Nimbin is NOT a Tidy Town We hope you enjoy our latest effort to give you, the visitor, a glimpse of the real Nimbin, and what makes us tick. When you first hit Nimbin, you may be put of f by the 'street scene' and count it against Nimbin and its residents, however you cannot blame Nirnbin for a hard drug problem that is affecting most centres and most countries.

This edition is a good example of the cooperation and time people put into making this village an interesting and viable place, it was all voluntary effort by about seven of us.

Although there is a lack of work opportunities Nimbin has huge employment – all voluntary. We have not been able to document all the many individuals, groups, organisations that, operate here. There is a writers group, youth, centre, soup kitchen, retirement home, older, women's forum. The list goes on. The performing and entertainment arts are, hard to beat, sornetimes it's too hard to make a choice. With a choir, cabaret, live theatre, (two), and dance groups giving belly, tap and, African etc, also drumrning, drumming, and drumming... If you haven't had enough then you, can listen to stand-up poets & comics, or a, concert pianist, a harpist, guitarists, singers... One of the most popular events is the, fashion parade, if you are here when it happens, make sure you don't miss it. Then there's, the painters.... Lastly, one of the reasons Nimbin is a great village is the attitude of caring for the Earth. Many battles have originated from here for; the forests, some we have won. Never-the-less the effort must go on, and, we hope you will take away with you a feel for, the people that live here and that the social, and natural environment will inspire you to, create something wonderful too.

Apart from the shadows of the war, the pneumonic plague and the depression, Nimbin was a place of sunshine and a great place to grow up, according to the young folk. The clean wholesorne environment was etched on the receptive mind of young Leslie Hall and led him to a love of science and a professorship at Queensland University. Another professor to be, Anthony Blackshield tested – the playground rules and restrictions by chasing Lucy Nardi and her mates into the sanctuary of the girl's toilets at Nimbin Public School.

Nimbin as a whistle stop place in history paused a while after World War II, defying the immutability of change, before clicking into the the next movernent of the wheel which brought in the counter culture of 1973 and signposted the end of an era and the passing of old time Nimbin. It may have been the death of the old ways of life but it was also a rebirth of a new life style. The fears of the older inhabitants that their way of life would be submerged and lost in the alternative lifestyle, caused thern to commission the book 'The Days & Ways of Old Time Nimbin. Ironically enough, the two leading personalities in the compilation of this work are not frorn the original families. Eric Bazzana is of the Italian stock who were the pioneers of the banana industry in the 1930's while Rob Allen is a product of the Aquarius Era dedicated to the preservation of the past, as are many other new settlers. After all, the early selector in his log hut with his family crowded for warmth around the hearth and open fire with its singing and hissing kettle was not so different from the modern 'hippie' who has turned his back on the materialistic world and returned to the LIFESTYLE . OF THE OLD PIONEERS.

Source: The Days & Ways of Old Time Nimbin – Maurice Ryan. Published by the Nimbin Chamber of Commerce, 1999. (On sale at Perceptio's, Nimbin).