Australian fashion label Shona Joy will close after 26 years in business, founder Shona Thatcher has announced. Ms Thatcher told staff of the decision on Monday, saying she wants to spend more time with her family at their Byron Bay home. She started the label in 2000, selling designs at Bondi Beach and Paddington markets. She said the business was not closing due to financial stress. The label will continue operating until January, and staff will receive their entitlements.
Australian fashion label Shona Joy has announced its closure after 26 years. Founder Shona Thatcher told staff on Monday that she wants to focus more time on her family. She said the commute between her Sydney offices and her home in Byron Bay had become too burdensome. Ms Thatcher said the decision was not due to financial stress and that she had considered it for four years. The business's 33 employees will receive pay and entitlements, and customers can keep buying online until the new year.
Rick and Tayla won the week on The Block, taking $50,000 off their reserve price. Their handmade concrete water feature with a giant bonsai tree impressed the judges, with Shaynna Blaze saying it was amazing. Adam and Jolene's yard drew praise for its water feature, but criticism for steel rings and sand. Courtney and Sev finished with a 22 score, losing the room-win record. Wyatt, who complained throughout the season, reacted with anger, telling his landscapers he hated the project.
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Former investment banker Peter Hunt and his wife Tania de Jong, a soprano and social entrepreneur, have relisted their five-bedroom Manly penthouse with a $35 million price guide, down $5 million from February. Hunt said the couple are selling because they now spend more time at their home near Byron Bay, adding that the apartment is special and unlikely to be matched. A sale at or above the guide would surpass the Manly suburb record of $34 million set in 2024. Hunt bought the beachfront unit for $12.2 million in 2010.
Rita O’Sullivan started the Wyndham Community Garden Swap after a 2010 trip to Byron Bay, where she saw swapping everywhere. She began by arranging meetings with local gardeners to trade produce, and the group took off after she put up posters. The group now meets on the first Sunday of each month at 10am in a Hoppers Crossing park. Members share surplus produce, plants and gardening items, and the gatherings have become a social occasion. Attendance reaches about 40 people during warmer months, and the next swap is on Sunday 1 November.
Big Brother 2025 contestants have moved on to various careers and personal lives. Coco Beeby, the winner, is working as an actress and writer in Byron Bay. Emily Dale, the runner-up, has returned to teaching in Western Australia and co-hosts a podcast. Colin Ridley, who finished third, is pursuing amateur MMA fighting in Wollongong. Bruce Dunne, who placed fourth, has returned to his trade on the Sunshine Coast. Other contestants have also resumed their careers and maintained connections with each other.
Courtney and Sev reached an agreement with their landscaper, Troy Lovett, over their dwindling budget on The Block. The three agreed to remove a water feature, delete some decking and choose less mature trees. Troy said he would absorb some of the extra costs. Elsewhere in the episode, Jolene and Adam argued over access to their side yard, and Jolene said she had put the feud with Courtney and Sev behind her. Wyatt complained about hauling soil, and Chantel was caught out on a sports trivia question.
Janet Swain, a Labor candidate for Ballina at the next state election, is drawing on years of community music work to connect with voters. A Byron Shire councillor, musician, songwriter and former teacher, she launched her campaign with support from senior Labor figures, including Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib and federal MP Justine Elliot. Swain says politics was never her plan, but she has built community choirs and taught music across her working life.
Amileka, the Byron Bay hinterland home used as the villa in the 2021 Love Island Australia series, has sold. Its most recent price guide was $6 million, down from the $8 million to $9 million guide set when it was first listed in October 2024. The owners, Mikaela Lancaster and Mark Britt, paid $9.5 million for the 10-hectare property in 2022. Nearby, The Ranch at Talofa sold before auction for an undisclosed price, understood to be $10 million.
Asking rents for houses in regional New South Wales have risen over the past year, led by smaller towns, according to Domain data. The median weekly rent reached $640 in the September quarter, up 4.9 per cent. Berrigan recorded the steepest rise at 18.5 per cent, followed by Bellingen at 18.2 per cent. Experts say tenants priced out of nearby areas are moving further afield, while new workers and limited housing supply add pressure. Local agents report strong demand and few available rentals.
Two exhibitions honour the legacy of late queer Asian-Australian artist Andrew Hau Ewing. Ancestor Spirits is the first major retrospective of Ewing’s work, spanning his career in Sydney, Byron Bay, Indonesia, Cairns, Darwin and Adelaide. In the Half Light is a new exhibition by Kirthana Selvaraj, the inaugural recipient of the Andrew Ewing Fellowship. Both exhibitions are on display at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Haymarket until 13 December 2026.
Media figure Antony Catalano, accused of choking and threatening to kill his wife, will be allowed to move his family overseas. Appearing in person in the Melbourne Magistrates Court for the first time since being charged in March, his barrister said the family wants to reconcile and a plea deal showing remorse is possible. Catalano faces eight charges, which he has not yet answered in court, over alleged attacks at a St Kilda property. The magistrate approved a bail condition requiring 24 hours' notice of any change of address. The matter returns to court on December 14.
Four authors will speak at the inaugural Murrumburrah-Harden Writers' Festival on Saturday 28 November at the historic Barnes Store in Murrumburrah. Organised by the Rotary Club of Murrumburrah-Harden, the event features crime writer Chris Hammer, fantasy writer Juliet Lautenbach, journalist Gabrielle Chan and memoirist Macy Henderson. Each author will take part in a casual conversation of about an hour, followed by audience questions. Tickets cost $50, plus booking fees, and about a third had sold, with places limited to 60 people.
Lyndall Murray is selling her Evans Head home to invest in Indonesia, citing changes to property tax rules. The new rules replace the 50% capital gains tax discount with inflation indexation and abolish negative gearing for established dwellings. Ms Murray had planned to buy investment properties in Australia. She said she now has the equity to do so, but the tax changes had removed the benefits she expected. She plans to buy a villa in Lombok, where she says her money would generate more rental income, and to return to Australia later without a mortgage.
