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New South Wales (Northern NSW) |
| Nimbim | |
| NIMBIN, site of the famed Aquarius Festival which launched Australian hippie culture in 1973, is understandably more reluctant than most towns to move out of its 1970s time warp; its house facades and shopfronts are painted in lurid, psychedelic designs, its small stores sell health food, incense sticks and patchouli oil, and many of the locals have stuck to their 1970s dress code too. Yet the range of Nimbin’s cafés and restaurants certainly marks it as a place of the 1990s. Most visitors may want to get out of town as quickly as possible, for you’ll invariably be hit up for a dope deal or something stronger once you set foot on the street; some find this threatening (although a simple “no thanks” is enough to deter them), while for others it’s the ulterior motive for coming here. | |
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akin to a “hippie hall of fame”, the Nimbin Museum at 62 Cullen
St (hours as they please but usually daily; tel 02/6689 1123; $2 donation)
is certainly worth a visit. It’s a weird and wonderful living museum run
by hippies, with plenty of local history relating to the Aquarius
Festival, Bundjalung Aboriginal culture, and a huge stone phallus in the
centre of one room. Ask here about the Annual Hemp Mardi Gras and Drug
Law Reform Festival, held around May 1; the place is booked up well in
advance so be prepared to camp. If you have affinities with the Green
movement, the Nimbin Environmental Centre, also on Cullen Street,
might interest you: they publicize and campaign on environmental issues,
and can also arrange visits to the Permaculture Centre, a showcase
for a system of sustainable agriculture that is gaining ground worldwide
but especially in developing countries. The Hemp Embassy down the
lane next to the pub is worth a visit too for its display on the uses of
hemp.
THE CHANNON, a 26-kilometre drive southwest of Nimbin, is a pretty village on the banks of Terania Creek with a well-known monthly market, and a tavern, teahouse, craft shop and art gallery in an old butter factory. A fourteen-kilometre drive along the unsealed Terania Creek Road brings you to Protestors Falls, perhaps the Nimbin area’s most famous environmental attraction, saved by a 1979 protest that was dubbed a “hippie guerrilla struggle” by a Rolling Stone article of the period. The first successful anti-logging campaign in Australia saved this rainforest valley filled with ancient brush box trees. The falls, named after the dispute, are a seven-hundred-metre walk from the picnic area, and the waterhole underneath is perfect for swimming. You are permitted to camp for one night only at Terania Creek – but no open fires are allowed; otherwise you can head back to The Channon, where you can stay at the village campsite on the banks of the creek (tel 02/6688 6321) or at Terania Park (tel 02/6688 6121), a scenic caravan park with cabins and campsites. Terania Creek is near the western edge of Whian Whian State Forest; on the forest’s southeastern edge (reached via Mullumbimby or Dunoon), further watery delights are provided by the one-hundred-metre cascade of Minyon Falls. Practicalities |
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are a number of places to stay in and near Nimbin. The comfortable,
nicely decorated Grey Gum Lodge, 2 High St, is a guesthouse right
in town, with its own excellent restaurant and a saltwater swimming pool.
The Nimbin Motel, 413 Croften Rd, 4km north of town near Nightcap
National Park, has a small pool. At Haven Earth, 12km north of town
on Lillian Rock Road in Lillian Rock, you can stay in wooden chalets, and
watch the wild lorikeets that come to feed here.
Nimbin’s main strip, Cullen Street, is full of good places to eat. The once-legendary Rainbow Café began operating in 1973 but closed down for a while in the mid-1990s; it’s now reopened, but locals prefer to hang out at Ricks Café. Nimbin Pizza and Trattoria serves up generous servings of pizza, pasta and salad nightly from 5pm. In terms of nightlife and entertainment, Nimbin’s only drinking hole is the Freemason’s Hotel on Cullen Street, which sees plenty of action (the bistro also serves good counter meals). The cultural heart of town is the small Bush Theatre (tel 02/6689 1111), over the bridge opposite Granny’s Farm hostel. Movies are shown here at weekends: call or check town notice boards for details. During intermission everyone heads next door to the Mulgum Café to sit on the grass and eat fruit salad and ice cream from china bowls. |
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