Weekly News

Great Kids Deserve Recognition

At the launch of the Kids in Community awards were Ashley Butcher, Maria Kelly, Mathew Tregillgas, Remy Wood, Chris Hawke and Lynne Carr, Roxanne Smith and Gaela Hurford.

If you're looking for proof of just how extraordinary and committed today's youth are, then look no further than the winners of the 2000 Kids in Community (KiC) Awards. The Roadies are a youth group who achieve amazing feats to help their peers. (Roadies stands for Recreational Opportunities for Adolescents with Disabilities In Exciting Situations). At last year's presentation, the Roadies met Samsen Slough, a severely disabled young man. Since then, they've taken Sam under their wing and last Friday they threw him a birthday party.

It's even more amazing that Samsen can fit a party into his busy schedule. Samsen's best mate is Sam Thompson, 17, who won the Peer Support category at the KiC awards. Every week, Sam takes Samsen along to Alstonville High School to talk to the students and share his concerns. Everyone benefits.

There are many more amazing stories of the achievements by young people, and the organisers of the KiC Awards are keen to hear them.

The second annual awards were launched in Ballina last week. The KiC Awards are different to most honours and are open to young people who don't normally seek public recognition or reward. Young people aged 13 to 25 can be nominated for supporting their peers, indigenous youth, homeless youth or people in the wider community, such as the aged or disabled.

People of any age can be nominated as a community group or individual who is supporting youth or youth programs. A new category of mentor or role model is for any person who has provided long-term support for a young person.

The winners will be announced at a gala presentation evening in Ballina on August 15.

Nomination forms are available from local school and the KiC award sponsors, including The Echo, which will print the nomination form over the coming weeks.

Nominations close on August 1. For more details, phone Lynne Carr on 6625 1195.

The Scandal of Killer Tick Dips goes National

Casino treasures its title as the Beef Capital, but local farmers have had to literally pay for that title with their lives, as an article by Stephen Brouwer illustrates in this week's The Bulletin magazine.

The five page article, titled Pest Mortem, explores the issues surrounding cattle dips set up between the 1920s and 1980s to eradicate ticks. Brouwer found it's the people who have been eradicated.

He states that in Casino widows and children attribute 40 deaths and four rows of headstones to cattle dips, which were set up under the NSW Government's Tick Eradication Scheme.

Today, all but 100 of the 1,650 poisoned cattle dip workstations are closed. The biggest scandal is that only two of these toxic sites have been remediated.

The article profiles many 'tickies' including Bob Campbell, who began his job on the land at 17. Bob loved his job and retired after 32 years as the tick board's longest serving member. Four years later, he had cancer of the face and later, the lungs. By the time he died in 1988 he had lost all control of his limbs and bodily functions.

Houses and streets in Goonellabah are identified as contamination hot spots and many unsuspecting land buyers have had their lives destroyed and devastated by dip contamination.

The article also explores the legal battles between people affected by dip sites and NSW Agriculture, as well as the ongoing court cases with people who bought land and built homes on old dip sites.

The story was a joint investigation with television current affairs show 60 Minutes which aired on Sunday night.

The Bulletin is available at all newsagents.

Channon Youth Turn the Tables

Local youths Libby Humphries and Dennis Tierney get ready to serve dinner to residents in The Channon.

More than 120 people crammed into The Channon Hall on Saturday night to be fed and entertained by young people from the village.

The newly formed Channon Youth Group decided to host a community dinner for parents, friends and locals as part of its first fundraising activity. Twenty-five enthusiastic young people aged 12 - 17, spent Saturday preparing a three-course Italian feast.

Apart from a tree snake falling from the roof and a few collapsing trestle tables, the event went off without a hitch and received a standing ovation.

The idea for the youth group evolved from a recent community meeting where young people said they wanted to get together to organise fun activities and also earn some money.

Collette Tierney agreed to help get things started and acts as a mentor to the group, which has since decided to host a community breakfast and have been named charity of the day at the July Cannon market. The fun activities planned by the group include camping expeditions, drama classes, discos and even making a film.

For details, contact Collette on 6688 6368.

Alstonville Third Village Plan on Show

The proposed sites for a third village on the Alstonville Plateau.

A third village on the Alstonville Plateau is at least 10 years away despite the release of a report identifying five potential sites this week.

The report, developed by Lennox Head based GeoLINK, has been approved by council's Third Village Concept Committee and follows a year-long study of the area by a community reference group and a number of government departments.

It identifies sites between 200 and 300 hectares in size which are capable of supporting a population of between 4000 and 5000 and are unlikely to have a detrimental effect upon the area's agricultural activities.

The proposal includes a 215-hectare site on Uralba Road to the south of Alstonville; a 345-hectare site in the Whites Lane area to the south west, a 260-hectare site bordering Sneaths Road immediately north of the Wollongbar TAFE Campus; a 410-hectare site in the Rifle Range Road area to the north of Alstonville; and a 280-hectare site straddling Gap Road to the east.

The plan will be on exhibition at the Alstonville Plaza for the next four weeks and a public meeting to discuss the proposals will be held at the Alstonville Leisure and Entertainment Centre on July 4.

But whatever the survey comes up with the development of a third village is unlikely to take place in the next 10 years, according to Steve Barnier from Ballina Council's Strategic and Commercial Services Division.

Mr Barnier, who has been at the Plaza on several occasions this week said there was already a lot of interest in the plan, but it was important to recognise that its release marked only the halfway point in a two-year strategy and that implementation could be years off.

"A shire-wide plan devised in the 1980s identified the need for a third village on the plateau and set Alstonville's optimum population as 5000 and Wollongbar's at 4500," Mr Barnier said.

"Alstonville has achieved that figure, and Wollongbar is about halfway there, a fact that will be reflected in the exhibition of council's Wollongbar expansion plan in the coming weeks."

Mr Barnier said that, based on current growth figures and the planned expansion of Wollongbar, he doubted that construction work on a new village would begin in the next 10 years.

"What council is saying is that Alstonville is out of play, Wollongbar is on its way and now is the time to identify a site that would provide the needs of a third village."

Submissions are being collated by GeoLINK and can be made at the Alstonville Plaza; or through Matthew Wood at GeoLINK, PO Box 9, Lennox Head; at mwood@geolink.net.au; or on the third village website at www.bsc3v.com.

Dave Fawkner

$1.3m for Floods

Three local councils will receive more than $1.3 million from the NSW government to cover damage caused by floods.

Lismore City Council will receive $239,162 to meet the costs of emergency work and the restoration of council-owned property. Lismore council will contribute $25,000 towards a total damage bill of $264,162.

Public Works Minister Morris Iemma visited Lismore last week to announce the funding, which was based on Council estimates. Emergency works cost and estimated $135,970, including the clean-up of trees, debris and rubbish from Lismore council parks and gardens.

"In addition, a further $128,192 is to be spent on restoring council assets," Mr Iemma said.

The works include stormwater pipes at Albert Park ($27,000), decking on the river wharf ($18,627), fencing at Heritage Park ($5,000) and rebuilding the Spinks Park pergola ($10,000). Repairs to the Art Gallery, Laurie Allen Centre, tourist office and sporting facilities are also covered in the grant.

But the biggest beneficiary was Richmond Valley Council, which received $1.05 million for three natural disasters. The money also covers the freak January storm. Mr Iemma handed over a $228,608 cheque as a progress payment on repairs since the storm.

$156,150 is for the February floods to cover damage at the Coraki and Woodburn Riverside parks, the McAuliffe Park centenary lookout and five boat ramps under council control.

A grant of $639,100 went towards emergency and restoration work from the March flood. Nearly $500,000 of that figure will go towards repairing the Kent Street stormwater outlet, which suffered severe scouring at the riverbank. The balance of the money is for clearing debris from parks. Council will pay $75,000 towards a total damage bill of $1.125 million.

Kyogle Council also received $63,200 for the storm and flood damage.

HIH Collapse Costs council

The damage from the collapse of HIH Insurance has reached as far as the Richmond Valley Council, leaving ratepayers facing a bill in the millions of dollars. Tuesday's Committee-of-the-Whole session of Council - at which the media and the public were excluded - discussed four outstanding public liability claims dating from before the amalgamation of the Richmond River Shire and Casino Municipal Council in February 2000.

Both councils had public liability insurance cover underwritten by HIH during the period covered by the claims. Three claims are against the former Richmond River Shire and the other is against the Casino Council.

One of the Richmond Valley matters involves up to 10 people claiming compensation for the stopping of the Iron Gates project at Evans Head. The compensation being sought is believed to be considerable.

Other matters covered in private included Far North Coast Weeds Council review of its structure, and an ongoing legal matter relating to damage to houses in an Evans Head subdivision, allegedly caused by dust from an adjacent council site.

DF

Drunk, Unlicensed

A 72 year-old man hit two young girls riding their bicycle in Ballina on Saturday and has yet to be charged by police. The driver returned a positive alcohol reading after incident and it was later discovered he is disqualified from holding a NSW drivers' licence.

The incident occurred at around 12pm. The eight-year-old girl riding her bicycle with a seven year-old friend as pillion passenger. They were attempting to cross a marked pedestrian crossing when they were hit and thrown from the road.

Both girls were taken to Lismore Base Hospital, where one is in a serious but stable condition and the other in a satisfactory and stable condition. Police said the man had been released pending further enquiries.

Stolen Goods Found

Police seized a motor-vehicle, ride-on lawn mower, power tools, a firearm and 150 grams of cannabis among other things after executing a search warrant on an industrial shed in North Lismore on Monday. Investigations are continuing into the owners of the property.

Casino Explosion

Several windows on three houses were shattered when an explosive device was detonated in Casino on Tuesday night.

The device was detonated outside a residential premises in Queensland Road, Casino and was powerful enough to be felt two kilometres away.

Families Sought for Japanese Homestay

Homestay coordinator, Heike Kerber, with visitors Keiko Ushida and Hiroyuki Tamura from the Japan Academy of Moving Images, the country's leading film-making institute (its director had a film short-listed in the recent Cannes Film Festival) who are living in Lismore while they study English at SCU.

A larger-than-expected enrolment of overseas students in Southern Cross University's intensive English study program has prompted a call for local families willing to host the visitors to contact SCU as soon as possible.

The visitors, who will live locally from August 21 to September 2, are part or full time students from Japanese universities and English language academies who come to Australia to polish their language skills in a 'real world' environment, said SCU's Homestay Coordinator, Heike Kerber.

"It enables them to practise their language skills as well as becoming involved with Australian family life," she said.

"Visiting groups undertake courses ranging in length from one to 12 weeks. Generally the students are in their late teens to their mid-20s and are billeted on the basis of one student to a household."

The students take classes from Monday-Friday at SCU's Lismore campus and need to be dropped at the campus front gate in the morning and picked up in the afternoon.

On the weekend the homestay students are involved with their host family's normal activities. SCU organises occasional excursions for the students. Each host family receives an allowance to put towards the cost of looking after their visitor.

"Feedback from both the host families and the visitors shows that the experience is richly rewarding. Most of the Japanese students have said they will cherish the memories for the rest of their lives, as indeed we would if we had the homestay experience in Japan," Ms Kerber said.

An information session will be held soon for all new host families to ensure they understand what is expected, and to help overcome any cultural uncertainty. The get-together is also an opportunity for homestay families to meet each other.

Ms Kerber is seeking at least 30 homestay families. Phone her on 6620 3429 or 0438 218201 for further details.

Sugar Industry Tackles Acid Sulfate Soils

Cane farmer Watne Gollen and NSW Sugar industry agriculture officer Rik Beattie at a Dungarubba farm where the drains have been shallowed to prevent acid sulfate run-off.

Farmers on the lower Richmond have discovered that you don't have to dig deep to come up with a solution to acid-sulfate soils.

For the past three years members of the Tuckean Landcare Group have been involved in a program designed to reduce the effects of acid-sulfate soils while boosting production on their farms.

A recent field day held by the group served to identify acid-sulfate soils while showcasing a number of trial control programs carried out in and around the Tuckean swamp.

Richmond River County Council spokesman Michael Wood said the group included cane, beef and dairy farmers, as well as home owners.

"Sugar doesn't like too much surface water and in the past large drains were used to keep fields free of it," Mr Wood said.

"Unfortunately they were dug deep enough to lower the water table and uncover acid-sulfate soils, which, when exposed to oxygen and mixed with water, formed sulphuric acid.

"By redesigning the drains so they are shallow but wide we can move pH neutral stormwater off the fields as quickly as before but without it mixing with sub-surface water.

"This enables us to keep the acid in one place, thereby reducing the leaching out of minerals such as aluminium that normally occurs when the acid moves through the soil.

"The process also helps to dilute and remove acidic compounds from surface scalds thereby allowing revegetation of areas."

Mr Wood said other strategies used by the group have included precipitating iron and aluminium salts from wells to provide safer water for stock, and fencing water courses to prevent the exposure of additional acid-sulphate soils through erosion.

Mr Woods said that unlike salination, which occurs when the water table rises and carries salt to the surface, acidification occurs when the water table sinks and sulphurous compounds are exposed to oxygen.

Mr Wood said acid-sulfate soils were a naturally occurring, pre-existing condition that required an ongoing effort to control.

"Acid-sulfate soils are usually some distance beneath the surface. "The trick is to ensure they stay there," he said.

"While much of this work is currently being driven by the sugar industry there are obvious spin-offs down the track for industries such as tea tree."

The success of the Tuckean project comes at a time when a number of local government areas, including Tweed and Richmond Valley, are amending their Local Environment Plan to exempt the sugar industry from provisions relating to the disturbance of acid sulfate soils.

Under a self-regulatory program introduced by the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, the sugar industry has adopted guidelines that identify practices that cause problems with acid sulfate soils and outline management procedures to be used throughout the industry.

Under the guidelines, the state's 600 cane farmers are now required to prepare individual drainage management plans that include provision for land grading, drain construction and clearing, and monitoring.

The NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative, which controls all cane land in NSW, now has the power to refuse cane from improperly managed land.

Dave Fawkner

Bridge Cost Blows Out for Council

With the new Broadwater bridge opening last week, the second last car ferry on the Richmond River is no more. The 60-year Broadwater Ferry, which suffered a major mechanical failure in December 2000 and has lain half submerged against the riverbank since the February flood, was broken up last week before being taken to the Coraki tip. The Richmond Valley Council has accepted a $15,000 insurance pay out for the vessel.

Richmond Valley Council is to seek a detailed report on a $228,000 cost overrun on the lift span of the newly opened Broadwater Bridge.

Tuesday's meeting was told that the removal, refurbishment and installation of the lift span, which had previously formed part of the old Barneys Point bridge at Tweed Heads, had initially been estimated at $150,000.

However, on removal and transport to Broadwater the span was found to be in worse condition than first estimated and required extensive widening and strengthening to comply with current standards. This had blown the cost out to $378,000.

The NSW government, which provided the $150,000 for refurbishment through the RTA, has since indicated that there is no additional money available for the bridge.

Council has now written to the Federal transport minister, John Anderson, who opened the bridge last week, seeking aid in bridging the funding shortfall.

Story & photo: Dave Fawkner

Kids Learn Fire Safety

Rural Fire Service firefighters Tony Roden, Maree Pearson, Chris Hartley and Ben Samuel take time out to chat to St Carthage's Primary School students (clockwise from front left) Lana De-Maria, David Henry, Zac Finnigan, Madison Harkin, Jack Latham, Mia Cripps-Clark and Martin Joseph.

St Carthage's Primary School student, six-year-old Jack Latham, has learnt how to make a phone call that may one day save his life.

Jack was one of 300 local infants school students who learnt how to make an emergency Triple 0 call during the annual Fire Safety Education day in Heritage Park this week.

The annual two-day event included fire safety talks by Goonellabah Fire Brigade officers and the kids enjoyed a look through fire and ambulance vehicles, as well as taking part in the Fireguard program, which includes the simulated Triple 0 call, interactive computer demonstrations which teach basic fire safety and skills on how to use a knapsack pump.

"Teaching kids fire safety is like teaching them anything - if they know it by the time they're six they'll never forget it," Goonellabah Fire Brigade station officer, Andrew McQuade, said.

"Kids are the most vulnerable when a fire occurs and it's important kids know the right thing to do because mum and dad won't always be there.

"Basically if you make it fun they enjoy it and retain the information, which we'll again reinforce at next year's event. If just one child's life is saved as a result of the program, then it's more than worth it."

Terra Sword

Capitalising to the Community's Credit

Music to their ears: keynote speaker Jenny de Greenlaw addresses the audience at the NRCP launch at the Beach Hotel.

Social capital went up on the community index at the launch last Thursday at the Beach Hotel of the Northern Rivers Community Partnership (NRCP).

The project aims to bring business and community groups together in a mutually beneficial partnership. NRCP's Chris Harris, also a member of Earth Share Australia, welcomed the audience to the launch. He said that NRCP was designed to get new resources into the community sector, and noted that through payroll deductions US companies put $3.5 billion a year into that sector.

Keynote speaker Jenny de Greenlaw of the Townlife Development Project said social development needed to come first before economic development. "If we don't love our own town and support our own businesses it's hard to get economic development," she said.

Ms Greenlaw said NRCP could help build a partnership, which would attract seed funding from governments. "No government gives money out without seed funding. It's amazing the amount of funding out there. NRCP is about raising social capital; it's about how networks form in a community. It's about how we work together and take control of our future, and about a sense of belonging."

Lynda Dean of Thursday Plantation said she and her husband Christopher had started contributing to the community from "a completely selfish point of view. We don't believe there is a separate thing called the community.

"Community is just like the ocean - the community reflects ourselves. We want to see a good reflection and so we have a purpose for our contribution. Chris and I get enormous amounts of personal satisfaction from contributing.

"There is no such entity as 'them' who are going to take care of everyone. Even the government is 'us'. 'You have to look inside yourself and ask, 'How can I embody the spirit, I am the community?'

"We believe that if anyone in the community is hungry, homeless, sad or ill, then at some level we are hungry, homeless, sad or ill."

The initiatives NRCP hopes to develop over the next 5-10 years include:

• a central payroll deduction fund raising mechanism called Give As You Earn, through which any employee of participating local businesses can donate to any of the NRCP community partners or other community groups;
• affinity credit cards and shopping cards through which a proportion of expenditure goes to local community groups;
• a skills sharing project where employees spend a workday in a community organisation of their choice;
• a bequests program to encourage bequests to local community projects; and
• specific 'name' donations (for example ,where a gift is given in memory of someone).

The initiative has the backing of Lismore City Council, Byron Shire Council, two national foundations, The Earth Share Australia Foundation and OzGive. Byron Shire groups signed up to NRCP so far include Amitayus Hospice Service; Ballina- Byron Family Support Services; Bay Ami Accommodation; BEACON; Byron Bay Youth House; Byron Bay Community Association; and the Byron Environment Centre.

More information about NRCP is available from 6685 7904, web: www.earthshare.org.au/NRCP/, or email nrcp@earthshare.org.au.

Fowl Play in Beef Capital

Chicken is set to make inroads into Australia's beef capital following the approval of a KFC restaurant for Casino this week.

The 72-seat restaurant (48 inside and 24 outside) will be built on a 2,719 square metre site between Simpson Parade and the McDonald's outlet in Centre Street.

The application includes 24 on-site parking spaces plus six places for cars queued in the drive-through section, making a total of 30 spaces.

Council was told that while this was eight spaces below council's requirements it was within the acceptable RTA guidelines for such developments.

Council voted to approve the development after previously approving a traffic plan for the western side of Centre Street between Barker and Canterbury streets, which had been prepared by the developers at the request of council's Traffic Committee and the RTA.

This will include a concrete median strip with a northbound exit for emergency vehicles opposite the ambulance station.

It was also noted that although 50 Simpson Parade (behind the development) was included in the DA, there were no plans to include it in building or car-parking plans at this point.

However, Cr Ray Jeffery asked why the height of the development's pole-mounted corporate logo had only been reduced from 12 metres to 10 metres when council's DCP required it to be no more than 5.2 metres.

Council staff said it would bring it into line with the corporate sign of the adjoining McDonald's outlet.

Dave Fawkner

Business Boost for Booyong Rainforest

Rainforest Rescue director, Kelvin Davies (left) inspects an Arrow Head Vine with Thursday Plantation Laboratories chairman, Christopher Dean, at the Booyong Reserve.

The Big Scrub was once the largest expanse of subtropical rainforest in Australia, covering 75,000 hectares of land across Lismore, Ballina and Byron Bay.

Today less than one per cent of the Big Scrub remains, and in the tiny pockets of remnant rainforest scattered around the region some 50 threatened species of flora and fauna are desperately trying to survive.

One of the largest remnants, the 11 hectare Booyong Reserve, is getting a helping hand from three local business and a number of individuals, who together have donated $15,000 over three years for restoration work.

Thursday Plantation Laboratories in Ballina has committed $8,000, with the Beach Hotel giving $1,000 and the Byron Yoga Centre chipping in $500. The rest has been donated directly to Rainforest Rescue, the organisation doing the restoration, from numerous individuals.

"A large proportion of the money will go towards weeding, as the Big Scrub is steadily deteriorating due to the impact of damaging weed species such as the Madiera vine, large and small Leaved Privet and Morning Glory," Rainforest Rescue director, Kelvin Davies, said.

"Without effective weed control the remnant's health and viability will continue to decline and the cost of future regeneration works will increase exponentially, so continued funding like this is vital.

"It's great to see local business and individuals getting involved which means we don't have to rely on government funding. It's great to see people banding together to save an essential part of their community."

To ensure volunteers working at the Booyong Reserve don't destroy threatened plants thinking they are weeds, a team of four qualified bush regenerators will lead the restoration project.

To make a donation to Rainforest Rescue phone 0428 553 040, or to become a volunteer phone 6687 1143.

Terra Sword

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Patients at Lismore Base Hospital were grinning from ear to ear last week after a surprise visit from the Humour Foundation's clown doctors, Dr Bubba Louey and Dr Nutcase.

During their visit to the hospital Dr Nutcase (right) and Dr Bubba Louey stopped in children's ward to dispense their Patch Adams-inspired style of medicine to 10 year-old Sharaya Close (left) from Muli and seven-year-old Gipsy Scott-Hutchinson from Ballina.

The clown doctors are in the middle of a regional NSW tour, and using balloon animals, magic tricks and noisy gadgets, they parody the hospital routine to divert anxiety and pain - a procedure the docs like to call 'open heart surgery'.

"Laughter is the best medicine and that's not just a cliché, but a proven fact," Dr Nutcase said.

"Laughter releases endorphins which in turn help heal the body, so as well as being fun for the patients our crazy antics are actually good for them too. People who are in pain need a little light and laughter in their day even if it doesn't solve all their troubles.

"It's also good for the doctors and nurses who are terribly overworked."

The clown doctors also put Lismore Base Hospital into the medical record books during their visit when they performed Australia's first ever red nose transplant.

Terra Sword

GROW Results

Doctoral psychology student Lizzie Finn will report on the results of her study into GROW, a mutual help organisation for mental health, at a special seminar on Tuesday, June 26, at the Lismore City Hall.

Her study involved 900 GROW members from around Australia, who were assessed shortly after joining GROW and again six months later. The results point to improvements in autonomy and life management skills as well as a sense of personal growth within the members.

"It's a bit like being in a working organisation, however the motivation or 'salary' for being involved in GROW is the prospect of improved mental health," Lizzie said.

Tuesday's seminar will feature a detailed report of the study and people will have the chance to ask questions. To register for the seminar phone GROW on 6621 3737.

Woolworths Buys Lismore Franklins

Supermarket giant Woolworths has bought the Franklins store at Lismore Square as part of a takeover of the failed discount grocer.

Woolworths CEO Roger Corbett said that an agreement had been reached to purchase the store, which will be converted into a Woolworths store.

Mr Corbett said Woolworths will spend up to $2 million upgrading and refurbishing the Lismore store, as well as improving the range of products available.

"The acquisition will provide certainty of employment for employees at the Lismore store," Mr Corbett said.

The timing of the changeover to a Woolworths store has yet to be finalised.