Mullumbimby Takes Its 'no' Fight To Woolworths Chiefs

Mullumbimby Takes its 'No' Fight to Woolworths Chiefs

'The Mullumbimby Letters' a series of personal letters backed by national media advertising is asking the Directors and Executives of Woolworths to abandon its plans for a new store in the town of Mullumbimby, near Byron Bay in far-north NSW.

A prominent advertisement placed in the Australian Financial Review newspaper is aimed at Woolworths shareholders and the business community, while the letters appeal directly to the retail giant's top decisionmakers and also their advisers.

The Mullumbimby imbroglio is presented in the letters and advertisements as a shareholder value, business sustainability and corporate social responsibility challenge for one of Australia's largest companies with nearly 400,000 shareholders.

The letters say in part: 'While we know that the Directors and Executives of Woolworths are professional and diligent in delivering value to their investors, we also believe that you are committed to corporate social responsibility and sustainability as part of core business practice.

'We therefore have no hesitation in writing to you personally to highlight the current community resistance that Woolworths faces as it seeks to expand its vast retail network to our magical town of Mullumbimby, in the iconic Byron Shire in far northern NSW. In pushing to establish a major new commercial hub outside of our town's existing central business area, Woolworths is presenting an unwelcome threat to the identity, amenity and longterm viability of a unique community. We don't use the word unique lightly.

'Mullumbimby is surrounded by natural beauty and rural enterprise. This is a successful community where locals greet one another as they pop in and out of shops in the main street. You can buy locally grown fruit and vegetables at the green grocers and farmers' markets, and meat from the region at the butchers, making us real fresh food people. The proprietors and employees are local people and their businesses nurture a vibrant local economy. We fear that a bigbox supermarket away from the main street puts all of this under a cloud of inappropriate development.

'The situation in Mullumbimby is unfortunate to say the least in our eyes a case of Might v. Mullum that goes to the heart of a community's right to shape and determine its own character and destiny.'

FURTHER INFORMATION: See attached example of the letters and the AFR advertisement, visit the website www.magicalmullum.com, or contact

Mullumbimby Forum Secretary
Tricia Shantz on mobile 0421 422645 or

Mullumbimby Forum external adviser Murray Hogarth on mobile 0417 267235


SOURCE: The Mullumbimby Forum