Nimbin
  
   
The picturesque alternative echo village of Nimbin is one hour west of Byron Bay, at the foothills of the world heritage Border Ranges and Nightcap National Parks. Once a sacred initiation site for the Bundjalung tribe, it was settled by white Europeans in the late 19th century. To make a living the settlers clear-felled much of the forest, fenced it off from the local Kooris and were not in favour of those that objected to being uprooted from their traditional lands and way of life. Within a few decades they introduced cattle on the recently cleared slopes and so within another few decades the once pristine forests surrounding this area had been transformed into an expanse of denuded, eroding cow pastures.  

   
 
 

By 1973, Nimbin was almost a ghost town. Soon after Woodstock, a new hippy counter culture was born. A bunch of long haired student radicals from the Australian Union of Students arrived seeking a site for a national student counter culture life style event called the Aquarius Festival. It was a music festival, inspired by the music of Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin and many more. Thousands of colourful young people, mostly students, flocked to Nimbin, and many stayed. With the hippies came, pot, LSD and psychedelics drugs.

   
Today Nimbin is a dynamic mix of artists, writers, environmental activists, drop outs, backpackers, bush food, alternative museums and festivals. The fulfilment of their common ideal of a loving, peaceful life, the dream... well maybe it is still a little way off. Rainforest and bush regeneration is well underway. Many of the permaculture communes are still functioning, and the streets are full of people strolling, talking and openly smoking pot as they drum, sing and rumba.
   
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