Dear Sydney,
This is Byron. (Your bit on the side). We need to talk. The relationship isn’t really working out for us right now. We need space. Possibly a restraining order.
First we were locked out of our housing market. Now we are locked in our houses. Which is awkward because a lot of us don’t have one. Do we blame you Sydney? A little.
Byron Bay is feeling pretty vulnerable right now.Credit:Danielle Smith
Ironically, it was your COVID denier, not ours that brought the Delta variant to our shores. A symptomatic Sydneysider who travelled to our region from a seven-week lockdown to “buy real estate”. It seems unfathomable. But, as it turns out, the 10-kilometre travel limit doesn’t apply if you are looking at real estate.
That makes us the most vulnerable region in NSW. Everyone wants our real estate! Are vendors the new vectors? I guess buying property in a pandemic is essential. You’ve got to have access to a good bolthole for your doomsday prepping. Except half of Sydney is already here. So it’s not really a bolthole. More like an outer suburb.
When did real estate start trumping public health orders? With military and police attention on western Sydney, it appears no one was watching Rose Bay. While some in Sydney were being fined for breaking LGA orders visiting their mum, our patient zero went on a 900 kilometre odyssey to an open house. No isolating on arrival. No QR coding in. Oh, and he brought his sons. Also COVID positive. Yeah, we’re a bit cranky. But it’s Byron. We’re all over the forgiveness thing. And letting go. It’s on our affirmation cards. It was always going to happen. And, I guess, it was always going to be you, Sydney.
You see Sydney, we feel vulnerable. We know you’ve been sneaking in through our window. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who just arrived from your lockdown. (Not poor people. It’s your entitled.) The planes keep landing. We all ask ... how? But we don’t dob you in Sydney. That’s not our style. After all, you might evict us. We know why you’re here. To sample our crystals. To do our yoga. And to buy more real estate.
Sydney, you already own so much of our rental market. It raises the question. Is Byron still Byron if the only people who can afford to live here are from Sydney? The median price of a house in our town is now more than Sydney. Most of our workforce is in retail. You don’t get a house in Wategos selling T-shirts in a surf shop. We have the highest homelessness rates outside of Sydney. You have a population of 5.3 million. We have a population of 9000. Do the maths.
You put our houses (well technically “your” houses, but in “our” community) on Airbnb. You don’t live here. These are houses for fabulous holidays, not fabulous lives. We’re a strong market investment. Our own desirability is our downfall. But rather than look at the cause – you blame the victim. Byron. You say “Byron has lost it”. Like you’re not part of what’s happening. Then you book your holiday again for the following year.
Right now during our one-week lockdown the local community is scrambling to find accommodation for women and children who live in their cars. There are families living in their vehicles while your holiday letting investments sit vacant. Yeah, Sydney, that’s starting to grate.
We know you love us. Well, at least superficially. But we need real care. If you want to be here, we need you to get involved. To do some dune care. To volunteer at the soup kitchen. Maybe return one or two of your holiday rental investments to the market as affordable accommodation so our baristas don’t have to travel in from the border to make your soy dandy latte.
And please, give Chris Hemsworth a break. He’s here for the right reasons. He’s not an out-of-town investor. He’s a resident. His kids go to our schools. He has an investment, not just in some impressive property, but in the community. While everyone blamed Hemsworth for changing the face of Byron, they missed out on the hundreds of property moguls who remain nameless and who don’t actually live here. Um, Sydney, I’m looking at you.
So Sydney, we still love you. (I thank you Sydney for my three husbands. All Sydney boys.) We just need you to be mindful of your impact on us. We certainly know our impact on you.
You come here to recharge, to renew, to get off drugs, to get on drugs, to rebuild, to find yourself, to find someone else … to live a life in a connected community. We are your soft place to fall. We keep your secrets. So maybe you could help us by keeping our town in better shape.
Love, Byron
PS. And can we have some of our vax back? The stuff we returned for your year 12s? If your anti-vaxer infects our anti-vaxers, we’re screwed.
Mandy Nolan is a Byron Bay resident of 30 years, a comedian, writer and the Greens candidate for Richmond.
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Mandy Nolan is a Byron Bay resident of 30 years, a comedian, writer and the Greens candidate for Richmond.
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2021-08-14 20:00:00Z
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