Byron Bay, Australia
The “Hippie Capital” of Australia is a place called Byron Bay (look it up!) which is situated at the top of New South Wales, near Brisbane. Byron Bay and surrounding towns like Nimbin, Mullumbimby, and Lismore are absolute havens for the alternative, new-age folk.
Another Opinion: Byron Bay is not the Hippie Capital of Australia. It’s actually Nimbin. Nimbin is 100% hippie. You hardly have to be there 1 minute and someone offers you some pot. The standard vehicle in Nimbin is the Combie Van. Some other hippie inhabited places in the area are Woodenbong and Humpybong (I think they speak for themselves).
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15 Responses to Byron Bay, Australia
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this very true Byron Bay is beautiful and friendly, hippies to aboriginies all gather in this hippie haven….all who doubt, just go and feel the kindness…
peace and love
Hi,
Byron Bay has lovely beaches and a few decent clubs, but it’s not really a ‘hippy’ town. There seems to be a lot of harder drugs around and we found the police quite intense there. The only cheap / alternative hostel in town is extremely pretentious and most of the tourists we met are much more mainstream (plus accommodation is expensive). Nimbin is a sad place, where 1960s idealism has been replaced by 1990s problems, but it’s a good place to take a detour and ‘score’ if you’re on the road up the east coast. It’s also close to some lovely rainforests, but it’s only recommended for a day trip . . . you’d be sick of it (and particularly the extremely young hustlers) after two or three days.
Byron is a place where many different culture of people are found. You have the Hip side, The Straight Side, The Spiritual Side, and The surfer side to name a few.
Its a very enviromentally switched on place, and very Vegie friendly. There is a tiny tiny super market, which is all Vegie with a huge range of tofu. And they have all sorts of fresh herbs in tiny little pots for only 2 bucks each australian. Each day i would by a different plant and cook with. Lemon basil and cinnamon basil where the best. just awsome. Byron also has its own tofu brand, made in byron bay. its highly reccomended and cheap too. There is an organic shop called santos which is sweat too.
ITs also very spritually switched on. Every where youll find meditation and yoga places, all sorts of alternative thearapies and healing. Lots of Krishna’s around too. I got a great free meal from them. There was a place that had meditation for an hour every afternoon, for free. i went to that. it had no pparticualr style, so you could sit or lie down, or use a chair, whatever ever was comfortable. It was in silinece. If you need a chance to focus your awarenss drop in. ITs at a place called Ambaji i think. You will see posters for it on shop doors and stuff.
And great food too, there are awsome falafels to be found at a place called Ka-toush behind the safeway, highly reccomended!
I loved it.
This comment is about Nimbin.
Nimbin nimbin nimbin, what can i say. The marijuana thing is taken a bit too far, of course marijuana has been part of the culture but never the centre of it. The locals whom i met were dishonest and shifty. If you dont know your weed, youll be taken advantage of garunteed.
For a so called “Hip” town, they aint so Hip, There was one old american bloke there who lived there. he was old i think he told me he was 70 something. i thought id found an orginal old hippie, i was wrong. Anyways this shifty bloke has a very nice way of scamming people. what he does is pull out a very very very nice bud, so when people see it, they ask him if he has any to sell, and of course he does. so he sells them some, but the bud he sells is very very different to the bud he pulls out. The bud he pulls out is only for show to trick people into buying from him. I learnt this the hard way.
I but a vial of oil from this bloke too, but it was anything but oil. probably henna. IF you see this bloke dont buy from him.
Also another expeince we had was in a clothes shop. the guy who works there sold us some bud. he told us it was MAster Kush, so i had a look at it, but for some reason i didnt get a good look. so we bought 7 grams for 60 bucks. Then we go roll a joint of the stuff. The bud was leafy, airy, and crystal free! so i took it back to him and told him how it was, he knew it was crap so he gave me 50 bucks back. Hip? i think not.
I didnt really see alot of it, and i know i missed the true nimbin, but for the people on the main street, they are not to be trusted. and the cookies are weak, i had 2 and was barley stoned. And you dont have any clue what your smoking, they will tell you anything. Like yeah man its organic. Yeah its this strain!
Unless your a local they treat you like crap.
I think people are becoming confused about what it actually means to be a ”hippy” or what that involves. Wearing beads, having dreadlocks and smoking pot does not make you a hippy. If you want a real ”hippy” experience or whatever you want to call it, then don”t got to Byron, hell, don”t even go to Nimbin. Explore the world and find a place that”s special to you, not just some town that other people have named a “hippy haven” or whatever. Its about finding your own place in the world and enjoying all that it has to offer, not getting stoned.
Byron bay isn’t a hippie town… it’s just like any other well-populated beach town…
anyway i loved nimbin when I was there… the locals were very friendly and whoever said they were shifty I totally disagree. The reason why the pot isn’t ‘potent’ is because the pot they sell is medicinal and organic… if you go to nimbin JUST to get drugs then you’re wasting your time…
I would say that Byron is not a place to go if yoiu need to be guided or supported. people there can be hard and closed off.
It is very spiritual but there is an image consciousness there that overrides the true hipdom that it s made out to be. There are hordes of tourists and its very expensive to stay there. Its good if youve got money and friends with you. For all others stay clear.
Spirutally, I met some wonderful beings. Out at Rosebank and of course “nimbin”. Nimbin is quiet, it is like a timewarp. People are not that freindly there. We had to wait for ages to hitch a ride from that place.
I wouldnt go there if youre feeling down, everything gets magnified.
Happy New Year what I am I doing here right now…hehe
i used to live in byron until i was 7 & then i moved to brisbane, but i have never been able to let go of that lifestyle that was in byron, great people, beautiful beaches, a healthy supply of hash, would more could you ask for, i dont see how people done find the hippie life style appealing, many city people dont appriciate it until they have experienced it, i feel like i am the only one, is there any one else who feels passionatly like me in the hippie lifestyle, i think every one in aussie who feels like this should move to byron as soon as u get the chance, im gonna feeling my schooling and then im outta here, off to byron. i just wounder if there is anyone else who wants to just chill on the beach, have a few billies, and talk about life…isnt that what life is all about….
Peace xx
Hay
I’m from Belgium and last year, I visited Australie for about a month. I absolutely loved it, and especially Bayron bay! I really liked the hippie shops, sort of alternative shops. But here I Belgium we don’t have much stores selling clothes like that, so my question to all of you guys is that if perhaps you know some sites where I maybe can oder some clothes online ore something like that, that would be awesome !
I really loved Byron Bay and hope to return to it one day !
If you have any nice sites were they sell hippies/alternativeclothes in Byron bay please let me know on my email adress
Distiller93@hotmail.com
looking for guy called woodstock (ronny avery) tell him to contact me in hervey bay miss him so much pleaz help me find my long lost mate been three years since i seen him e-mail bungers069@hotmail.com
I lived in Byron Bay for awhile, when I was a kid. I now live on the Gold Coast. Byron was a nice place in the 70’s but now with all the rich folk, the place is over run with vistors you can hardly move. it would be nice to go back 30 years, but you can’t cause nothin stays the same.
I am also moving to Byron Bay when I finish uni, just to get out there and live. None of this computer, cars or expensive clothes crap. Just beach, nature, books and like-minded people ya know.
Peace.
ive always wanted to move to nimbin, but i heard its not as amazing as it sounds casue of all the skams, and harder drugss. i’m kickin it in tofino and we got the best bud and a bit of good surfing in the winter
pce/love
I’ve spent a lot of time in Byron Bay, Nimbin and Bellingen. If you want authentic, genuine earth loving vege growing greenies, some smoke, others are health freaks. They tend not to hang out to much though, unless very young, they’re busy on their farms and in their backyards with their chooks.
If you want smoke Nimbins the go. Though sadly, as colourful as it is, and a great as the Nimbin Mardi-Grass is..to me it’s a place to take your kids in order to show them why they shouldn’t smoke the stuff all day. Gorgeous country, but wasted people everywhere. iI’s like a dream gone wrong.
Byron Bay is not so hippie. It is full of yuppies, backpackers, tourist, surfers. Great for Holistic/Natural therapies, yoga, health-food shops and spiritual book stores. Loads of “different” people. A gorgeous, very green place with a fantastic energy..but not so hippie anymore.
Hippies are threaded throughout the Norther Rivers NSW, North Coast NSW. And are moving south. Suddenly they are beginning to gather inland a bit around the Mid North Coast, they seem to be moving from their old haunts that have become so touristy, to places around Bellingen, and 2 hours south of it to around Wauchope, Bago and further into the hills. Though again, these are the real thing, people who are concentrating on sustainabilty, and growing their own veges, having their own chooks and caring for the planet. So you don’t see them hanging around much. Sure, they wear the gear, but it’s old and recycled. And some are feral, but they walk the talk. They don’t just dress up and pretend.
ok my and the missus was travelling oz and ended up living in byron for around 3 months.. we ended up going there for christmas and new years which was probably a mistake in some respects as it was just packed with tourists. it was expensive although as i said we were travellers so found the best way to live was out of a tent anyway.. we stayed at clarkes beach campsite, very close to beach and very clea, then we moved to a campsite out of town, cant remember the name but it was just passed the ‘welcome to byron bay’ sign on the main road into the town.. it is a beautiful place, people dont care what you dress like, walk around bare foot and dont brush ur hair for weeks nobody bats an eye and i thought that that was the best thing about the place.. miss it soo much, love to live there, maybe just slightly out of the town as i say in summer it got packed with schoolies renting the holiday homes and partying