Who are the Byron Residents’ Group?
We are a group of locals who want to contribute to shaping of how Byron Bay develops into the future.
We have formed as a response to decisions being made about planning for the town that do not reflect the will of the community and are contrary to democratic processes —in particular, the proposed West Byron development and the engineering of our beaches with rock walls.
If Byron becomes just like any other overdeveloped tourist town then people will stop coming and business will suffer. We have kept out topless bars, fast food chains and Club Med because they didn’t fit with the way we want to live and visitors don’t want that either. Our strongest attraction is our point of difference from many other over-cooked coastal towns
What are we about?
We believe that Byron Bay is still unique among NSW’s coastal towns and that its character is what brings people here. If that essential small-town, nature-focussed, relaxed, community feel goes and is replaced by an over-developed crowded mess then everyone loses – visitors, business operators and residents.
Byron Bay is full of creative and talented people. Let’s work to create a future for Byron Bay so that it shines as a beacon for harmony, sustainability and beauty.
Join us to advocate for innovative, original, creative and sustainable improvement to our town. Our vision is to:
- create and maintain a respectful and safe environment that reflects the needs and desires of our community for the greater good;
- provide a forum for residents’ views on matters of concern that affect the community at large or where they live;
- communicate our wishes and desires to all levels of government as necessary;
- protect and preserve our significant biodiversity;
- ensure a proper balance between residential and commercial interests, in keeping with and enriching the unique character and flavour of Byron Bay, and
- support community development and projects that will preserve, protect and enhance the value and lifestyle of our region.
Byron Residents' Group 
Soon will move to Byron to live. Have come there for holidays every year for most of my life. Signed the petition to stop Club Med many years ago and that worked ! We must continue to protect our special town from exploitation and greed. Bravo to you all 🎈
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Think the Byron residentsgroup is more about protecting the people and their money that have already moved here from cities and have already over developed the area. Rather than looking after this historic town. Sunrise beach and the developments at Suffolk park should have never gone ahead. Byron Bay used to be a quiet small town without traffic jams, crime and money worshiping tourist industries. I grew up here over the decades and have seen the destruction of the town from all the development for more that 40+ years.
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Why make negative assumptions about Byron Residents’ Group? Some are lifetime residents and some have been here only a short while. It shouldn’t matter how long anyone has been here (the Arakwal might suggest none of us have a right to comment) but we would probably all agree that we love Byron Bay, we would like to preserve what is good about it (one of our key members is the Pres of Byron Historical Society) and we think having rampant development being inflicted on the town by the will of developers and the state government is destructive on every level. As a longtime resident maybe you could take a constructive position and support what we are trying to do. Just criticising is unhelpful and discouraging to a good group of people whose motives are bigger than self-interest — something that can’t be said of the developers who are happy to just take from the town.
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Sustainable Population Party is #RedefiningGrowth to secure a prosperous economy, healthy environment and better quality of life for all Australians.
Prosperous Economy | How to achieve real growth?
– Invest in better education and skills training to improve job security and workforce participation, whilst fostering innovation.
– Encourage a diverse range of productive industries, to increase export income and employment.
– Maintain a natural economic advantage via careful management of our food, water, energy and mineral resources.
Healthy Environment | How to achieve real growth?
– Protect animal habitats and biodiversity including native bushland and marine areas.
– Promote greater community participation in the conservation of recreational areas.
– Support clean energy technologies and lower greenhouse emissions.
Better Quality of Life | How to achieve real growth?
– Improve access to quality health care and emergency services.
– Enable more affordable, well-planned and desirable housing.
– Relieve congestion on our public transport and roads, to increase family and leisure time.
Byron and Australia can be better, without being bigger. We need real growth, not population growth.
http://www.PopulationParty.org.au
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I applaud your fight against over development and wish you all the success in preserving the things that make Byron great. I would ask you and your fellow residents to consider this however, the developers and the government are in bed together, the government feeding them with high migration to keep them happy and in $$. Unless the paradigm of constant economic growth and its brother-in-arms population growth is addressed, you are unlikely to succeed in your fight over time and indeed may not even have a proper mandate to save your town’s livability. I am sure that most people in your group have joined the dots between over development and population growth, but if not, please convince them! Unfortunately there are not many option politically as the Greens, LNP and Labor are all pro-growth and support rapid population growth. There are some parties that have the equation complete on true sustainability, the most prominent being the Sustainable Population Party. If you check their policies you will find complete alignment with your vision statement. Best wishes!
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Hi Jonathan, Sorry for the delayed response. We are all very aware of the push to growth by the current government and their cosy connections with developers – the fact that 10 sitting members of NSW govt were found corrupt by ICAC in their dealings with mining companies and property developers says it all. If this – or any other town – is not managed sustainably then what is the point? May as well live in cities like Hong Kong or Shanghai – no green, not even clean air.
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Our economy has become highly reliant on housing and construction, and thus population growth. The mining boom is fading, so housing must replace it! The whole of our east coast will become urban sprawl and housing due to the policy of “big Australia”, that has bipartisan political support. This is a local issue, but it has broader and national implications. If we can’t save even flagship species such as koalas, Australia will become a generic, bland land of housing and people – and suffer environmental degradation and loss of our natural heritage. With immigration of up to 70,000 per year, we could stabilize our population and still benefit from cultural diversity!
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Our young people need housing, old people need aged care facilities. Maybe those who live in Ewingsdale, Sunrise and Suffolk should erase their houses and donate them back to nature as it used to be!
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Yes indeed Ruth young people do need housing but mostly they need affordable rental housing and while there are over 900 houses in Byron being holiday let that situation will not change. If you look at the page on this site calle Truth versus Fiction and look at the link to the Department of Planning’s own document that we refer to, you will see that there is no housing shortage – we have been approving new dwellings at a greater rate than we need relative to our population growth. Similarly, old people may indeed need aged care facilities – a new one is nearly completed at Suffolk opposite the BP so not sure if there is an urgent need, but the Ewingsdale is not about aged care, it is called ‘seniors’ living’ and it is just housing on smaller lots – there is NOTHING that makes it restricted to seniors. It’s just a label. Read the Ewingsdale page on this site and then please comment further. The point of this website is to inform people. If you can find information here that is demonstrably false please point it out and we will correct it.
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Why did Terry Agnew the developer commit 5 million prior to the public announcement of the approval? Why did Bunnings commence there project prior to the approval? Why was there money committed to the by-pass prior to the approval? Dates need to be verified and facts checked. Thanks for your efforts
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Hi Greg, Sorry we didn’t reply to you message earlier – somehow missed it. Not sure what you mean about Terry Agnew committing $5K before the announcement as he bought the property well before then – for a song! — under $8m. The bypass money was a blatant gesture by the state govt, organised by Don Page, to allow W Byron to happen as the traffic problem was the major infrastructure hurdle. The Bunnings one is harder to answer – no doubt someone told them a big new town-sized suburb was going to open up there – there is no doubt that the Dept of Planning was bending over backward to make W Byron happen. Why and who was behind it is still unclear. Feel free to contact us brg2481@gmail.com if you want to talk about this more.
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Hi there
I am an avid dog walker on Belogil beach and do believe that nature should take it’s course
I concur with the “flyer ” in the Echo that the proposed “rock wall ” will cause problems down the track for the beach and when people interfere with the natural way of nature I believe it will rebel and the situation worsen.
Byron council could better spend funds elsewhere in the Shire on housing and roads !!
Keep up the good work “Byron Residents Group”
Thanks Lynne
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Hi Guys,
Just wondering how I can get into contact with you to get involved?
Many thanks,
Bess Brennan
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Hi Bess, Sorry for the delayed response. Only just noticed your message. Our email is brg2481@gmail.
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Everywhere we go we must protect ecology….and to do this we must fight for a healthy democracy
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