A new exhibition at the Lismore Regional Gallery is set to explore fictional futures for Lismore in which creative minds imagine new modes of occupation for the flood-prone CBD.

Lismore Encore provides ideas for Lismore by esteemed architects and Lismore-based artists who have embodied knowledge and experience of the flood, all responding to a brief to design for the towns future.

The brief asked contributors to imagine Lismore into the future, outside of the politics of today. It asked participants to posit ways of re-occupying the existing CBD that not only deal with regular flooding, but to envisage what sort of governance, ownership, economies, and technologies enable these new ways of occupying.

The project is intended to create a forum for ideas, be they practical or so ambitious they might be difficult or even impossible to apply in the current climate. It asked for ingenuity at all scales, from the small intervention to the vast re-imagining.

Ideas include gentle golden dirigibles by America-based architect Virginia San Fratello, a new building typology that is simultaneously boat, building, and airship.

The dirigibles can be used at all times but are specifically there to serve as retreats before and during flooding. They are generatedwith AI and present an alternative vision for thinking about what we design and how we think about the infrastructure and buildings of our future cities, San Fratello writes.

South Korean architect Moon Hoon is also known internationally for his creative wayfinding and playful and distinctive design style, which fuses art and architecture.

His drawings or doodles have been acquired by MOMA in New York, Tchoban Foundation in Berlin, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea.

They manifest exaggerated creativity, opposing the monolithic and neutral world that holds us still and prohibits dreaming.

They are like a creative accelerant so far from familiar solutions that they inspire fresh vision and creativity. Moon Hoon has created roof pods that become shining escape beacons in times o...

The local community is rallying around a Cabarita dad and his family after he was critically injured in a car accident last week.

Ben Rohleder was driving home from a work event in Brisbane on July 13 when his car ran off the road just two kilometres from home.

The father of two, whose partner is pregnant with their third child, was rushed into surgery on arrival at hospital for a brain injury, multiple punctured organs, and a shattered pelvis.

It was a miracle he was alive emergency services said that too, family friend Alicia Hipwood said on a GoFundMe page that has been set up to support Ben and his family.

But our Ben is a fighter, fit and healthy and has far too much to live for.

His wife Courtney who received that dreaded knock at the door (no one ever wants to receive) in the middle of the night has been by his side (7 months pregnant) since, whilst family and friends are supporting their two young children at home.

We want to help this beautiful local Cabarita family by raising some much needed funds to help them through what will be a very challenging and rigorous rehabilitation with their newborn baby due very soon.

The GoFundMe campaign has already raised over $50,000 for the family [as of Tuesday morning] and other offers of in-kind support have been pouring in.

We are lucky in our community that when someone is in trouble we all come running to help, Ms Hipwood said.

Ben and Courtney would give you their own shirts off their backs if you needed it and we saw that first hand in the recent Caba floods with Courtney at home making food packs for people and Ben out there helping people with the mess and the delivery of food.

We want to help this beautiful local Cabarita family by raising some much needed funds to help them through what will be a very challenging and rigorous rehabilitation wit...

Councillor James Owen and Councillor Rhiannon Brinsmead have called on the NSW Government to continue funding the Back-to-School NSW Vouchers Program in its current form.

Cr Owen moved a Notice of Motion (NoM) at the 13 July council meeting, asking that the NSW Government continue to fund the programs to support Tweed Shire families.

The NSW Government has not yet committed to continuing the Back-to-School NSW Vouchers Program beyond the end of 2023, Councillor Brinsmead said.

The program provides 3 x $50 vouchers, totalling $150 for each eligible student and has really helped Tweed Shire families since it was launched.

The vouchers are essentially money in the pockets of families to put towards the cost of school uniforms, shoes, bags, technology, textbooks, and other eligible expense.

Cr Owen said that hundreds of Tweed Shire families had benefitted from the program, representing significant savings for them each year.

It seems like everything is getting more expensive at the moment and families are really struggling to pay the bills, he said.

Theres been a quiet changing of the guard at Ballina Fair Cinemas this month, with one family-owned business taking over from another, showing optimism for the future of big screen entertainment in the area after what was a tough time during COVID.

Ballina Fair Cinemas has been managed by locals Paul and Ella McGrath for almost 20 years. The new owners are Palace Cinemas, which operates another 24 cinemas around Australia, including in Byron Bay.

Mr McGrath told The Echo, Ella and I would like to thank everyone for their support, in particular our regulars over the last three and a half years. We would also like to thank the wonderful staff we have had over the last 20 years. We are very proud of what we achieved, and look forward to seeing everyone in the future.

This Wednesday, July 19, residents at Byron Feros are expected to vacate their rooms for the last time they feel they are being kicked out of home.

Residents of the faculty and their families and supporters say they arent going anywhere. 

The residents believe that Feros is their place, the legacy of a man who walked the street raising money so that Byrons elders could age in their town with dignity and care.

Winners of the 2023 Olive Cotton Award were announced recently with Gerwyn Davies portrait Replica winning the $20,000 overall prize.

The ceremony was attended by many of this years finalists who travelled from across the country to join in the celebrations.

Davies Replica was selected as the winning portrait from a field of 72 finalists, including emerging and established photographers from around Australia. Davies is the 12th artist to win the Award, which was first presented in 2005.

The announcements were made in an official opening and presentation ceremony at Tweed Regional Gallery, Murwillumbah on Saturday 15 July. The event was also live-streamed for those who could not attend.

The Award was judged by artist, curator and critic Dr Daniel Mudie Cunningham. Dr Mudie Cunningham visited the Gallery on Friday 14 July to view all works installed before making his final decision.

Dr Mudie Cunningham said hiding is not something we associate with portraiture. A conventional portrait requires a subjects presence and disclosure to connect with the world.

Clarence Property, the developer of Lennox Heads Epiq estate, has announced the sale of Super Lot 5, on the corner of Montwood and Snapper Drive, to the NSW Department of Education.

The 4.2ha site will now become the site of the new Lennox Head Primary School, having previously been mooted by the developer as the location of a retirement facility and then a medium-density integrated housing development of over 100 dwellings.

Having run into problems with Ballina Shire Council advancing that idea, Clarence Property appealed to the NSW Department of Planning to change the planned use of the land, but that has now been set aside by the new announcement.

Ballina Cr Kiri Dicker, a critic of the housing development plan, has enthusiastically welcomed the latest news, describing it as an enormous win for the community and a perfect site for the Lennox Head Public School.

On social media, Cr Dicker said, I still cant stop smiling at the news that our new school will be located right in the heart of the Epiq Estate, which is home to so many young families.