The Caldera – The Tweed Volcano Erosion Caldera
“The Tweed Volcano is one of planet earth’s biggest volcanoes.
Volcanic eruptions lasted about three million years, ending about 20 million years ago.
The volcano basin has been hollowed out by the streams, creeks and river, forming an ‘erosional caldera’.
As the continent moved up the globe the landscape of the whole of Australia became drier.
The original ancient east coast rainforest dried and disappeared, eucalypt trees replacing the rainforest.
However within the Tweed volcano erosion caldera, because of its geology and consequent high rainfall, the original rainforest ecology was protected and survived.
Housing and the Environment – Finding the Balance: Mur’bah Daring Dialogues
With the NSW removal of public consultation for neighbouring buildings approval, with the TSC vote to permit un-rate-chargable second remote dwelling construction, with the public apathy of defeatism … what on earth will become of the landscape ecology and what can be done to arrest the building out of the Tweed rural and natural environment. A Daring Dialogue at the Kambucha Cafe Tuesday 9th June 6.30pm.
Please also be aware of the Draft Growth Management Housing and Employment Strategy (GMHES) (soon up for exhibition) and a new fast track proposal by the state that will bypass the low rise housing (1-2 storey) DAs and their local conditions such as site placement, compensatory bush regeneration etc.
NSW Government’s Forest Industry Action Plan, Consultation Report Released
Stakeholder Consultation Report, attached, interesting bits highlighted for quicker reading.
Highlights:
Submissions from more than 1500 individuals and 160 organisations.
Viewpoints and evidence in support of environmental concerns tended to submit that:
• Native forest harvesting in NSW has major impacts on biodiversity and endangered species and should cease as soon as possible.
• Healthy, protected and intact forests are intrinsically, socially and culturally valuable.
• The forestry industry does not have the capability to deliver beneficial environmental outcomes.
[nefanews] Local Land Services Amendment (Private Native Forestry) Bill 2026
The Shooters and Fishers Party seek to stop Councils that require consent for PNF in rural zones (most private native vegetation) from doing so, such as Kyogle, Tweed, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie-Hastings, ect.
They don’t want logging to be subject to the same scrutiny as most other developments that require DAs – such as actually having to survey for threatened species, complying with Council requirements, notifying neighbours, and assessing impacts. They just want to comply with LLS’s tick-a-box assessments.
Murbah Event, ‘This Stuff Maters: From little things – Incremental changes that erode democracy – should we be worried, and why?’
M’Arts, Food Forever
Forest Frontline Forum
On March 21, at the Southern Cross University campus, hear from frontline campaigners and local experts who know the forests best, to hear about the plan to secure protection for Richmond River Koala Parks.
This is a chance to understand what’s at stake – and how protection is possible when our community stands together.
Tell Council: “YES, do that.”
They are asking, so tell Council “YES” to going back to crockery and cutlery at events and markets.
When the single use plasticised-cardboard take-away coffee cup goes through the temperature change of being filled with the hot liquid, thousands of micro and millions of nano sized plastic molecules fracture and fragment away from the plasticised-cardboard, into your cup of coffee. Almost all plastic we ingest passes through us, though the <1% we retain accumulates primarily in the brain. Lets not ingest plastic.
March in March For Forests – Lismore
Please make your Submission to the TSC Draft Development Control Plan
The opportunity to ‘Have Your Say’ on the Tweed Development Control Plan closes 5pm Friday!
We’ve attached the CEC submission document for your interest, and for copy and pasting all or parts of as your own submission which is allowed and we encourage.
Please do make a submission, it is quick and easy on the Council website (link here: www.yoursay), or forward the attached CEC submission expressing your own support for it (email to tsc@tweed.nsw.gov.au).
To the General Manager Tweed Shire Council,
The Draft Tweed Development Control Plan – Have Your Say
The Tweed Development Control Plan (DCP) is the Plan by which Council Controls Building and Development Works.
Section B2 of the plan, ‘Preservation of (Urban) Trees and Vegetation’, applies restrictions on the clearing of vegetation.
The CEC support that the draft includes a new protection level for urban local natives at 3 m or higher, previously 5 m, and exotics protected at 40 cm stem diameter, previously 80 cm.
These new reduced limitations are reflected in Table B2.1, urban vegetation which cannot be cleared without Council approval.
Shop Instead at the Caldera Environment Centre
WITHDRAWN! Fingal Mining Exploration Licence Application
Update: The application has been withdrawn.
An exploration licence application to sample the mineral content of the sand that is being pumped by the Tweed Sand Bypass at Fingal Head NSW to the Gold Coast beaches was advertised in the Tweed Valley Weekly Public Notices on 19th Feb.
Minerals sought include Rutile, Zircon and Ilmenite.
If sampling is successful the aim is to build a processing plant next to / connected to the Sand Bypass to extract these heavy minerals from the pumped sand.
Caldera Report > With Every Cup of Coffee: 25,000 micron-sized and 12 million nano-sized microplastic particles!
Cardboard take away coffee cups are plasticised, because, if not, the cardboard cup would soak and fall apart when filled with liquid.
When the plasticised-cardboard of the take-away coffee cup goes through the temperature change of being filled with the hot liquid, thousands of micro and millions of nano sized plastic molecules fracture and fragment away from the plasticised-cardboard, into your cup of coffee. [Source: (link).]
Mostly the plastic we ingest passes through us, however, we accumulate plastic nano-particles and studies show them throughout our bodies.
The Wollumbin Caldera – It’s Geological Formation and Flora
The Wollumbin / Mount Warning shield volcano and its erosion caldera is a unique volcanic landform which has functioned as a refugium, over the 20 million years since it’s formation, for a core area of Gondwana rainforest flora.
The Caldera is located in a major climatic transition zone, between temperate and tropical floral and faunal species, giving high species diversity under a wide range of habitats, its volcanic origins and very high localised rainfall make this a very complex and interesting landform.
They are removing the environmental protections from the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act [!] .
Key purposes of the Act until now have been: to ensure that ‘development’ is done in an environmentally sustainable way; to protect the environment; to ensure community participation – they are rewriting it so that they can ignore all of those things.
Example: One of the many changes is a new assessment pathway that is “unconstrained and expressly prohibits consideration of environmental impacts and the public interest.” note the EDO.
The intention behind the changes is to allow development in otherwise environmentally protected areas.
Tweed Landcare UPCOMING EVENT Seed Collection Safari
The Tweed Valley: “A deep rich valley clothed with magnificent trees, … ” Oxley: 1823
In 1823 John Oxley was the first European to see the Tweed Valley, and he wrote of it: “A deep rich valley clothed with magnificent trees, the beautiful uniformity of which was only interrupted by the turns and windings of the river, which here and there appeared like small lakes. The background was Mt. Warning. The view was altogether beautiful beyond description. The scenery here exceeded anything I have previously seen in Australia.”
Oxley was sailing up the eastern coast of Australia from Sydney in search of a penal settlement site “for difficult convicts”. Sailing further, they decided on Redcliffe, part of now Brisbane (perhaps explaining something of the Queensland culture of today).
Live at The Citadel: The Mushroom Whisperers is an immersive experience, perfect for the intimacy, acoustics and intention of The Citadel.
Sunday December 14th 3pm & 7pm.
You might have caught Follow the Rain on Netflix;Steve Axford and Catherine Marciniak’s gorgeous stop-motion fungi imagery and documentary, affectionately known as “the Fungi film”.
As a special event for the arts and nature lovers of Murwillumbah, the world-class musicians behind the music to Follow the Rain are coming to perform live at The Citadel.
Carla (flute & voice) and Romano (violin & piano) accompany additional fungi time-lapse imagery to channel the hidden pulse of the fungal kingdom. Fusion arts and improvisation at its most exquisite.
The NSW Far North Coast Regional Water Supply Project
NRG: The NSW Far North Coast Regional Water Supply Project will be assessing regional options to improve long-term water security in our region. Several information sessions will be held to inform the public about the project. One will be held online; the others will be local drop-in sessions. See details below, as provided by the project:
Online session:
Wednesday 19 November 2025, from 10.30 am – 12 pm via MS Teams. To register, go here.
Drop-in sessions:
Sessions will be held in Tweed Heads, Byron Bay, Ballina, Mullumbimby, Casino, Lismore and Murwillumbah.
30 years of removing legal safeguards for native forests is destroying what is left of native forest ecologies.
Below is a concise summary of legislation changes over the past 30 years that have removed existing legal protections and increased the destructiveness of logging of native forests.
.
1. Native Vegetation Conservation Act 1997 (NSW) – [Later replaced by the [even worse] Native Vegetation Act 2003:
The 1997 Act claimed to regulate land clearing but instead allowed exemptions for forestry operations from existing regulations under Integrated Forestry Operations Approvals (IFOAs).
The 2003 Act relaxed restrictions further, introducing self-assessment for landholders and reducing oversight on clearing activities.
Dear Tweed Shire Council,
I strongly support the proposed funding in Council’s budget for maintenance of Tweed’s Littoral Rainforest remnants, as has been proposed by Councillor Firth and is awaiting a vote of the 7 Councillors.
Regarding the Literal Rainforest remnants:
4 Council owned small pockets of land with trees and related ecologies.
Council is deciding soon that Council can’t afford weed control and basic vegetative management, so they won’t approve it in the budget, so it will continue to be uncared for.
[nefanews] Will the Feds save forests?
There has been some hope that the Federal changes to the EP(BC) Act (the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act) may result in improvements for native forests, such as by adopting and applying strong environmental standards that over-ride RFAs, though an assessment of the new laws by EJA maintains that we will be worse off on most counts (https://envirojustice.org.au/environment-law-reform-scorecard/). EDO also consider that the positives are undermined by extensive exemptions and opportunities for ministerial discretion (https://www.edo.org.au/2025/10/31/epbc-act-reforms-make-it-to-parliament-edos-first-impressions/). It seems that for forests we will still suffer under 25 year old “evergreened” RFAs, applied through nice sounding intents, such as ‘ecologically sustainable’ and ‘adaptive management’, that can actually mean whatever the Governments want (usually nothing). Given that we already have species recovery plans that are meant to apply to forestry, but in practice make no difference, it seems the national standards will be more of the same.
TVW: Planning Reform Fears
NCC: Email your MP, Template, Stop the NSW Government’s Plan to Weaken Planning Laws
This is the most significant reduction in development controls in 50 years, and it’s being done with zero public consultation. If passed, these reforms will be a giant step backward for environmental protections in NSW and significantly undermine the progress we are aiming to achieve.
If passed this Bill will:
TSC October Monthly Meeting, agenda item: Roadside Plastic Litter Pick-Up Pre-Mowing: Admin Staff are Against [ !! ]
At the next Tweed Council Monthly public access meeting is a plastics issue, namely mowing it smaller vs picking it up first.
Plastic does not decompose, it may degrade into smaller pieces when exposed to sunlight or temperature change but it will always remain. We either pick it up or live with it as forever litter’. Should Council pick it up or leave it lying around forever?
If it’s on the roadside, is mowing it smaller and smaller the best solution? Council Administration Staff seem to think so.
TSC Notice of Motion: Cr Firth – Accessing Soft Plastic Recycling
Councillor Nola Firth has submitted to Council the following Notice of Motion:
In Tweed shire we are currently collectively dumping 320 tons of soft plastic into landfill per year. There is considerable community concern on this issue. Single use soft plastic is recognised as a serious waste of our precious finite resources and as a killer of wildlife on land and in our rivers and seas. This is of particular concern in our biodiverse shire where we have the most threatened species in Australia.
Federal regulation is urgently needed to address this situation. The report (also on this agenda) on soft plastics recycling indicates the difficulty we as a regional council have in accessing soft plastics recycling. Even within cities it is not yet available for everyone. The primary cause is lack of created demand for recycled plastic despite its problematic plenitude and the willingness of community to recycle it. There is an urgent need for government action to achieve mandatory industry change, recycling support and community education.
Councillor Firth moves that Council write to the Federal Minister for the Environment and Water, the Minister for the Environment (NSW), Minister for Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (NSW), local state members, local federal member, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation and Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia:
The Bob Brown Foundation Forest Roadshow will be in Byron Bay Tuesday 14th October at the Farm, 8-9am
“This is a code red for environmental protection in NSW.”
NCC: “The NSW Government’s proposed changes to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act opens the way for reckless developments of all kinds.
“This is a code red for environmental protection in NSW. If passed as is, the reforms on the table would have devastating consequences.”
“These extreme changes to our environmental protection laws would strip away environmental scrutiny, making it easier for damaging developments to slip through.
EDO