to development of lands that will further damage the estuary associated with Belongil Creek.

Lands near estuaries have concentrated the many hundreds even thousands of years of proximity to the sea. Sometimes covered sometimes not, the disturbance of such lands will create the conditions of final annihilation of the special ecological systems of and around estuaries.

The Byron Bay Council and the current N.S.W.  Government have embarked on approval of such a development. This is at great risk to that association which Byron Bay has to a clean and healthy environment. It has acted with great distain for the significance of the breeding grounds that the estuary harbours.

This is a story of great resistance and a very important one. Here is a Shire whose elected representatives or at least some, have undone these environmental concerns of the majority.

It’s a David and Goliath fight.

The key players in this story the Byron Resident Group are its; vitally committed President, Cate Coorey ,  very articulate environmental educator,  Mary Gardner,  and savvy local activist Jim Beatson.  Please read their accounts. However they are just spokespersons at the moment for a deeper bubbling awareness in Byron Bay that it is time to make a stand. Belongil estuary is worth fighting for. Needless to say the local Indigenous Arakwal people think so as well.

This then is Craft 7. It tells the story of a social movement resting on practical hope and a democratic spirit which looks to the future with hope resting on solid science, Indigenous outlooks and great conviction.

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