#coffsharbour — Public Fediverse posts

Making hostile spaces The dispersal of non consumers

* At an intersection of numerous car parks, retail industry and an amusement industrial complex in Coffs Harbour there is a small green space with benches and birds. People and birds rest there and have their lunch.

Some time ago the amusement & drink giant piped ongoing unpleasant, loud music over the small green island and the abundant car parks.

The intention of the outdoor speakers distributing noise pollution is/was to engage in then 'dispersal' of ‘loitering' non customers.

This loud and repetitive ‘music’ is also known as "aggressive" or "defensive" architecture. This design in mostly public spaces is intended as a form of 'organised abandonment' (Ruth Wilson Gilmore) of the poor and the unhoused.

Often the exclusionary design acoustic ('steady-state spam’) is combined with other anti homeless devices (anti-homeless spikes furniture) which function to keep members of the public out of public spaces.

With increasing inequality, that is non spending consumers, the system is increasingly employing hostile practices. Privately owned public spaces such as walkways, plazas, arcades and small parks have to ensure the safety of their customers and staff. Non-consumers have no place in this scheme.

* "Woolworths has installed outdoor speakers at its Darwin city store to play the supermarket's 'Fresh Food People' jingle on repeat in a bid to deter loitering.” >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-25/darwin-city-woolworths-looping-jingle-anti-social-behaviour/107073330
* "The NSW Police Force is currently running an Australian-first trial in Moree (an area with a high Indigenous population) using rooftop drones to "fight crime" in the area, controlled by people hundreds of kilometres away at Bankstown Airport." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-26/automation-and-repression-the-two-go-hand-in-hand-daron-acemoglu/107063582
#HostileArchitecture #PublicSpaces #inequality #privatisation #ShoppingCentres #dispersal #FirstNationsPeoples #biopolitics #surveillance #CCTV #PervasiveTechnologies #UAVs #NoisePollution #IndigenousPeoples #DesignApartheid #governance #CoffsHarbour

Focus on Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Valley

"NSW modern slavery report calls for urgent reform to protect migrant workers."

"A NSW parliamentary report into modern slavery has detailed "harrowing stories of mistreatment and harm..The report asked the government to investigate allegations of systemic labour exploitation in Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley."

"NSW Anti-slavery commissioner Dr James Cockayne said in a statement the report was "informed by evidence from almost 100 witnesses across NSW, including victim survivors of modern slavery, and 60 submissions"." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-06/nsw-anti-slavery-report-urgent-reform-to-protect-migrant-workers/107003130
#exploitation #PALM #MidNorthCoast #HorticulturalIndustry #blueberries #CoffsHarbour #NambuccaValley #food #harm #slavery #plantations #regulation

Focus on Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Valley

"NSW modern slavery report calls for urgent reform to protect migrant workers."

"A NSW parliamentary report into modern slavery has detailed "harrowing stories of mistreatment and harm..The report asked the government to investigate allegations of systemic labour exploitation in Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley."

"NSW Anti-slavery commissioner Dr James Cockayne said in a statement the report was "informed by evidence from almost 100 witnesses across NSW, including victim survivors of modern slavery, and 60 submissions"." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-06/nsw-anti-slavery-report-urgent-reform-to-protect-migrant-workers/107003130
#exploitation #PALM #MidNorthCoast #HorticulturalIndustry #blueberries #CoffsHarbour #NambuccaValley #food #harm #slavery #plantations #regulation

Focus on Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Valley

"NSW modern slavery report calls for urgent reform to protect migrant workers."

"A NSW parliamentary report into modern slavery has detailed "harrowing stories of mistreatment and harm..The report asked the government to investigate allegations of systemic labour exploitation in Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley."

"NSW Anti-slavery commissioner Dr James Cockayne said in a statement the report was "informed by evidence from almost 100 witnesses across NSW, including victim survivors of modern slavery, and 60 submissions"." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-06/nsw-anti-slavery-report-urgent-reform-to-protect-migrant-workers/107003130
#exploitation #PALM #MidNorthCoast #HorticulturalIndustry #blueberries #CoffsHarbour #NambuccaValley #food #harm #slavery #plantations #regulation

Focus on Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Valley

"NSW modern slavery report calls for urgent reform to protect migrant workers."

"A NSW parliamentary report into modern slavery has detailed "harrowing stories of mistreatment and harm..The report asked the government to investigate allegations of systemic labour exploitation in Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley."

"NSW Anti-slavery commissioner Dr James Cockayne said in a statement the report was "informed by evidence from almost 100 witnesses across NSW, including victim survivors of modern slavery, and 60 submissions"." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-06/nsw-anti-slavery-report-urgent-reform-to-protect-migrant-workers/107003130
#exploitation #PALM #MidNorthCoast #HorticulturalIndustry #blueberries #CoffsHarbour #NambuccaValley #food #harm #slavery #plantations #regulation

Focus on Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Valley

"NSW modern slavery report calls for urgent reform to protect migrant workers."

"A NSW parliamentary report into modern slavery has detailed "harrowing stories of mistreatment and harm..The report asked the government to investigate allegations of systemic labour exploitation in Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley."

"NSW Anti-slavery commissioner Dr James Cockayne said in a statement the report was "informed by evidence from almost 100 witnesses across NSW, including victim survivors of modern slavery, and 60 submissions"." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-06/nsw-anti-slavery-report-urgent-reform-to-protect-migrant-workers/107003130
#exploitation #PALM #MidNorthCoast #HorticulturalIndustry #blueberries #CoffsHarbour #NambuccaValley #food #harm #slavery #plantations #regulation

Vulnerable workers bearing the cost of providing Australia with cheap food

"Across Australia's fruit and vegetable industry, Fair Work Ombudsman investigations have repeatedly uncovered widespread non-compliance...: systemic worker exploitation, forced labour, debt bondage and, in some cases, human trafficking and servitude."

"In Coffs Harbour, 61 per cent of growers and labour hire companies inspected were found to be breaching workplace laws, including underpaying workers. The figure rose to 72 per cent in the Riverina and 83 per cent in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley....Oz Group, a co-operative representing more than 140 berry growers across NSW's Mid North Coast, said in its 2020 statement it "does not accept any form of slavery-like practices within the co-operative or throughout its supply chain".However, in its 2025 statement, the co-operative said, "addressing modern slavery requires ongoing effort and collaboration" and it remained "committed to continuous improvement"." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-04/australias-hidden-modern-slave-labour-workforce-exposed/106968610
#exploitation #work #ForcedLabour #food #slavery #CoffsHarbour #HorticulturalIndustry #governance #regulation #ModernSlaveryAct #TokenisticLaw #NSW #MidNorthCoast #blueberries

Motorised bikes
First they put e-bikes on the market, then it is a long wait for regulation of illegal high-powered 'motorbikes' on shared pathways and beaches.

There has been "...alleged antisocial and criminal behaviour involving a group of youths riding e-bikes in the Moonee and North Sapphire Beach areas."

"The claims echo concerns being raised in communities right across the state. For many locals, the issue isn’t just legality. It’s safety on shared pathways residents once felt confident using every day." >>
https://coffscoast.newsofthearea.com.au/technology-outpaces-the-law-on-e-bikes
#pedestrians #motorists #Ebike #safety #regulation #beaches #MooneeBeach #NorthSapphireBeach #Sawtell #CoffsHarbour #NSW #MotorVehicles #MobilityDesign #ActiveTansportInfrastructure
#MidNorthCoast #SapphireBeach #NorthSapphireBeachPlayground #parenting #AntisocialBehaviour #DissocialBehaviours #crime

Malnourished and sick kangaroos, isolated by urban sprawl on New South Wales's Mid North Coast

"...The kangaroos were chronically malnourished because they could not find enough to eat in an area bordered by ocean, the nearby Emerald Beach settlement, and the Pacific Highway. Our theory is that ongoing development … the M1 being upgraded and an increase in suburban dwellings, that this population is isolated." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-24/sick-kangaroos-coffs-coast-look-at-me-now-headland/106597450

First the thylacine, the others a bit later...

#biodiversity #wildlife #EasternGreyKangaroos #habitat #kangaroos #marsupials #CoffsCoast #CoffsHarbour #LookAtMeNowHeadland #EmeraldBeach #sprawl #tourism #PacificHighway #roads #harm #MidnorthCoast #StarvingWildlife

Image: Coastal sprawl - No place for endemic wildlife on the Mid North Coast of NSW

Pacific Highway has the most dangerous drivers in NSW >>
https://nambuccavalley.newsofthearea.com.au/pacific-highway-has-the-most-dangerous-drivers-in-nsw

#cars #motorists #CoffsHarbour #PacificHighway #NSW #roads #RoadTrauma

Image: Pacific Highway, No road is ever wide enough

Mobility design for all

The cost of doing b̶u̶s̶i̶n̶e̶s̶s̶/ transport should factor in wildlife bridges /corridors at reasonable intervals. When they can construct 40,000-vehicle-a-day conveyor belts through wildlife ecosystems, then they could ensure mobility for koalas, gliders, swamp wallabies and wombats too.
Elsewhere motorways are being retrofitted to allow animals to move safely between fragmented sections of bushland. >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-22/cawleys-bridge-wildlife-crossing-retrofit/106365756

Coffs Harbour bypass >>
https://www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/projects/coffs-harbour-bypass
#biodiversity #wildlife #mobility #WildlifeBridges #MobilityDesign #roads #highways #CODB #cars #PacificHighway #RoadTrauma #CoffsHarbour

Traumatic landscapes of plastic, pollution and exploitation

The coastline of Spain is known as the ‘Sea of Plastic’ ("Mar de Plástico”) It is the world’s largest plastic greenhouse complex with 350 square km of fruit and vegetables grown by immigrant labour for the horticultural industry. >>
https://www.behance.net/gallery/22272681/Mar-del-Plastico#

Could we do the same thing to the coast of NSW?
NSW Greens to move bill to let councils better regulate berry industry as it continues rapid expansion

“People move into these beautiful valleys for the lifestyle and the environment but then wake up one day and within months they are looking at an industrial-scale blueberry farm."

"Faehrmann’s bill will call for mandated buffers between intensive horticulture farms and homes and waterways, as well as strict controls on spraying, runoff and irrigation and greater monitoring of produce for pesticides."

"Blueberry farming is rapidly expanding beyond Coffs Harbour, where it began several decades ago, into the Nambucca Valley and the Kempsey area to the south, and west toward Grafton and Bellingen."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/31/australia-berry-industry-bill-nsw-greens
#rivers #water #extractivism #pesticides #MidNorthCoast #ChinasOrchard #horticulturalIndustry #regulation #runoff #pollution #plastic #PALM #blueberries #SeaOfPlastics #TraumaticLandscapes #NSWCoast #NSW #CoffsHarbour #Nambucca #Kempsey #Grafton #Bellingen #residents #habitability #NSWLogging

Bored fossil fuel enthusiasts are burning rubber, microplastics and toxic chemicals on the Mid North Coast.
#Cars #CarMinds #PetroMasculinity #pollution #noise #toxins #stormwater #BellingerRiver #roads #SchoolHolidays #climate #Bellingen #CoffsHarbour #MidNorthCoast #governance #antisocial #UnsafeBehaviour

"She just brought it to the front desk and said I have rescued this sea snake."

"A New South Wales wildlife sanctuary has been forced to temporarily evacuate parts of its centre after a woman brought in a highly venomous sea snake. They are one of the most venomous snakes in the world."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-14/coffs-coast-wildlife-sanctaury-evacuated-due-to-sea-snake/105888174
#ocean #wildlife #Woolgoolga #CoffsHarbour #snake #seasnake #beachcombing

Pesticide spray drift from intensive horticulture on the the mid-north coast NSW -
Discontent in the region.

Home owners, dairy and beef producers among those concerned about how pesticide use affects their land as well as water quality on the mid-north coast

“Between 2001 and 2016 blueberry farming expanded 400% – mainly around the Coffs Harbour region.”

“This monitoring showed the continued detection of pesticides in most waterways sampled, highlighting the need for ongoing monitoring in the region.”

“Monitoring in the Nambucca valley by the EPA has detected three different pesticides in low levels in three creeks, suggesting water quality in the area is not being impacted by excessive amounts of pesticides.”
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/09/blueberry-farms-nsw-north-coast-rapid-expansion-development-pesticides
#Pesticides #food #beef #diary #prawns #blueberries #plantations #monoculture #rivers #water #export #runoff #pollution #neonicotinoids #imidacloprid #dimethoate #SprayDrift #CoffsHarbour #Macksville #Nambucca #Woolgoolga #conflict #violence #EPA #regulation #horticulture #industry #tourism #PeoplesHomes #TankWater #governance #MidNorthCoast #NSW #biodiversity #wildlife #extractivism

"... Poor pesticide spraying practices in the Nambucca Valley and Coffs Harbour regions...Chemical banned by European Union still used in Australia."

When you drive from Nambucca Valley to the Coffs Harbour regions you can see giant white plastic nets enclosing blueberries, raspberries and blackberries plantations. There are toxic chemicals on some berries, the water and the area.

"Banned chemical thiometon detected in berries sold at supermarkets."

"Blueberry farming has boomed in NSW, including in the Nambucca Valley, as minimal red tape is required to set up. Blueberry farms can be started without formal registration or oversight, making it hard for authorities to track pesticide use. Since January 2022, the EPA has prosecuted 21 pesticide-related incidents across a range of crops in local courts across NSW... The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) announced a review into the use of dimethoate on blueberries, raspberries and blackberries."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-07/pesticide-review-thiometon-dimethoate-blueberries-raspberries/105701674
#food #regulation #toxins #pesticide #water #BerryIndustry #EPA #APVMA #governance #fruits #blueberries #NSW #plantations #MidNorthCoast #nambucca #CoffsHarbour #pollution #sprayDrift #dimethoate #thiometon #neurotoxins

Australian biodiversity conservation and 'fighting the government.'

"A rare legal win for an ecologist over a violent confrontation with NSW loggers exposed years of intimidation from corporate forestry representatives and law enforcement ."

"In environmental science circles, state surveillance and persecution of an ecologist whose findings refute or debunk state land management practices surprises no one. Last year, the International Science Council, a body representing more than 250 organisations, summarised that “the findings of environmental scientists … have long triggered censorship, intimidation, harassment and even violence when these challenge economic interests, political agendas, or ideologies”. It reported that scientists “have been physically attacked, wrongfully detained, and killed for their research and advocacy … threats and attacks are widespread in virtually all fields examining human impact on the environment”.

"A 2021 joint university study of Australian environmental scientists found more than half employed in industry or government “are routinely constrained in communicating scientific evidence on threatened species, mining, logging and other threats to the environment”. In some cases, “scientists self-censor information for fear of damaging their careers, losing funding or being misrepresented in the media. In others, senior managers or ministers’ officers prevented researchers from speaking truthfully on scientific matters...In all logged states, time spent fighting the government has overtaken the fieldwork time of ecologists and forest researchers."
>>
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2024/june/katherine-wilson/combative-nature#mtr
#NSWForestry #NSWLogging #LoggingImpacts #breaches #violence #GumbainggirCountry #activism #ecology #conservation #science #researchers #Koalas #ThreatenedSpecies #extractivism #mining #logging #defamation #surveillance #CivilDisobedience #CoffsHarbour #Gondwana #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #ExtinctionCrisis #BiodiversityCrisis #democracy #governance #Australia

Outrage as endangered species living in forest goes unnoticed by loggers chopping it down. 'Nothing to see here': Greater gliders, yellow-bellied gliders, koalas and powerful owls.

“Forestry Corporation admitted that they don’t do surveys for the nocturnal greater gliders at night! No wonder they aren’t finding any — they don’t want to find them, as it would seriously restrict their operations,” CEO Jacqui Mumford

"Endangered marsupials have been discovered inside a forest that was being chopped down by the NSW government, prompting calls for its operations to be suspended across dozens of sites across the state."

"After the Environmental Protection Agency was asked to intervene this week, NSW Forestry Corporation voluntarily asked its contractors to cease operations at the Styx River State Forest which borders the Cathedral Rock National Park, west of Coffs Harbour. It’s the second time since August the state-owned agency has been forced to down chainsaws because of the discovery of greater gliders."

https://au.news.yahoo.com/outrage-as-endangered-species-living-in-forest-goes-unnoticed-by-loggers-chopping-it-down-063558748.html
#MoonparSF #CoffsHarbour #NativeForests #NSWForestry #NSWLogging #gliders #Koalas #wildlife #biodiversity #surveys #ExtinctionCrisis #StopLogging

Would rare glossy black cockatoos nest in the proposed Great Koala National Park on the NSW Mid North Coast?

Conservationists are celebrating the rare discovery of nests of one of Australia's most-threatened cockatoos.

The bird is one of the most-threatened species of cockatoos in Australia
For the first time in more than 20 years, glossy black cockatoo nests have been discovered on the New South Wales' Mid North Coast.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-03/rare-glossy-black-cockatoo-nests-found-in-northern-nsw/102795868

Glossy Black-Cockatoo (Biliirrgan) listed as vulnerable under federal environmental law
https://glossyblack.org.au/glossy-squad-northern-rivers/

#Nambucca #Bellingen #CoffsHarbour #GumbaynggirrCountry #Biliirrgan #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #logging #vulnerable #birds #conservation

The Great Koala National Park misunderstood
A letter by Grahame Douglas, President, National Parks Association of NSW, Korora.

Excerpt:
"...The current Government committed to the establishment of a GKNP comprising existing national parks (135,000 Ha) as well as areas of native forest (approximately 175,000 Ha).

Currently, native forest harvesting is neither economically or environmentally sustainable, which is why there is a need to invest in genuine plantation forests.

Forestry Corporation currently cross subsidizes native forest logging through its profitable Softwoods Division and direct Government subsidies on the public purse.

Haulers will need to go back to their original areas (hopefully not native forests) rather than the accelerated harvesting occurring around Kempsey, Nambucca and Coffs Harbour.

Clearly the impacts of national parks management are far less than that of FCNSW contractors, which have been fined for breaching logging conditions and even harvesting illegally on adjoining neighbours’ land.

Nearly 90 percent of the NSW timber market is currently supplied from profitable softwood plantations (including Forest Corporation NSW) and would be closer to 95 percent if export woodchips from the Southern Forests ceased.

Pallets, fencing and garden stakes do not need to use native forest timbers from the Mid North Coast. What a waste.

The GKNP is our main hope for the conservation of koala and other native species which is why the public and local businesses support its early establishment."

> Read the letter in full:
https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/opinion-great-koala-national-park-misunderstood
#MidNorthCoast #Kempsey #Nambucca #CoffsHarbour #Bellingen #FCNSW #logging #StopLogging #SaveTuckersNob #extinction #koalas #biodiversity