Prospectors Falls, Nimbin, and Tuntable Falls Community Field Trip
For my Perspectives of Australia course, we took a field trip on Friday. The trip started with a journey to a national park close to Nimbin. Inside the national park (the name of which escapes me), we hiked to a nearby waterfall named Prospectors Falls. After the national park, we visited the infamous Nimbin. Nimbin was the home of the "southern hemisphere’s Woodstock" in 1973 known as the Aquarius Festival. Ever since the festival, Nimbin has been a small alternative town that exists today solely through the sale of marijuana. It was quite the experience to walk into a “hemp bar”. After our short lunch in Nimbin, we visited an alternative lifestyle community. In a valley deep in the rainforest, a group of around 250 people live life very close to nature. The people are self-sustainable, producing their own power and very little waste. That being said, they are still a fairly well developed society. Many members of the community leave around my age to pursue college or careers, only to return again when they wish to raise children. The guide who showed us around the community was a woman in her late 20s with a recording contract. She had toured in the United States. At first, I was a little wary of such a community. I thought that it would be “uncivilized”. However, that day I realized much of their philosophies are similar to my own. It was definitely an eye-opening experience (Mom, that does not mean I will be running off into the rainforest to live anytime soon).