Welcome!

   In the beginning the museum was a second hand shop catering to hippy needs, which was a nightmare because hippys are such good scroungers, for about 8 years it bought and sold old junk, particularly from neighbouring farm dispersal sales. Always called the Nimbin Museum, we put huge prices on rare pioneering artefacts and ended up with a local collection of oddities from early European days in the area.

   As tourists began to visit Nimbin curious about the hippy experiment - with endless questions - we decided to make a walk through experience to give visitors some idea of the hippy mind.

   The journey begins outside on the foot path where the head of the Rainbow Serpent rests. Don't be put off by the feral rabble outside, this is the end of the road, the last bus stop - the plug hole. And they are the search party that we send in after you if you haven't reappeared in a couple of hours!

Follow the winding serpents path, beginning with dinosaurs you soon enter the aboriginal dreamtime in the Bundjalung Room. Largely painted by Burri Jerome, around the top of the cave the entire history of aboriginals in the area is painted in symbols.

The paths continues into the Pioneer Room, the serpent fades to grey as the forests are decimated. English pasture and cows replaced the rain forest and the environment is changed forever. Early hippys, if not beatniks and farm boys earlier, discovered magic mushrooms growing out of the cow shit- just one of the attractions which led to Nimbin becoming the hard core of the alternative back to the earth movement.

   In 1973 University students held the Aquarius Festival in and around the village of Nimbin, which by then, was a country town on the verge of closing down. Most of the shops were closed and the hippys bought many buildings for a song following the huge success of the festival and the consequent settling in the area of many festival goers.

   And so it grew, Nimbin becoming a mecca for seekers, freaks and generally those looking for a new way of life with values that made sense. After visiting the hippy shack the journey continues along the forest walk to the cave- which can be anything that you can imagine it to be- a place of re-birth perhaps. The serpent then leads you in to the Timbarra Cafe run by environmental activists who are particularly dedicated towards stopping the cyanide gold mine at sacred bold top mountain at the head waters of the Clarence River. Have a coffee or a juice here and talk to them.

   The last stage of the Museum journey is the Hemp Room, a display of cannabis information and culture. The Museum is dedicated to ending the stupid drug laws, like most people in Nimbin, finally you are back in the Bundjalung Room leading to the front door.

   The Timbarra Cafe and the Museum are both run by volunteers and please talk to us if you are interested in helping. We pay massive rent of around $2,000 per month, so your donation is critical.

   Soon we plan to have all sorts of archival material relating to Nimbin's history on this web site.... If you would like to contribute either time or material please e-mail us at

museum@nimbinaustralia.com