Aquarius and Beyond: Thinking through the Counterculture
Rob Garbutt
M/C Journal December 10, 2014 DOI: 10.5204/mcj.911 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the 1973 Aquarius Festival, held in Nimbin after the village agreed at a town meeting to host it, redirected the town's history from a declining banana and dairy economy toward becoming what the author calls Australia's countercultural capital. |
Abstract
This paper is shaped by personal experience of time and place. In January 1973 I was a 12-year-old child living in the conservative, rural town of Lismore, northern New South Wales. Twenty miles to the north was the village of Nimbin. The Australian Union of Students had just chosen the village as the site of the second Aquarius Festival, a biannual arts and cultural festival, and at a town meeting the village agreed. The Festival, held later that May, altered the course of history for Nimbin from a declining banana and dairy economy, to countercultural capital of Australia.