Byron Bay

Byron Baes Review: What I Learned Binge-Watching Australia’s Worst Show Ever

"Sound healing still works just as well, even if you're drunk."

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Byron Baes Review: What I Learned Binge-Watching Australia’s Worst Show Ever

Images, left to right: @nathanfavro, @st.james.music and @myfriendelias.

I’d heard a lot about Byron Baes – Netflix‘s latest reality show, based in Australia – before I watched it.

For those of you not au fait with Byron Bay’s linen selling, ‘booch drinking, micro-influencing, hinterland hopping new community, here’s some context.

Vanity Fair’s ruthless feature on the Creative Mecca of Australia (The Coast Of Utopia) shot Byron Bay into the limelight in 2019. But far from deterring visitors, it seems to have only encouraged them.

Who Weekly branded Byron Bay the “celebrity capital” of Australia in 2020 and from there things have snowballed.

RELATED: Luxury Byron Bay Airbnbs Now As Expensive As ‘Dream Hollywood Villas’

Byron Bay has experienced a rental crisis in response to its growing popularity. The region has also recently been the victim of violent flooding.

On top of this, during 2020 and 2021, COVID saw many Sydneysiders and Melburnians make sea changes up the coast thanks to big city burnout and the work from home revolution.

This phenomenon has had such an impact on the region that the creator of Byron Baes, Vice journalist Julian Morgans, told The Guardian he reckons anthropologists ought to study it.

“Someone could do a PHD on unpacking the cultural tipping point Byron has gone through,” he said.

“It was always beautiful. But there are lots of nice places that don’t have large communities of influencers.”

RELATED: ‘Most Byron Photo Ever’ Highlights Australia’s Changing Coastal Culture

He told The Guardian the show would have elements both of a documentary and also of a drama: “No one has really put a proper microscope on influencing as a business, what drives them, how they made their money … let’s unpack that.”

But he admits “what keeps people-watching is the dating, best friends, fights, breakups, makeups, all the good stuff.”

On that note: I can confirm the show got that right. I was interested in the first place (unlike, pure trash shows like Too Hot Too Handle or MAFS), because I know Byron Bay is ~trending~ and I was curious about what this Weird New World, just 8 hours up the coast from me, was really like (even if I knew the show would probably depict quite a skewed version).

RELATED: The Awkward Truth About Byron Bay’s ‘Locals Only’ Attitude

I was also intrigued by the controversy: any show which manages to get the local community to protest against it has got to be worth a watch, right? There was definitely an element of “how bad can it really be?” curiosity in my decision to watch it.

Despite Byron Bay not being as interesting of a place (as represented by the show, anyway) as I perhaps expected, compared to the massive splash it’s had in the news, the drama managed to keep me hooked to the very end of the show in the same way all good garbage reality shows do.

I’m not sure I learnt a whole lot from the experience, but here are a few things I realised, while watching the show.

What I Learned From Byron Baes

‘Booch is a word

Whether it was thrown in there to confirm Sydneysiders’ worst stereotypes about Byron, or whether it really is a thing people in Byron say, in the first episode of Byron Baes the word ‘booch (i.e. Kambucha) is unironically used at Hannah’s house.

‘Lords’ is an expression

Similar to ‘booch, I wasn’t sure if this was a legitimate turn of phrase or just a thing that satirical Instagram pages like Lords Of Byron Bay use in painting a caricature of the Northern Rivers vocabulary. As far as I can tell, based on the show, it’s the former. It also seems to be spreading to Manly…

Sound healing still works just as well, even if you’re drunk

Thank god for that.

Grown men in the Byron area still have slip and slides

And they look like a whole lot of fun.

Relatively few of the main characters are actually from Byron

Like, remarkably few.

People in Byron can tell if you’re not from Byron

Especially if they have only been in Byron for 6 months themselves…

Linen must not be messed with

As Gold Coast transplant and Byron Baes’ main protagonist Sarah discovers, if you put your own spin on a Byron Bay outfit you are liable to receive comments like “you can take the girl out of the Gold Coast but you can’t take the Gold Coast out of the girl.”

Also, apparently, joking comments like “If you’re wearing heels and no undies it’s a date” are quite offensive to Byron Bay’s spiritual community (especially if they feel you’re on a mission to hook up with their flatmate, whom they are still in love with).

Crazy-looking hippies can be kinder than switched-on tech heads

Despite being portrayed as a mad hatter, Hannah, Byron Baes’ resident spiritual guru, is the first character to really give Sarah a chance as a friend, despite being the classic sort of Byron Bay character people from Sydney or the Gold Coast might mock as a whack job.

Some people in Byron Bay think the Gold Coast is a world away

And (as you can see above), vice versa.

People who put a lot of effort into being at peace with the universe aren’t necessarily at peace with the universe

Or themselves, for that matter.

People on Twitter take reality TV characters a little too seriously

See: the below Tweets…

Australia’s version of Pete Davidson is considered a hunk

Skinny is the new strong, people. You heard it here first… Oh and – having lived in Berlin, and having tattoos, for some reason, makes you hot.

What I Didn’t Learn From Byron Baes

What Byron Bay is like if you’re not a micro-influencer, model, or ‘working on a label’

If you’re not one of the above, watching Byron Baes might activate your taste buds, but it won’t give you much of an insight into what your day to day life would be like if you moved there.

Whether the Byron Baes characters are full-on acting or whether the drama was real

There are moments when you think: “this had to be scripted.” But there are others where you are super hooked in, and even invested in the outcome, despite yourself.

How the long-standing local community sees these influencers

Because the show focuses on these young things’ relationships with each other, not the community at large, it’s hard to know how old-school locals see these exotic blow-ins (from what I can remember Cai is the only one who grew up near Byron).

Byron Baes Cast

The above review is purely my personal opinion of the divisive show. If you’ve never seen Byron Baes and are intrigued as to who stars in it, this is the full Byron Baes cast.

Elias Chigros – Elias goes by the name Elias Black on his Instagram account, and if he looks familiar, that’s because he appeared on the first season of the Australian version of Love Island. Since then, Elias has been working on his modelling and digital marketing careers.

Nathan Favro – Nathan is one of the main cast members of Byron Baes, and like Elias, has also appeared on Australian TV screens before, having appeared in both The Bachelorette Australia and Bachelor in Paradise Australia. In his latest reality TV outing, Nathan assumes the role of tour guide for newcomer Sarah, and even serves as a potential romantic interest.

Jade Kevin Foster – Jade’s claims that he’s the most-followed male influencer in Australia is a storyline all in itself in Byron Baes, especially when another cast member, Alex Reid, decides it is his job to find out if it’s actually true. Riveting stuff.

Sarah St. James – Byron Baes predominantly follows Sarah and her move from the Gold Coast down to Byron Bay. We see her struggle to fit in, attempt to progress her music career, and even find romance.

Alex Reid – Alex runs his own influencer management company and is one of the few cast members to take a liking to Sarah.

Jess & Lauren Johansen-Bell – Jess runs her own clothing label, which sister Lauren can often be seen modelling.

Cai Leplaw – the only cast member to actually grow up in Byron, Cai is now an accomplished photographer who holds regular exhibitions.

Elle Watson – Nathan’s flatmate and a woman who wants to do her bit to help the environment, alongside her fiancé.

Hannah Brauer – You’re either going to love or hate Hannah. She’s a little quirky, but her heart is in the right place.

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