Nimbin's history and people

Nimbin is on the land of the Widjabul Wia-bal people of the Bundjalung Nation. The valley was a gathering place, described by Elders as a sacred place of learning and transformation, and the Nimbin Rocks south of the village are initiation sites that remain sacred today. The name is linked to the Nimbinjee, spirit people of local stories who protect the area.

Red cedar brought timber-getters to the valley in the 1840s, and by the end of the century most of the forest had been cleared. Nimbin was subdivided in 1903 for dairy farming and banana growing, and the village had its own butter factory, the building that now houses the Candle Factory and the Bush Theatre. When the dairy industry collapsed in the 1960s, Nimbin went into decline.

From 12 to 23 May 1973 the Australian Union of Students held the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, the last of its series of arts festivals. Somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people came. The organisers sought the blessing of local Elders, and the festival opened with what Visit Lismore describes as Australia's first Welcome to Country in language.

Many festival-goers stayed. A group bought a 500-hectare property at Tuntable Falls and formed a co-operative, the start of the multiple-occupancy communities that still ring the village. Painted shopfronts, wholefood shops, alternative energy and activism followed. The Terania Creek rainforest protests of the late 1970s drew heavily on the new community, and Rainbow Power Company was founded in 1987.

MardiGrass began in 1993. In August 2014 a fire on Cullen Street destroyed the original Nimbin Museum, the Rainbow Cafe and two shops. The February 2022 floods cut the village off, caused landslips on Nimbin Road and destroyed the water pipeline, leaving the village on water restrictions until a new pipe was finished in May 2024. In 2025 the Rainbow Walk and Aquarius Park opened in the middle of the village.

At the 2021 Census, the wider Nimbin area (the ABS suburb of Nimbin) had 1,607 people, with a median age of 50. The village itself (the ABS urban centre) had about 500.

The biggest employers of Nimbin-area residents were social assistance services, hospitals, cafés and restaurants, supermarkets and primary schools. The most common jobs were professionals (22%), community and personal service workers (18%), labourers (13%), managers (12%) and trades and technicians (11%). For current vacancies, see Nimbin jobs.

What is the population of Nimbin?

1,607 people lived in the Nimbin area at the 2021 Census, about 500 of them in the village itself. The median age was 50.

What was the Aquarius Festival?

A ten-day arts and counterculture festival held in Nimbin from 12 to 23 May 1973 by the Australian Union of Students. Thousands came, many stayed, and it turned Nimbin into the centre of Australia's alternative lifestyle movement.

What does Nimbin mean?

The name is linked to the Nimbinjee, spirit people in the stories of the Widjabul Wia-bal, the traditional owners, who protect the area.