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Nimbin alive but under
surveillance
MEDIA RELEASE October 21 2008
NIMBIN TURNING LEMONS INTO LEMONADE, AGAIN
Benny Zable won’t have to paint his famous Nimbin murals black because
the villages unique Museum is to stay open with a new lessee Elspeth
Jones. "I’m just representing an extended family, or so it feels.
The Museum is a second home if not a first for many people. I’ve lived
in this community for over twenty years and been involved with the
Museum since its beginning."
Elspeth went on, "We’ve been overwhelmed by the support and concern
in the community of losing the Museum. There will be new rules, cameras
and fences, not quite the hippy way, but we are very adaptable. Hippies
have been judged and criminalised for several generations now so we
know how to adjust, and we’re here for the long haul. We’ll outlast
the already lost war on cannabis which is the root of our problems
here. The new Nimbin policing believes they can end the towns cannabis
culture but I think they’ll find it’s embedded. If only they would
legalise the industry all the young people across Australia tempted
by easy money could have legitimate employment."
"When we began the Museum there was a trickle of visitors but
now the village is on the global backpacker map and draws an estimated
150,000 plus visitors a year. The credibility of the hippy lifestyle
has gone from ridicule to respect. Permaculture, organic farming,
solar panels, health food, meditation and yoga were all laughed at
thirty years ago, now they’re mainstream. It’s a pity ending war hasn’t
caught on yet, particularly the war on drugs in Nimbin’s case. It
is the hippies favourite food after all, illegal here but a sacred
mystical door and spiritual experience in other cultures."
"Nimbins Museum is a journey thru 8 rooms along the Rainbow Serpent
path showing the history of the place now known as Nimbin through
the eyes of a hippy. It’s a view of the world which is proving right
on the mark these days with our all too predictable various global
crises," said Elspeth.
The Museum will have been open sixteen years next Boxing Day and is
busier than ever said curator Michael Balderstone, apparently no longer
a ‘suitable tenant’. Ms Jones is the perfect person for the job he
said. "Elspeth has put more into the Museum than anyone and understands
all too well the difficulty, and joy, of working with Nimbin’s tribe.
We created the Museum as a place for visitors to meet locals and talk
about our culture. In our vision it was always a living Museum, stuffed
hippies maybe, but not in glass cases! "
Speaking for the Nimbin HEMP Embassy, Balderstone said the HEMP BAR
would be reopening shortly with several new groups banding together
under the one roof. "We’ve had too many applications but some
can fit together. One of the group is going to use it to re-envigorate
the political HEMP Party and reapply for registration. We need members
who aren’t afraid to admit it when the Electoral Commission phones,
so only the brave and real should apply. Others include the Medical
Cannabis Research Board (Australia) Pty Ltd and Mullaways Medical
Cannabis. We will also be using the HEMP BAR to do a detailed survey
of long term cannabis users, seeing we can’t convince the government
to do it."
"We live in hope that Kevin Rudd will sometime bother to question
and actually look at the war on drugs and what its doing to millions
of Australians. A Federal Drug Summit along the lines of Bob Carrs
Sydney 1999 one would do it.
"A new independent report to the United Nations last week said
that prohibition of cannabis is doing more harm than good and actually
recommended regulation. California just celebrated ten years of regulated
medical cannabis but here in Australia John Howard’s psychosis propaganda
has still got everybody bluffed and drug law reform is in the too
hard basket."
Elspeth Jones at the Museum 02 66891123 Michael Balderstone at Embassy
02 66891842
www.nimbinmuseum.com www.nimbinhempbar.com
Global Cannabis Commission – 224
Page Report – for U.N. Drug Policy Review in 2009
http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/pdf/BF_Cannabis_Commission_Report.pdf
‘That which is prohibited cannot be regulated’. There are thus advantages
for governments in moving toward a regime of regulated legal availability
under strict controls, using the variety of mechanisms available to
regulate a legal market, such as taxation, availability controls,
minimum legal age for use and purchase, labeling and potency limits.
Another alternative, which minimizes the risk of promoting cannabis
use, is to allow only small scale cannabis production for one’s own
use or gifts to others.
NIMBIN MUSEUM MEDIA RELEASE Tuesday
October 9
It looks like the Nimbin Museums days are
numbered as ‘1984’ arrives in the tiny rebel village in the form of
a 1943 law, created during the world war 2 for out of control army
parties. The police have threatened the absentee landlord of the Museum
building with "The Restricted Premises Act" unless certain
complex conditions apply (detailed below).
Curator Michael Balderstone, who has been
a tenant in the building for over twenty years says his time might
be up. "These conditions are technically ridiculous and virtually
impossible. Someone else might like it but it’s not me. With these
rules I have to phone the Sarge every time I see a joint or a bong,
or even each time I see someone pocket an empty orchy bottle suspiciously!
I’ll never be able to get off the phone."
The new tenant s conditions include.
1. New tenant to have a clear history with
NO criminal records
2. Agree to house CCTV in and out of the
shop with access by police at anytime or by video link
3. Undertaking to Landlord that they will
not support and allow any illegal activity by staff or customers on
site and will report any potential illegal activity to police unconditionally.
4. Tenant will indemnify Landlord of all
and any wrong doings associated with the retail store
Michael Balderstone 66891123 or 66891842
after hours 66897525 ..maybe more on web if the hippies get out of
bed!! www.nimbinmuseum.com
September 28, 2008
MUSEUM TO BE DUST FREE AT LAST??
After a meeting with the Museum’s landlord
in Sydney , curator Michael Balderstone is optimistic for the future
of the unique tourist attraction. ”He’s a nice guy and he seems keen
for the Museum to continue. He’s going to come to Nimbin for the first
time, in the next couple of weeks during the school holidays, and
he sounds prepared to spend the money on CCTV cameras, securing the
building and a fence around the backyard etc, which is what the police
are asking for.”
“He wants to keep the Museum going as a tourist
attraction but bring us hippies into the ‘civilized new age’, my words,
but you know what I mean, wipeable surfaces ‘n stuff like that!”
“He still hasn’t seen the place but reckons
maybe we have only a front and back entrance open, both covered by
cameras, and fire doors that only open out as emergency exits on the
other doors. Cameras in the backyard as well…and a fence around the
block. Charge a proper entry fee instead of hippie donations and get
with it. He actually made a lot of sense as a business man, and it
would be good for the displays in the Museum, but I can’t help feeling
like we’re being sterilized. Homogenized and pasteurized as well probably!”
“One of the polices conditions is that I’m
kicked out and just today young Grace found my ‘NOTICE TO QUIT’ letter,
lost under the front Kombie in the Museum. So clearly some could say
we need more order in the place, but actually I’m just trying to compensate
for all the control freaks trying to kill the few little specks of
free expression left in the village.”
“No doubt a lot of people will be happy to
see the Museum tamed but they may not realize what they are losing
until it’s gone. Already this week some shopkeepers are complaining
that business is down and the streets are quiet due to the adverse
police media about Nimbin. Many people think the Museum is already
closed. Let’s hope they don’t throw all the babies out with the bathwater.”
“And no one is facing up to the reality of
how to deal with the inevitability of ongoing cannabis supply in the
village. It seems obvious that the police have targeted the two establishments
lobbying for debate on this issue. Both the Museum and the Hemp Bar,
and anyone volunteering in those places have been lined up by undercovers
who must have walked past offers on the street in order to try and
buy deals on premises they wish to close down. It’s a clumsy and expensive
way to operate I reckon, not to mention the zero ‘community consultation’.
And will it make any difference to the amount of dealing in the village?
It may well push it back onto the street more, the very opposite of
what the police say they want.”
Almost artist in residence Elspeth Jones
is prepared to sign a new lease to ensure continuity of the Museum,
but clearly we are in for big changes.
Elspeth has been the most consistent artist
in the Museum since it opened and in many ways it’s her magic paintbrush
that has made the place so special. She’s put her heart and soul into
it more than anyone.
There is a Comment Book in the café
at the Museum for anyone to write their thoughts on the matter, and
everyone is encouraged to walk the Rainbow Serpents path thru Nimbins
history, while they still can.
Performers and storytellers interested in
contributing to a daily show in the Museums Mingle Park should get
in touch with Elspeth.
Proposals for the reopening of the HEMP Bar
kiosk are welcome, call the Embassy or drop in.
Museum 0266891123…HEMP Embassy 0266891842….afterhours
0266897525
To the Presiding Judge,
Lismore Court House.
I began my life in Nimbin over 20 years
ago when I rented the Museum shopfront as a second hand, antique shop.
Dealing of illegal drugs was a small issue then in the village, but even
then a divisive one. As tourism grew and the popularity of cannabis
spread, so the dealing grew along with the shops in the town, now nearly
all dependent on the tourist trade.
Over the now I5 years that I have
operated the Museum as a tourism enterprise, my assistants and I have
strived tirelessly to keep drug dealing off the premises. This has often
been at great personal risk and many volunteers have quit because of the
abuse copped in the process. There are numerous signs throughout the
Museums 8 rooms saying ‘no dealing’, and even detailed, large writing
explaining our predicament and asking for co-operation. Of course many of
the young men dealing cannot read! The police are fully aware of all this
and I have always tried to communicate openly and honestly with them for
approximately twenty years. All that time I’ve been a member of the
Police Community Consultation Committee.
The big change came when CCTV cameras
were installed in the street, live to the police station, several years
ago. Displacement is a well documented consequence, but it was accepted
that this would eventuate, and it did. All over town, everywhere the
cameras don’t cover, the dealing moved there. This included inside the
Museum and in the extensive unfenced backyard and adjoining block, none of
which is on camera, nor in my lease.
So it seems totally unfair that the
Museum, Nirnbin’s main tourist attraction, is threatened because the more
tourism grows here, and the more police stop walking the beat like they
had to before the cameras, the worse the situation is getting. It doesn’t
help that Nimbin has a closed Youth Club and SK8 Park, and the Museum
building used to house the youth club.
Also, dealing occurs all over Nimbin and
yet the police continue to target the two business premises, Hemp Bar and
the Museum, who have both been lawfully and actively lobbying for cannabis
law reform. The very reason we have been calling for a trial of licensed
cannabis cafes is to deal with this impossible and longstanding situation.
We have an implied constitutional right to political association and
freedom of speech. The oppressive and unconscionable use of this
legislation by the police in this matter is a burden on our rights I
believe. I invite you to visit the Museum and Hemp Embassy’s websites, see
links below.
Since the closure of the Museum at
MardiGrass this year, May 3 & 4, Nimbin’s busiest weekend of the year, we
have strived conscientiously to keep the dealing outside the premises and
have succeeded mostly because the dealers take our threats more seriously
now because we have a copy of the affidavit and police DVD of the April
1st raid. Police have observed this change and there has not been any
supply charges that I am aware of over the previous 4 months. This can be
confirmed by police records.
Before we reopened after that weekend
closure I purposefully went to the police station to discuss what was
expected from me by the police and was told by Detective Sergeant Michael
Smith and the local Sergeant Mat Johnson, who agreed that the eradication
of drug dealing from Nimbin was an impossible objective, and that I should
just continue “to do my best and try and keep the dealing outside". I have
engaged in an endless dialogue with the Police including the Area
Commander about how to make Nimbin more peaceful and how to deal with the
illegal cannabis trade and the people attracted to it. It is disappointing
that the police recently ceased to include me in any discussions and there
is no acknowledgement of the more than reasonable effort we make everyday.
Please consider our situation in any
decisions which you are required to make in relation to the Nimbin Museum.
Please also note that I have only been given a few days notice on this
matter the affect of which will have a major long term impact on Nimbin
tourism and the many volunteers involved in keeping the Museum
operational. As the occupant of the premises I ask to be given a say in
the matter when it is heard. Please advise us of any hearings or how I
should go about getting heard.
I have been advised that undercover
police have been offered marijuana in the Museum since the MardiGrass, the
fresh evidence, and wonder why they didn’t arrest these people. I cannot
do their job for them.
The Museum won a major North Coast
Tourism Award some years back and has an international reputation for it’s
extraordinary art, murals, sculptures etc. Our joy is welcoming visitors
from across the planet who come in busloads daily. I understand the police
are just trying to do their job but I believe they will be throwing the
baby out with the bathwater in this case. And it is not adressing the
issue of the dealers who will remain everywhere else in town.
Wishing you could find the time and come
and see the situation for yourself. My landlord lives in Sydney and has
never been to Nimbin. I am a good tenant, always pay the rent on time and
maintain the old and leaking building at my own expense usually.
If they cannot keep all drug dealing out
of the jails, what hope do i have?
Your sincerely, Michael Balderstone
P.S. I offer to close the Museum for a
month to see if it helps stop the drug dealing in Nimbin.
Nimbin Museum, 62 Cullen st,
Nimbin, 2480 phone 66891123 www.nimbinmuseum.com
www.hempembassy.net
This is
a copy of the HEMP Bar’s letter … Museum landlord, we believe, received
a similar one with Michael Balderstones’ name in the last paragraph
instead of Cannabis Daves’.
MEDIA RELEASE
SEPT 10
POLICE
STRANGLE HIPPIES WHO REFUSE TO GO TO WAR!!!!!!!!
A few new
thoughts on the Nimbin Museum imminent closure.
It is the
end of an era but it’s disturbing the way the Police have gone
about taming Nimbin, after us ceaselessly inviting them to visit
the Museum and discuss the situation, which they never have.
A lot of
people are quietly going to jail. The 2 older aboriginal men
who have been instrumental in keeping the youth out of the Museum
(their old youth club remember) have been busted and given bail
conditions forbidding them to be on the premises.
Police have
told me they’ve already busted more people (you’ll be surprised
who Michael!) selling to undercovers inside the building since
MardiGrass. I reckon the undercovers have specifically targeted
Museum helpers, trying to incriminate them. While dealing is
going on all over town they have targeted the Museum and the
HEMP Bar. After police telling us for years the dealing just
had to get off the street it’s a bit rich!
It’s also
about as sick as it gets begging someone to sell you a ‘twent”.
No one wants to do it. No one is profiting here…it’s like refusing
sick people their medicine. Below the belt tactics but, hey,
should we be surprised by tactics of the NSW police?
If these
are dangerous crimes why don’t they arrest people immediately?
Why don’t they arrest them now? It’s like cold war tactics have
arrived here….they’ve stopped communicating and have an arsenal
of busts to release to the media every week i suspect (like
the one in the Northern Star this week). And they haven’t even
let loose the LCC bureaucrats yet. Remember they came in during
the April Fools Day bust, measuring every room and doorway etc.
I can’t be
stuffed jumping thru their silly hoops which will kill the spirit
of what the Museum is all about anyway.
There is
a tribe here, born out of a vision which saw a better way of
living with each other and the Earth. Todays social and environmental
concerns all highlight how correct and prophetic our visions
were.
And the war
on cannabis, our sacred herb…so much a part of all the mind
expanding new lifestyle and spirituality we discovered, has
caused shocking division and conflict in our community now the
word has spread and it is so popular. And so expensive and potentially
profitable.
Until the
supply of cannabis is an acceptable and properly managed part
of our lifestyle here the blackmarket will continue to breed
disrespect. The only way to maybe reduce the cannabis market
here is to reduce the tourists which the police are managing
to do quite well at the moment.
$$$$$$$ Just
how much has it cost, this effort at taming Nimbin. 4 Sydney
Riot Squad raids that i can think of…3 MardiGrasses and April
Fools Day. 9 permanent police here now, endless court cases…..the
police told Parliament this years MardiGrass only cost $35,000……for
over100 police, dogs, horses, Winnebago, roadblocks for a month
prior….i’m not bothered to ask again!
The CCTV
cameras the Nimbin shopkeepers are still paying off, is the
straw which broke the camels back with the Museum.
Interesting
figures on the 208 drug detections they have recorded in the
Museum since 2001. These figures were used to get the MardiGrass
closure. I reckon i could record 208 drug detections in one
morning in Nimbin if i could write fast enough!
2001….2 drug
detections
2002….1
2003….4
2004….12
2005….16
(CCTV cameras introduced on the street live to police station
this year)
2006….67
2007….66
2008 until
May….40
NIMBIN MUSEUM MEDIA RELEASE Tuesday Sept 9
It looks
like the Nimbin Museums days are numbered as ‘1984’ arrives
in the tiny rebel village in the form of a 1943 law, created
during the world war 2 for out of control army parties. The
police have threatened the absentee landlord of the Museum building
with “The Restricted Premises Act” unless certain complex conditions
apply (detailed below).
Curator Michael
Balderstone, who has been a tenant in the building for over
twenty years says his time might be up. “These conditions are
technically ridiculous and virtually impossible. Someone else
might like it but it’s not me. With these rules I have to phone
the Sarge every time I see a joint or a bong, or even each time
I see someone pocket an empty orchy bottle suspiciously! I’ll
never be able to get off the phone.”
The new
tenant s conditions include…
1. New
tenant to have a clear history with NO criminal records
2. Agree
to house CCTV in and out of the shop with access by police
at anytime or by video link
3. Undertaking
to Landlord that they will not support and allow any illegal
activity by staff or customers on site and will report any
potential illegal activity to police unconditionally.
4. Tenant
will indemnify Landlord of all and any wrong doings associated
with the retail store
Michael Balderstone
66891123 or 66891842 after hours 66897525 ….maybe more on web
if the hippies get out of bed!!
www.nimbinmuseum.com
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Hard
for you to picture the Nimbin situation. It’s a country town a
bit like Kings Cross!
We built the
stage in the backyard for just that reason. The last time we
had a fundraiser there, for the aboriginal communities access
road, the police completely disrupted the day by harassing an
elder before he went on stage. They were totally insensitive
and poked a hornets nest. Most people, including the performers,
left.
We have a
new sergeant, a weapons expert rugby player, who has a crew
of 9 police to clean up the town. It’s their job to do, but
we rarely see them up the street . They sit in the station watching
the cameras. Now they want us to put cameras in the Museum for
them to watch.
Why should
the tenant pay?
And unconditionally
reporting any potential crime!! I’ll be on the phone all day!!
The extreme
conditions are spooking prospective tenants but I’m letting
people know the new rules, hoping to find you a new Museum tenant.
Even the pub doesn’t have these rules!
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END LATEST NEWS <<<<<<<<<<
BlackYard
Bingle Video
NIMBIN MUSEUM Clean up is finished ! Open as per usual, below are
some before and after photos, there are also a couple of movies "way
down the bottom of this page"….
The Nimbin Museum opened on Boxing Day 1992, and apart from a few
Christmas Days, it’s been open every day since. However, the idea
of being an interactive Museum, a place for visitors to meet locals,
has backfired a bit with the Museum becoming over the years a place
where youth hang out.
"Many displays had taken a hammering over the years and was time
to pull it apart, give it a big clean, and put it back together in
a new and fresh way", said Curator Michael Balderstone.
Further info at Museum 02 66891123 / HEMP Embassy 66891842 … a/h
02 66897525
~ take the museum tour …follow the rainbow serpent
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