‘Tis the season for Schoolies, and Byron is one of the famously popular Australian school-leaver destinations.

The event has a long and varied history in Byron, from heady, alcohol-fuelled days earlier this century to some distinctly more sober affairs in recent times.

Today we hear what police are planning for this year in terms of safety operations for Schoolies in Byron, and also about a safety campaign for schoolies planning to travel overseas for their rite of passage.

Elsewhere, we hear what the experts and advocates have to say about the outcomes or otherwise of this year’s United Nations climate forum, and a special guest joins us late in the program to let us know about a local Christmas campaign for the needy.

Last week on the program we caught up with Greens Byron Shire Councillor Elia Hague about changes announced to state planning laws that reduce council powers, housing projects in the Byron Shire including the Station Street units proposal and the former Mullumbimby hospital site.

A couple of those topics and more came up at this week’s ordinary council meeting, the first one for our new cadet, Emma Setterfield-Smith, who lets us know what public access at a council meeting is really like since it’s one of the aspects of meetings to be restricted in new changes brought in by the state government.

1. Hopes for another zero-arrests Byron Schoolies featuring Tweed Byron Police District Detective Acting Inspector Donna Tutt
2. Warning to Schoolies headed OS featuring DrinkWise CEO Simon Strahan (Azucena Carrasco)
3. A cadet’s first Byron Shire Council meeting w Emma Setterfield-Smith
4. Slow progress at COP30 featuring Professor Matthew Harrison - climate Resilience Leader at the University of Tasmania; Rebekkah Markey - Towler - research fellow at Melbourne Climate Futures and PhD candidate at the Melbourne Law School (Sam Georgiou, The Wire)
5. Byron’s Christmas hamper call-out for the needy featuring Liberation Larder President John Morgan
6. Northern Rivers News with Karen Crick

*producer: Mia Armitage. Reports produced by Mia Armitage unless otherwise indicated. Tune in to the Community Newsroom on Fridays from 11am-12 on Bay FM 99.9 or listen online at bayfm.org
Facebook: Community Newsroom NRN

PIC: Liberation Larder Christmas hamper donations call-out 2025, Byron Bay (Mia Armitage)