LONG TIME Byron Bay local, and Voice of Byron regular, Muzz Sinclair, has hit his Facebook page with some incisive observations about the dirty state of Jonson Street, Byron Bay.
“Don’t want to be pain in the arse, but I feel I must say something about the state of our town, “says Muzz.
“I went into town today do a bit shopping and see the Doctor.
“Could not believe my eyes how filthy, smelly and just down right slummy the town has become.
“In all my life time I’ve never seen the town look so disgraceful. I not only felt sad but also so ashamed.
“Both sides of the main street from Woolies all the way to main beach was filled with bloody bums, beggars in the doorways with signs and their hands out … dirty looking people.
“These people are there by choice. And every person in Australia who chooses not to work is paid some sort of payment.
“Disability payments round off at around $860 a fortnight – $980 with rent assistance.
“Dole comes in around $600 without rent assistance, so these people on the streets are not doing bad, but why are they in rags and look like they haven’t bathed and why are they bumming, asking for help?
“It’s a sham.
“Getting back to the town itself, it looks third world – piss, shit, broken bottles, rotting food, drunks. And it’s no better behind the shops… I myself would not dare go down there of a night
“What do we have to do to get our town back, or is it too late?
“Say what you like about me, but I still have pride in OUR town, even if others don’t.
“I hope the people are in these positions to do something go into town day and night and see for themselves!”
Another long time Bay local, two-time World Adaptive Surfing Champion Mark-Mono Stewart, completely agreed.
Mono replied to Muzz’s post saying, “Muzz, I drove down the main street up to the beachfront early this morning with my eyes wide open.
“What a disgrace. I think a lot of locals are so busy with work, family etc that we haven’t been really looking.
“Well I encourage all of you to get up early and go have a good look at what is happening to our town!
“I’m just blown away, I’m almost lost for words! It’s a disgrace!”
Grub capital of the world calling themselves hippies. Lived there four years and it cured me of my fascination. The Gold Coast is cleaner, safer, no hippies and has rainforest as opposed to the scrub and camphor of nth nsw.
It’s incredibly hard to find work in the area and also to find affordable accommodation, but even the most “filthy” people still recognise this place to be beautiful. There are only a few different people who own this town, and the amount of money they make from overpricing everything would be phenomenal, the rangers and council men in Byron bay treat people like absolute crap, not just the homeless I mean just about everyone, there are a lot of sick people out there and you do not own this land you should just deal with seeing these offensively dressed people there just about everywhere in this world, and building a town on indigenous birthing ground is sure to shake up some bad ju ju
Jesse is absolutely right! 100% resonate with what your saying. Perfect.
From what I’ve always known about Byron this is a regular occurance. Perhaps instead of making it so God damn hard to live in Byron something has to change. What happened to the hippies, the peace dwellers, the ones who have genuine love for the land? Oh that’s right, the council has driven most of them away with high paying rates and land tax.
Speak to other locals and get the opinion polls from the locals not just the greedy shop owners who are buying up Byron Bay from SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE AND OVERSEAS. I mean the real locals! The aussies and the indigenous people of the area.
“Both sides of the main street from Woolies all the way to main beach was filled with bloody bums, beggars in the doorways with signs and their hands out … dirty looking people.
“These people are there by choice. And every person in Australia who chooses not to work is paid some sort of payment.
Muzz, you are very tunnel vision in your views, WORK in the industry of Community Services, Mental Health and Alcohol, Social Welfare and Justice…..and go back and read why we have homeless:
1. Inability to work due to co morbid (MH & AOD) conditions
2. Landlords allowing up to 10 + internationals, most with expired visa’s as we live in a BYRON CASH SOCIETY, consequently, we have lack of supply of housing, and demand far out ways supply This is an Issue that the Federal Government needs to tackle with the Council to provide a major task force to come in and remove those on expired visa’s who know how to beat the system, and trust me, they do.
3. The Voice of Byron got the least comments to their “affordable housing’ issues article, so we as residents are not grouping together to get this issue moving with Federal, State, Local and Not for Profit organisations
4. We have no governing policy on Airbnb, which is now around 1800 in the Byron Shire for inbound tourism.
5. We have the least State Government funded Community Services and Not for Profits in ratio to our population (residents) in NSW as our Local Government lacks the insight to seek help outside our bubble of Byron to get more Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol services and Outreach Works etc
We don’t clean the homeless up we deal with it……with services within our Shire as a Number One priority. If the Shire continues to allow the Internationals with expired Visa’s to stay in Byron based on Human Rights issues, well, we look after our locals first as they are entitled to these Human Rights too……
THANKYOU to Jenny above for her excellent and heartfelt reply to this disgusting article.
Whats disgusting about this article Evelina? It describes Byron Bay as it is. Work for the council and see how much faeces, vomit, urine those poor workers have to clean up left by the weirdo “hippy folk”. Before you say I’m wrong go do some volunteer work for the council
Surly between the police and the council this could be sorted and stopped.
Sadly not how I remember my days there.
Time for a petition and/or a protest!
Disgusting article? Why is that?
Perhaps Evelina and Jenny have very low standards and haven’t really paid any attention to what’s happening around them.
Ever heard of professional beggars?
Why not invite some into your home and stop the virtue signalling.
Yep, saw it 1st hand last night. Most insane night I’ve ever seen. Grand Central Station style. Had to walk home coz taxi rank was 100 deep. I’m not going into town again!!!
Gone are the days when the Police could move them along and George Feros did a wonderful job cleaning the main part of town before most of us were out of bed. He received a small fee which he put towards the Feros Nursing Homes 😭
Muzz it is a serious worry and I agree with your sentiments. Sure there are needy people in every society but maybe the street beggars of Byron think that the foreign tourists and up-market visitors are an easy mark.
This will have serious repercussions for the tourist industry and any business in town too. New business developments could be deterred from investing.
How to solve the problem – it’s a bit like the Flinders Street Station collective in Melbourne, harassing passers-by for handouts and intimidating anyone who didn’t hand over something. Melbourne City Council just happened to have plans to repaint the front of the station and do some renovations but could this happen in the utopian aura of Byron Bay?
It’s not financially possible for anyone receiving welfare payments to live in Byron Bay and it’s doubtful a real estate agent would provide accommodation, so what is the solution?
It’s not going to go away overnight.