Aquarius Festival

The Aquarius Festival was a counter-cultural arts and music festival organised by the Australian Union of Students and sponsored by Peter Stuyvesant. The first one was held in Canberra in 1971, while the second, and last, was held in Nimbin, New South Wales in 1973. The ten day event (12-23 May 1973), co-directed by Johnny Allen and Graeme Dunstan, had a permanent effect on the economy of Nimbin, as many Festival participants decided to remain in the district which was previously a dairying and banana growing region in severe decline. Some of those that stayed might self-describe as "hippies", but the larger mass came from all sorts of backgrounds and life experience, ranging from 18 to 80, and would resent that label.

One group pooled resources after the Nimbin Aquarius Festival and bought a then property at Tuntable Falls in the next valley east, below Mt Nardi, and formed a community called the "Co-Ordination Co-Operative". Other groups followed suit.

While "Multiple Occupancy" was basically a cheap housing alternative, there were some self-described spiritual communities that shared particular values, like Bodhi Farm and Darmananda, but they tended to be closer to the neighbouring The Channon and Terania Creek than Nimbin.

Mullumbimby and Byron Bay attracted more of the moneyed "New Age" people, while Nimbin attracted impecunious wanderers and back-packers.

Within a decade the "Aquarians" were outnumbered by the continuing flow of disaffected urbanites and tree-changers coming into the area.

External links

• http://www.nimbinweb.com.au/nimbin/history/history2.htm
• http://www.smh.com.au/news/New-South-Wales/Nimbin/2005/02/17/1108500198341.html

References