Legend abounds in this corner of the universe.. Ancient powerful names smother the entire surface of the map; Mullumbimby, Murwillumbah, Mummulgum & Nimbin... and nestled snugly up against it all, splashed by the gentle surf of the sea, lies, Byron Bay...

A name out of place if one didn't know better, but the story of Byron Bay is older than legend itself, predating time, and with a history even more ancient than the infamous Big Bang..

Surely you've heard of the Big Bang? Everyone's talking about it, - the supposed birth of the universe, the beginning of time, and the biggest, most boisterous, firework ever... With not a sole around to witness it.. Well.. At least, that's what the scientists would have us believe.. but little do they know..

You see, back then, all the matter in the entire universe was collected together at one infinitely small point at the centre of a great void, empty of emptiness itself.. All the planets, all the stars, all the meteors and moons, all the chip shops and supermarkets, launderettes and high rise flats.. all of it scrunched up together in one tiny winsy little bitsy insignificant lump of coal..

Though.. Did I say "insignificant"? hmm.. maybe not quite so insignificant.. Not much to look at really.. well actually you couldn't look at it at all as it was all so black at that time.. Blacker than black tar at the bottom of a bottomless pit on a dark cloudy moonless night with your eyes closed.. But inside that "not quite so insignificant" lump of black coal, strange things were afoot.. Yes.. Strange things were mysteriously afoot indeed!

In the depths of the tiny but massive lump of black coal, dragons sparked into existence..

And as dragons do.. dragons grew.. They sprouted like small Alfalfa grains, and as you can no doubt imagine, it was awfully squishy in there, and not much to do at all really, and what use are wings if they're stuck fast to the side of ones body, unable to be stretched? Yes.. well.. sooner or later something was bound to happen.. And happen it did.. indeed..

The dragons, who were all somehow mysteriously telepathically linked with one another, decided collectively to huff & to puff, and to blow their house down.. well.. actually.. sorry.. that should be up, that is.. blow their house up, or outward, not down.. Yes.. so all together, - and you can never imagine how many there were back then, (and even how many more there still are today!).. all together, with all their verily might.. they huffed.. and they puffed.. and they breathed their fiery breaths outward in the biggest roariest hottest most exhalation ever.. and the little lump of black, black, ohh.. ever sooo black coal.. shivered.. Ever so slightly at first, but as their fiery breaths increased, the coal's shiver turned to a tremble, a quake.. gentle sparks escaped into the surrounding void, and before anyone quite knew what had happened, the little coal.. blew up..

Now.. when I say "blew up" I don't just mean like a balloon, or even like a bomb.. hmm.. Imagine a whole star exploding.. Well, it was nothing like that either.. an exploding star would be like a spark from your nylon jumper that's been building up static all day.. only.. only.. much much less.. This explosion was like.. well.. like nothing you could ever possibly ever imagine.. ever in your wildest most bizarest weirdest wonderfullest everest dreamiest dreamy dreams..

Sparks.. bang and whoosh it went.. And the little lump of coal was little no more, black no more.. and not even coal either any more..

"Whooooooooooosh!" said the dragons, with their fiery breaths as they all went whizzing past.. "Wow!" said one.. "Whoooooooow!" cried another, and they all agreed, that they were moving much much too fast.. frightfully fast.. faster than the speediest zoomiest rockets.. which, if you stop and think about it for a while, must have been terrifyingly dizzying and awfully scary really..

The dragons hadn't really meant for things to happen so fast.. hurtling into the ever expanding universe they went.. all of them in different directions, though, back then, there was really only one possible direction.. Up, down, east west north south.. didn't exist.. It was all just out! out! out! away from the space where the once little black coal had been.. faster faster faster.. swooooooosh..

Well.. you really wouldn't be able to imagine how long this went on for.. 10s of year, hundreds of years.. 1000s of years.. millions of years, even frillions of years!.. The dragons moved so fast, and so far they lost all track of space and time, unable to think straight, they knew neither where, nor when, they were, and, quite frankly, where much too dizzy to really care much either..