The Echo (Australia)

Gulgan Village proposal Hans Lovejoy If approved, Gulgan Village, proposed on the highway end of The Saddle Road across 37.9 hectares, could eventually (after a development application process) house up to 1,000 people in around 550 homes, ‘depending on the housing mix’ (source: Gulgan Village Civil Engineering Report). Now on exhibition, there are 26 documents associated with the planning proposal at www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/ppr/under-exhibition/gulgan-village.

Temporary repair work at Blacks Drain, on Tweed Valley Way in South Murwillumbah is underway to restore two-lane access to the crossing. Work is now underway on a major upgrade to the Blacks Drain crossing on Tweed Valley Way at South Murwillumbah.

Former Paralympic athlete gold medalist Tracy Barrell Public support is being sought to help wheelchair-bound former Paralympic athlete gold medalist Tracy Barrell with her living expenses after an alleged National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) decision reduced her ability to be fed and assisted. Dylan Russo has appealed to the public through GoFundMe and says ‘NDIS have cut her 24/7 package to a level that she will not be able to survive living at home on her own’.

Photo from RiverTracks (https://rivertracks.org/) Murwillumbah youth advocacy and training organisation, RiverTracks has secured $20,000 in one-off state government funding to run its Youth Court Support and Diversion Initiative as a pilot program over the next 12 months.

A Chinderah aquaculture business is set to receive $2 million in state government funding to build a new fish hatchery, according to a NSW government media release. Australia Bay Lobster Producers (ABLP) was among 31 businesses across NSW awarded grants under a $27 million program, with recipient businesses contributing a further $14 million — bringing the total investment to $41 million.

Two users of the Fletcher Street Cottage homelessness service. Image supplied A long-standing supporter of Byron Community Centre, Global Ripple, has stepped forward with a generous ‘EOFY Matched
Giving Challenge’. The Byron Community Centre runs homeless services including the Fletcher Street Cottage, and is reliant on public donations to operate. They receive sparse government funding for their essential services.

This year’s Byron Writers Festival is a first-look destination, with several of Australia’s most anticipated new books arriving at the festival before the ink has barely dried. From forensic political analysis to fiction that quietly breaks your heart, this is a program for readers who want to be first. Richard Flanagan, the only author ever to have won both the Booker Prize and the Baillie Gifford Prize, brings Heresies, a dazzling collection of essays, articles and speeches spanning 20 years.

China’s ghost cities inspired Siang Lu’s new novel, which won the Miles Franklin Award in 2025 and Lu became the first male Asian writer to receive the $60,000 prize. “They captured my imagination because of how eerie they were. They looked like real cities, with the paradox of fully functioning infrastructure – electricity, water, and traffic lights – but no people,” Lu said. “Why build a city without people? They seemed like modern ruins, which I had always considered an ancient phenomenon.

At its last meeting, as part of a long discussion about amendments to Ballina Council’s delivery program and operational plan, there was a debate about whether Ballina Richmond Rotary Club should still be paid $8,000 to set up chairs for the RSL Lighthouse Day Club. Cr Kiri Dicker said, ‘We never review this. It happens extraneous to any Council policy. It’s not discussed in a working party of any kind, because it’s not considered. It doesn’t happen through the community donations process.

For years, people have been talking about how high house prices are, how you can’t get into the housing market without the bank of mum and dad. How it is virtually impossible to rent, save a mortgage, and then actually buy a property without placing yourself in housing stress. The cries for change have been ringing around Australia for many, many years as the younger generation have realised that they can’t break into the housing market because the prices are too high.