COST OF TOURISM

[CEO]

Sharks in the surf! Thugs on the streets! It's a jungle out there!

[CEO]

    Byron Bay used to be a nice place to live. Now it is a total zoo. Sharks in the surf. Thugs on the streets - it's a jungle out there. The town is full of drunks, dead beats, druggies, dreadlocks and drop-outs! The low life follow the tourists and prey on them. Bashings ,muggings, rapes, burglaries and even murders. Why on earth anyone would want to come here now, is beyond the locals. Locals don't go out after dark - too dangerous! See what unmanaged and unbridled tourism does to a nice little place? Absolutely stuffs it. And then there's the bloody marine park. Nothing for kids to do now, so they bash tourists for entertainment! So be warned. Byron Bay is not a pleasant place to visit. It is no longer a pleasant or safe place for locals - anymore.

[CEO]

   We had a cruise around the 'burbs of Byron Bay last night, (Earth hour or week or something) between 8:30 & 9:30pm. As born and bred locals, we couldn't detect any difference in the volumes of lights and electricity use than any other night of the week. Yobbo tourists still had the volume cranked right up on their "boom boxes,"  advertising their presence and annoying the hell out of the locals. Sitting out on roof decks and verandahs, screaming out at passing traffic and yobbo mates, dotted elsewhere around the neighbourhood in their rented "holiday" accommodation. Even hurling empties at passing traffic - no it was a usual Saturday night in the Bay, full of yobbo tourists, terrorizing the neighbourhoods. There was certainly no "lights out," or electricity reduction that we could observe. So maybe this nonsense is strictly a metropolitan only issue. Gives some of the city slickers a warm fuzzy feeling because they can't make a meaningful contribution. Tokenism it looked like to us. And Byron Bay claims to be a "green" town. It certainly is every Sunday morning with all the spew all over the footpaths!

[Spiney]

   We had a cruise around the 'burbs of Byron Bay last night, (Earth hour or week or something) between 8:30 & 9:30pm.

I do hope it was on a push bike. As for the local remark, born and bred, I spent the first fifty years of my life living near a beach and I accepted tourists, they provided the necessary income for the shops, real estate agents etc. My home town became crowded and was not a tourist destination anymore, all permanents now so I moved and now I live in a another beach suburb and of course I'm not regarded as a local but it does not worry me.Unfortunately Byron Bay was marketed heavily, great place to surf but I never wanted to live there,  I used to visit in the 50-60's and I only remember it stinking of bacon. My Mum lived there when she was young and my Great Great Grandfather lived in a tent prospecting at Wadigoes, bad luck he didn't buy the place, apparently its worth a bomb.

[CEO]

   Spiney, it is a total and utter zoo! The place needs a bomb! Locals can't wait for the next major cyclone to send the place back to normal. There certainly will be a lot of kindling and barbeque timber, when its gone. We've lived thru the 1954 cyclone that took away most of our jetty. We've lived thru the series of cyclones during the 1970's that carved up the beachfronts and esplanades. And we locals still prefer the smell of bacon (used to emanate from the old bacon factory - it is now a backporkers resort!) to the daily smell of spew, urine and faeces, which litter our footpaths and parks and sometimes our front lawns.
     Yes, it used to be a nice place to live. Tourism can be a real bummer! It has proven to be in Byron Bay.
         PS It's called Watego's, after the name of the Kanaka (South Sea Islander) family that squatted there and began fishing and farming.

[clive]

   Spiney, it is a total and utter zoo! The place needs a bomb! Locals can't wait for the next major cyclone to send the place back to normal. There certainly will be a lot of kindling and barbeque timber, when its gone. We've lived thru the 1954 cyclone that took away most of our jetty. We've lived thru the series of cyclones during the 1970's that carved up the beachfronts and esplanades. And we locals still prefer the smell of bacon (used to emanate from the old bacon factory - it is now a backporkers resort!) to the daily smell of spew, urine and faeces, which litter our footpaths and parks and sometimes our front lawns.
     Yes, it used to be a nice place to live. Tourism can be a real bummer! It has proven to be in Byron Bay.
         PS It's called Watego's, after the name of the Kanaka (South Sea Islander) family that squatted there and began fishing and farming.

CEO,

I think your a bit tough on Byron. My family always enjoy our trips there. Of course its lively but young people need somewhere to have fun. There not going to head for the bowlo at Evans...no offence. The supermarket in Byron is like the united nations and makes shopping quite a lark.
I think its great the kids from the youth hostels are mixing with the millionaires at wategoes beach. There's plenty of Aussie towns that would love Byrons "problems", and i bet there's plenty of locals who have made a few bob.

Clive

[CEO]

    Birdsville (Qld) needs tourists and backpackers and all sorts of festivals and rock concerts etc. The Bay locals are organizing to send them all there.

[CEO]

   The level, frequency and severity of the  alcohol related assaults are of grave concern. Is it because the kids now have nothing to do, because of the government marine park?

[Spiney]

Kids still have plenty to do. I have two kids late teens, neither fish with their Dad.They ride surfboards, play Soccer and Cricket and attend dance lessons and do not have any problems with Alcholol. Many kids their own age in our coastal town drink to eccess, Bryon unfortunatly is the leader of the coastal pack. Most of the time it's just plain bad parenting.

[clive]

Yeah,

I'm fed up with do gooders saying modern kids have nothing to do. They're spoilt compared to a generation or two ago. they booze because there's no good values in society. it's all money, celebrity, 'beauty'  and stuff and more stuff. Of course there's good kids still (usually with good parents) who have not been fed this lie that there is nothing to do.

[CEO]

  You are both right! Bring back the jetty ECOfishers says. The drunks can wander off, the druggies can get high at the end of it, the thugs can be chased off the end too and the kids can fish peacefully off it, to their hearts content.