| Aquarius Festival | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 12 to 23 May 1973 |
| Location(s) | Canberra, Nimbin, New South Wales, Australia |
| Years active | 1971, 1973 |
| Founders | Johnny Allen and Graeme Dunstan |
The Nimbin Aquarius Festival was a counter-cultural arts and music festival organised by the Australian Union of Students. It was the fourth in a biannual series of festivals, first organised by the National Union of Australian University Students. The first Australian Universities Arts Festival was held in Sydney in 1967, and the second Australian Universities Arts Festival was held in Melbourne in 1969. The third added "Aquarius" to its name and was held in Canberra in 1971. [1] The fourth and last was held in Nimbin, New South Wales in 1973. [2]
The Aquarius Festival aimed to celebrate alternative thinking and sustainable lifestyles. [3] The ten-day event was held from 12 to 23 May 1973 and co-directed by Johnny Allen and Graeme Dunstan. Vernon Treweeke also played a part in organising the event. It is often described as Australia's equivalent to the Woodstock Festival and the birthplace for Australia's hippie movement. [4] It has also been credited with being the first event that sought the permission to use the land from traditional owners, and included a Welcome to Country ceremony. [5] The estimated attendance at Nimbin was between 5,000 and 10,000 people. [6]
Performers at the festival included the White Company - an experimental theatre troupe featuring a number of alternative culture artists including Peter Carolan - singer Paul Joseph, Donny McCormack (ex-Nutwood Rug Band), The Larrikins and Ian Farr. Also appearing were Indian street performers the Bauls of Bengal, the South African pianist Dollar Brand (later known as Abdullah Ibrahim), classical-ambient musician Lindsay Bourke, [7] and tightrope walker and unicyclist Philippe Petit, who gained worldwide fame the following year by walking between the rooftops of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. The New Zealand-based musical and theatrical troupe Blerta also made an appearance, starring the likes of Bruno Lawrence and Geoff Murphy, both of whom later went on to produce a number of successful feature films together.
The festival had a permanent effect on the economy of Nimbin, as many Festival participants decided to remain in the district. [8] The area was previously a dairying and banana growing region in severe decline. Some of those that stayed might be defined as hippies, but in fact the larger percentage came from all sorts of backgrounds and life experience, ranging from 18 to 80 years old.
One group pooled resources after the Nimbin Aquarius Festival and bought a then 500-hectare (1,200-acre) property at Tuntable Falls [8] in the next valley east, below Mount Nardi, and formed a community called the "Co-Ordination Co-Operative". Other groups followed suit and formed communes that continue today. Examples include Paradise Valley Pastoral Company and Nmbngee. [8]
Interviews were conducted in 1992 documenting the alternative lifestyle movement of northern NSW in the 1970s, focusing on the town of Nimbin and the 1973 Aquarius Festival. Interviewees discussed how they arrived in Nimbin, their efforts in organising the Aquarius Festival, and the lasting impact the Festival had on the township. [9]
Lismore is a city located in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia and the main population centre in the City of Lismore local government area, it is also a regional centre in the Northern Rivers region of the state. Lismore is 734 km (456 mi) north of Sydney and 200 km (120 mi) south of Brisbane. It is situated on a low floodplain on the banks of the Wilsons River near the latter's junction with Leycester Creek, both tributaries of the Richmond River which enters the Pacific Ocean at Ballina, 30 km (19 mi) to the east.
Northern Rivers is the most northeasterly region of the Australian state of New South Wales, located between 590 and 820 kilometres north of the state capital, Sydney, and encompasses the catchments and fertile valleys of the Clarence, Richmond, and Tweed rivers. It extends from Tweed Heads in the north to the southern extent of the Clarence river catchment which lies between Grafton and Coffs Harbour, and includes the main towns of Tweed Heads, Byron Bay, Ballina, Kyogle, Lismore, Casino and Grafton. At its most northern point, the region is 102 kilometres (63 mi) south-southeast of the Queensland capital, Brisbane.
Nimbin is a town in the Northern Rivers area of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately 30 km (19 mi) north of Lismore, 33 km (21 mi) northeast of Kyogle, and 70 km (43 mi) west of Byron Bay.
Blerta was a New Zealand musical and theatrical co-operative active from 1971 until 1975.
Murwillumbah is a town in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Tweed Shire, on the Tweed River. Sitting on the south eastern foothills of the McPherson Range in the Tweed Volcano valley, Murwillumbah is 848 km north-east of Sydney, 13 km south of the Queensland border and 132 km south of Brisbane.
Coolangatta is a coastal suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It is the Gold Coast's southernmost suburb and it borders New South Wales. In the 2021 census, Coolangatta had a population of 6,491 people.
Tweed Volcano is a partially eroded Early Miocene shield volcano located in northeastern New South Wales, which formed when this region of Australia passed over the East Australia hotspot around 23 million years ago. Mount Warning, Lamington Plateau and the Border Ranges between New South Wales and Queensland are among the remnants of this volcano that was originally over 100 kilometres (62 mi) in diameter and nearly twice the height of Mount Warning today, at 1,156 metres (3,793 ft). Despite its size, Tweed Volcano was not a supervolcano; other shield volcanoes—such as in the Hawaiian Islands—are much larger. In the 23 million years since the volcano was active, erosion has been extensive, forming a large erosion caldera around the volcanic plug of Mount Warning. Its erosion caldera is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
Ernest Ashley Dingo AM is an Indigenous Australian actor, television presenter and comedian, originating from the Yamatji people of the Murchison region of Western Australia. He is a designated Australian National Living Treasure.
A Welcome to Country is a ritual or formal ceremony performed as a land acknowledgement at many events held in Australia. It is an event intended to highlight the cultural significance of the surrounding area to the descendants of a particular Aboriginal clan or language group who were recognised as the original human inhabitants of the area. For the Welcome to be recognised as official, it must be performed by a recognised elder of the group. Welcomes to Country are sometimes accompanied by traditional smoking ceremonies, music or dance. Where an elder is not available to perform the welcome, or there is not a recognised traditional owner, an Acknowledgement of Country may be offered instead.
Lismore is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Janelle Saffin of the Labor Party.
The Summerland Australian Football League or SAFL was an Australian rules football competition in the Northern Rivers and New England region of New South Wales, Australia, in existence from 1984 to 2011. It now is reformed under the AFL Queensland banner under various QFA divisions, currently QFA Division 2 South/Northern Rivers.
The Channon is a village in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, Australia. It is about 18 kilometres northwest of Lismore and about 21 km from Nimbin, NSW. It is part of the City of Lismore.
Lois Martha Roberts was an Australian murder victim, whose death near Nimbin, New South Wales in 1998 remains unsolved.
The Rainforest Way is a circular series of tourist drives that extends through South East Queensland, Australia across the border into the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.
Graeme Clement Dunstan is a prominent Australian cultural and political activist. A graduate of Essendon High School, Graeme matriculated in 1960 as dux with honours in maths, physics and chemistry. He is an engineering graduate of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where he was President of the Students' Union (1967) and twice co-editor of its newspaper, Tharunka,.
The Leycester Creek, formerly known as Duck Creek, is a perennial stream of the Richmond River catchment, is located in Northern Rivers region in the state of New South Wales, Australia.
The Nightcap Range is a mountain range located in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, in the area between Lismore and the New South Wales-Queensland border. It includes Mount Burrell and Mount Nardi as well as containing the Nightcap National Park. The range is mainly covered with relict warm temperate rainforest and contains several rare and/or endemic species, most notably the Nightcap oak and the Minyon quandong.
Lismore railway station is a heritage-listed former station on the Murwillumbah line at Lismore, New South Wales, Australia, which opened in 1894 and was closed in 2004. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Albert Digby Moran (1948–2020) was an Australian Aboriginal artist. His work derived inspiration from his Bundjalung ancestors in the north of New South Wales, Australia, where he remains one of the Northern Rivers' most recognised artists.
Terania Shire was a local government area in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia.
