Nimbin and Minyon Falls, NSW

Nimbin derives from the term “Nimbanjee” a protective spirit that is a part of the Whiyabul Clan’s dreamtime, which is of cultural importance to the local Bundjalung People. Nimbin’s lush green attractiveness brought loggers to the region in the 1840’s, once the sources of cedar wood dried up in the early 1900’s the land was utilised for dairy farming and banana growing to take full advantage of the sub tropical climate. The 1960’s recession brought economic woe to the rainbow region until 1973; the Aquarius Festival changed it all. The Aquarius Festival brought together university students, alternative lifestyle practitioners, hippies and your usual partygoers. After the festival, while many ventured home, hundreds stayed behind to bring the next revolution of Nimbin as an “alternative lifestyle” community, or as what others may call it “the drug capital of Australia”. Today, it’s alternative reputation still lives on.

After a drive from Byron Bay that took us through Lismore and many windy roads, we snapped a shot of the Nimbin rocks and parked ourselves in the local car park. A few steps into our walk we get offered some local produce, we gave it a miss. Getting out into the main street of the town, most things were painted green and filled with rainbows. On one end of the main street, the dealers hang out and spectate the tourists, harmless but a bit on the nose. Walking along we browsed around the Hemp Embassy, even if alternative lifestyles aren’t in your interest it's worth a look around to learn a bit about Nimbin’s famous counter culture. Further along is the Nimbin School of Arts Gallery, which gave us a different perspective on Rainbow Region life. Gorgeous paintings filled the 100 plus year old walls from local artists, and a friendly volunteer resident gave us an insight into what life is like here, that its not just a haven for drugs but a retreat for creative arts. After a perspective change on locals we dropped into another Gallery, which spoilt us with more great local art from Nimbin and surroundings. Before heading out we ate at the Phoenix Rising café, the food wasn’t too great but the music (a harp and drums) made for a chilled atmosphere and reminded us of our dear friend Kat, the Cane Juice Lady from Innisfail. 

We drove another way out of Nimbin and went up into the mountains of Nightcap National Park, filled with 20,000 acres of rich sub-tropical rainforest. The drive was endless of twists, turns and stunning levels of green flora. We got to our destination in Nightcap, which was the Minyon Falls. Popular for a lot of tourists, these falls are 100 metres high and give you views all the way out to the Byron coastline. The run of water over the rhyolite cliffs made it spectacular to watch from all angles. Off to the west of the falls was a walking track that did a loop to Quandong Falls and back along a fire trail. The track gave us more views of the Minyon Falls and took us out to the edge of Quandong falls. It was quite a relaxed walk and a good distance of about 4.8 kilometres. After being satisfied with waterfalls and cliff edges, we coasted our way back down the range into Byron Bay to blue seas after a day of green.

It was nice to get away from the riff raff of busy Byron Bay and get into the quiet towns again. The mountainous rainforests are always nice to drive and walk around; it’s a great change from seeing taillights and people running out in front of you. Nimbin is reputable for its drugs, but still worth a visit for its unique character and creative vibe, the dealers are easy to ignore and the locals were great to spin a yarn with.