There’s more to ‘the marijuana capital of Australia’ than hippies

By Caroline Gladstone

Updated May 16, 2023 — 10.53pm

There’s a handful of hippy towns in Australia. I’d put Byron Bay on the list, that’s old Byron before the arrival of cashed-up southerners and US celebrities. I’d add loveable neighbour Mullumbimby and blissful Bellingen and Central Tilba also in NSW, while Queensland’s Kuranda, Victoria’s Daylesford and Tasmania’s Cygnet also qualify.

But I’d say Nimbin, 75 kilometres west of Byron and up the road from Lismore, really takes the hash brownie.

In Nimbin, ‘things operate on Nimbin time’.Credit: Alamy

We can thank the Aquarius Festival, held over 10 days in May 1973, for putting the former dairy community on the map and into the nation’s collective consciousness. It was Australia’s first counter-culture festival and the first to seek permission from the Indigenous custodians to use their land.

Nimbin sits in a valley surrounded by wooded rolling hills with national parks to the north and east. Just out of town are Nimbin Rocks, a clutch of volcanic rhyolite extrusions, left over from the Mount Warning eruption eons ago, standing like sentinels in the rainforest. In contrast, the town is a riot of colour, with a row of Indigenous-themed murals on heritage shop fronts, painted just months before the festival began.

While most of the 10,000 Aquarius folk went home, others stayed, bought land and forged alternative lifestyles. Within 20 years the Rainbow Power Company was established along with the Hemp Embassy and its cousin the Hemp Museum; the latter literally went up in smoke in 2014, the blaze wiping out a treasure trove of memorabilia.

And folks, it’s no secret, Nimbin is the marijuana capital of Australia.

This Northern Rivers town is famed for its counterculture and its beautiful natural surroundings.Credit: iStock

For three decades it has staged Mardi Grass on the first May weekend, where 5000 like-minded locals and visitors hail the herb in a mind-boggling variety of ways culminating with a parade led by the green-garbed Ganga Faeries.

This year the town will be on steroids as Aquarius 50, a golden anniversary celebration honouring the original event, kicked off on May 10 just after Mardi Grass.

Nimbin, however, is worth a trip any time of the year, whether to wander down memory lane, brush up on historical events, learn to meditate, buy funky fashions or take a course in permaculture at the Djanbung Gardens, a plant paradise created from a rundown cow pasture 30 years ago.

A visit should start at the old butter factory which houses the visitor centre, Nimbin Candle Factory, Bush Theatre and cafe in tranquil gardens, and Bringabong, one of many hemp-themed clothing shops.

Wander down to the Nimbin Craft Gallery, next to the pub, and then swing into the main drag of Cullen Street, whose colourful shop fronts provide plenty of diversion. Drop into Nimbin Artists Gallery in the School of Arts, the town’s oldest building that also houses Perceptio Books and holds performances year-round.

Cruise into the Hemp Embassy where president Michael Balderstone will provide the whole hemp history and updates on Nimbin’s mission to legalise cannabis. There are fun shops, from Tribal Magic to the Hemp Couturier, offering gifts for friends with a sense of humour, while the Nimbin Emporium is an Aladdin’s cave that stocks everything.

Local herbalist at Nimbin Apothecary.Credit: Lismore City Council

A self-guided tour of the town and its history is available by downloading the Sound Trails app, and once that’s done, take a hike in nearby Nightcap National Park.

Eschewing chain stores, Nimbin prefers to showcase local foods and creativity at the weekly Wednesday farmers’ market and the craft market on the last Sunday of the month.

Fourth-generation residents and farmers Denise and Owen, who run Mountain Top Coffee a few kilometres from town, say Nimbin is much more than a hippy haven.

“We’re a unique little town with a whole lot more - a bakery, post office, police station, fire brigade, a 13-bed hospital, pub with great meals, caravan park, school, swimming pool, skatepark, FM radio station,” says Denise who’s on the CWA and local show society.

“Next year Rainbow Walk and Aquarius Garden developed through community action, will open for all to enjoy.”

Owen quips: “Nimbin accepts you, no matter who you are.”

But Denise warns: “Just remember things operate on Nimbin time.”