Ewingsdale Community Association
President’s Report
2013 – 2014
The Ewingsdale Community Association has had another quiet but pleasant year, with various important events and issues to concern us.
We had a Christmas Party on Sunday 15 December, from 4:00 to 7:00 pm at the Hall, attended by about 40 adults and almost as many children. We had a sausage sizzle, a “bring your own” supper and a very successful visit by Santa on a firetruck.
Thanks to the Byron Bay Rural Fire Brigade for the Santa visit and to Lorissa Barrett for her enthusiastic work. The Association voted $250 to the Fire Brigade in thanks for its contribution.
Ewingsdale’s Biggest Morning Tea is being held again this year at the Fig Tree Restaurant on Wednesday14 May. Great thanks to Fae Flick for organizing this important event, as she has for several years past.
Plans are afoot to have more gatherings at the Hall to involve the community with the Association. Lorissa has suggested a kids’ movie night and evening meal for August, and possibly other events as the year goes on.
The Hall continues to be a popular venue for many activities, especially weddings. The Hall is booked out on Saturdays for weddings for most of this year. Thanks to this, the Association is very much in the black financially.
Some very good maintenance work and repairs have been carried out on the Hall, including replacement of rotted timbers and a thorough painting of the interior. Great thanks to Andy Baldwin for his dedicated work as Treasurer and Hall Manager and in making the Hall look great.
We also have a possibility of Section 94 money from the Council for renewing the kitchen. Negociations with Chris Soulsby of the Byron Shire Council continue, and it looks like the prospects of success are good. Thanks to Michael Moyle and Lorissa Barrett for obtaining legal advice about this.
We are happy to say that the Ewingsdale to Tintenbar highway project may be completed in about a year. The RTA (or RMS as they now call themselves) paid no attention to our doubts about what will happen with traffic from the north heading to Lismore, and it will be interesting to see what actually transpires.
Several other issues before the Association continue to be of concern. The developer of the proposed restaurant at the corner of Ewingsdale Road and McGettigans Lane has applied for longer hours and larger seating capacity. Our general feeling is that the whole project is a mistake, as it will cause serious traffic problems, as well as degrading the approach to Byron Bay from the highway.
We continue to be concerned about the block of land next to the church, but have been reassured by Alex Caras of Council that any development there would need to be consistent with the heritage value of the Church and Hall.
Thanks to Allen LInd for his efforts to secure this guarantee.
The huge new development project called West Byron is of great concern to the whole of Byron Bay, and a strong movement is going on against it. The Association is supporting this opposition. We feel it would exacerbate the already difficult problem of traffic going into town, as well as causing other problems.
I would personally like to thank Secretary/Treasurer Andrew Baldwin, our website maintainer Elizabeth Andel, and all the other members who have worked hard to make this a successful year.
Charles MacFarland, President
4 May 2014