Mullumbimby’s Vibrant Culture and Friendly Locals

Mullumbimby, alternate, friendly, historic, culture.

Mullumbimby, or Mullum as the locals call it, is as friendly a town as you will find anywhere.

I have been going to Mullum for about 49 years. The town has changed and grown. Still, the people who inhabit this village definitely have not. From my oldest memories Mullumbimby locals have always been welcoming and that is a quality that remains.

This year we stayed at the show grounds, very friendly caretaker nothing was a problem for them
Definitely worth a return visit

We stayed for 7 days at the campgrounds even though it was very wet.Nothing new, it has been wet almost everywhere we have been. We had been looking ahead to the Showgrounds markets that are held every Friday. It was a bleak, wet day and the expectations of the markets being on were low. Still, they breed them tough in Mullum. Most of the market people turned up at daybreak and set up regardless.

Mullum character
Market stall
Mushroom selection Mullum markets
Plant based food stall Mullum

The village is between the counterculture capital of New South Wales, Nimbin, and the Byron Bay coastal settlements. Mullumbimby is small in population. Yet, it is big in character. Locals describe Mullum as the biggest little town in Australia. In many ways, it lives up to that claim. A very active local arts scene art galleries, music festivals, there always seems to have something happening.

The girls were busking to advertise their performance later in the week at
and very popular it seems

Even with the wet weather, I always felt there was something to see or do. Mullum has plenty of clothes shops, mostly girls’ stuff. There is a very well-stocked organic food shop. Mullum also has a healthy alternate healing industry. Of course, the hotels and cafes are very well patronised.

Uncle Toms Pieshttps://uncletoms.com.au

Now, situated at the turn off to Mullum, they have captured the formula to a successful rest stop. They offer good food and coffee and the atmosphere is always friendly.

The famous Uncle Toms pie shop was a stop always eagerly anticipated. As young surfers, we traveled to the Byron region, especially on those cold winter trips. It can be a very busy place when the tourist buses arrive.

Mullumbimby’s history goes back to the mid eighteen hundreds. During that time, timber was king. Farming helped sustain the future and is still one of Mullum’s key industries. There are still some historical sites and buildings that go back to the early 1900s. one of standouts is the Mullumbimby hydroelectric power station, built in 1924. Other significant sites include the Federation bridge over the Brunswick River and beautiful examples of early settlement homes. Some of these homes have been restored, while others have fallen victim to time and flood.

Federation bridge
Old tree Mullumbimby
old house destroyed during flood
Historic house Mullumbimby
Historic house Mullumbimby
House garden
History Federation bridge
Hotel Mullumbimby

We have moved on to Jones’s gully at Crows nest, Queensland. I am positive Mullum will call again. We will find more to keep us coming back yet again.

Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia

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Exploring Lismore’s Art and Recovery Post-Flood

Lismore! A beautiful slightly alternate town in the Northern rivers district of New South Wales, I! The residents are probably the most resilient in the country. Floods are the nemesis of this town. There have been many in the town’s history. At the time of this post being written, the town is being inundated again. The really sad thing is that they have not really recovered from the last two.

The original part of town is built on a flood plain. Later development has migrated to higher ground. Still, there are thousands of residents who have property in the old part of town. The Wilson river is the culprit at flood time. It flows into the Richmond. The river finishes at Ballina on the coast.

These rivers once carried the produce and timber from the farming areas around Lismore. In the early days, they were essential for transport. Now, the flooding river renders the lower part of the town almost useless for very long periods. Jacky and I lived in Alstonville about 30klm from Lismore, we shopped there and really enjoyed the quirky alternate vibe of the town, we last visited there in 2023 a year after the last flood again from a cyclone like the current one “Alfred” that drifted further south than normal, the photos that are in this post are from that time

After the flood in 2022, the NSW government decided to buy back houses and businesses that were regularly flooded. Nonetheless, at the time of writing, this has not been completed. This is the second flood since then, and there are still residents trying to get suitable housing replacement.

Lismore and the residents are a resilient lot. While we were there this time (2023), it was clear that the area was suffering. There was so much unemployment and many despondent homeless residents waiting for government decisions. The local council decided that the dingy graffitied areas of the town needed a lift. They employed local and international artists to transform the back alleys into an art gallery. Now, that area attracts many tourists to view the artwork.

Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Showground art
Street art
Travellers in vans
Street art
Amazing artists
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art
Street art

We were to be in the Northern rivers again this week, but Cyclone Alfred has delayed our plans. I’m looking ahead to visiting Lismore again. We will visit the cafes, restaurants, and shops. Hopefully, not too much damage has been done this time. I am keen to see if the mess from 2022/23 has been cleaned up. The abandoned homes, schools, and businesses were a sad thing to witness. Yet, Lismore will recover. As travelers, we can do our little bit to put a few dollars back into this great community.

need help
Need help
For next time
Free phones
Famous lismore pie cart
supported
Lismore
flooded closed
Open for business
Surviving just
Open
Abandoned
Refurbished
Closed
Lismore history
TAFE closed
repaired open
Repaired open
Restaurant open
Deserted
Abandoned
Sad
TAFE closed
Open just
Restaurants open
Abandoned
Condemed, lived in
Closed
Condemed
Condemed
Condemned
Closed
Inhabited
Condemed Inhabited
Rebuilding
Condemed inhabited
Flood devistation after 2 years
Condemed inhabited
Closed
The crossing

WE will be back here in a couple of week Lismore 2025 coming up. If you are a traveler and are near Lismore, give it a crack. You can find time to divert there. There is plenty to see, with some of the best markets in the country close by.

Cheers

Exploring 1770 Beach Campgrounds: A Traveler’s Tale

Spruleswood travells

Have you ever traveled past a place and thought, you know we should stop there one day? Well, the camp grounds at 1770 on the beach is one of those for us. We have been to the town on several occasions but never stopped here. In fact, I came here with a group of surfing friends in about 1965. But that’s a story for another time, maybe. But anyway, thanks to cyclone Alfred this year, we decided to backtrack from our digs at Gympie. We tried to find a dry spot to wait for the weather to clear. This year, we were heading to the eastern southern highlands. Yeah well dry? We managed to drag some of the rain with us, but it was bearable considering what we went through getting here, floods, crocodiles and a cyclone that was determined to follow us all the way to the border

The Campground is really just a camp ground. There are plenty of larger sites for caravans and good spots near the water. Still, when it’s busy, there is not much room. The waterway looks promising for a thick fish population. I put in the effort but got absolutely no results. I did not talk to anyone who had any luck. We have been here enough to have seen sights a few times so what else is there to do but go shopping, not that there is a lot of choices, we did find a favorite little gift shop called “Discover 1770 and Agnes waters” worth a visit if you are in the area

The towns of 1770 and Agnes Waters offer more than just a couple of novelty stores. There are surf shops, chemists, and two grocery stores. You can also find fishing and boating options. There is even a golf club that provides a good challenge. The weather really dictated our activities. We spent most of our time reading and relaxing. When the weather permitted, we walked the foreshore. On one of these short walks, I started out wandering through the little cafe at the park entrance. I found myself in a group of mangroves. It was interesting to view the surrounding sand flats through the windows created by the gaps in the mangroves. Well, I thought so. Trying to photograph those scenes was challenging. It was more difficult than I thought because the camera tends to flatten the perspective. Photographing did fill the day.

Camp from the beach
Through the mangroves
Through the mangroves
Through the mangroves
Through the mangroves
Through the mangroves
through the mangroves
Through the mangroves
Through the mangroves
Through the mangroves
Through the mangroves

That was our 2025 1770/Agnes Waters visit. Would we go back to the same camp grounds? Maybe, but we did enjoy ourselves. The rain has apparently moved on, so we are heading to Alstonville to catch up with friends. We also plan to reconnect with one of our special places.

Anzac day 2024

As we get older our views in events and history changes, well at least mine have, Anzac day comes and goes and up until about ten years ago, on Anzac day I reflected on the sacrifices that our military personnel made, and those that left families forever; My father served in the middle east as a very young man and made it through to settle in Australia, the conflict was never discussed between us and he really never turned out on Anzac day to my memory. Although he did on occasions share thoughts while watching war documentary’s that were common on early tv, even though the docos then were a bit graphic I have really never thought about how it must have felt to young men, to come from a peaceful land like ours and be taught to kill another human and to carry that out, and live with it mostly in silence.

On Anzac day I will be thinking about peace, and families, how mothers, fathers siblings from all around the globe are feeling about lost ones in war and the ones that have come home and have difficulty coming to grips with their experiences and, are lost. Wars are currently being fought in many parts of this earth, in all cases families are grieving at loosing loved ones, in so many places the war is generating more hatred such a sad cycle, the greed and need for control of others regardless of human life or suffering is almost without exception the cause.

Its unusual for me to put thoughts like this in print, so what started this, as my friends know I am an amateur photographer, and last week I saw three things that made me think about the misery that war brings, first I was photographing the entrance to a park in Lake Caregillo NSW and the entrance led to the local cenotaph, and It struct me as being so serine, and Anzac day there would be special, the other was while photographing in Hilston NSW at the entrance to their cenotaph was a list of names and I felt so sad because one family was represented so many times, and then there is the special tribute that the town of Hay has, reading the many plaques around the painted towers, you know that this town is proud of its people.