Log move plan gets the chop

IT’S the log that simply won’t be moved.

Cedar Log at the Lismore City Hall. Photo The Northern Star Archives. Picture: The Northern Star Archives

IT'S the log that simply won't be moved.

After a string of veteran volunteers emerged from the woodwork to protest a vote by Lismore City Council to relocate the town's red cedar memorial, Lismore councillor Isaac Smith has made a dramatic U-turn.

Cr Smith - who originally spoke in favour of the log being relocated, its bark stripped and Aboriginal interpretive carvings inscribed on it - will bring a rescission motion to the floor on Tuesday night.

"The original proposition was to move the log and preserve it, and then do some Aboriginal carvings... to blend the stories of European settlement and Aboriginal history," Cr Smith said.

"Now it seems inappropriate to pursue those ideas."

The log has sat on a strip of grass between Bounty St and the Bruxner Hwy since it was presented to the Lismore mayor in 1968 by the NSW Forestry Commission.

It was brought from Brindle Creek in Kyogle Shire in 1968 thanks to a small army of log-savvy volunteers.

It is hoped the log, which currently has graffiti, dirt and dust will get some TLC, including signage about its history and the history of cedar-getting on the Northern Rivers.