Nimbin Museum and HEMP Bar back in business

Nimbin local Elspeth Jones has advised the landlord she will take over tenancy of the Nimbin Museum.

Echo News - Thursday, November 13, 2008

The Nimbin Museum is open for business and the Nimbin HEMP Bar will soon be opening its doors again, with locals banding together to save the two iconic buildings from closure.

The landlords of both buildings were advised several weeks ago they would have to comply with a strict set of conditions or police would declare them ‘restricted premises’ under the Restricted Premises Act of 1943, which allows police to search or raid at will.
Museum tenant Michael Balderstone was also told he could no longer manage the tourist drawcard, however, his business partner Elspeth Jones has stepped into the breach and advised the landlord she will take over tenancy of the building.

The landlord will be required to install CCTV and enclose the backyard, while Elspeth will be required to enforce the $2 entry fee and report any illegal or potentially illegal activity immediately to police.
“There will be new rules, cameras and fences, not quite the hippy way, but we are very adaptable,” Elspeth said. “Hippies have been judged and criminalised for several generations now so we know how to adjust, and we’re here for the long haul.”

Elspeth has now appointed Michael ‘curator’. She said while it’s an honour to take over his role, it’s also a bit of a poisoned chalice, but she could never sit idly by and let one of Nimbin’s most enduring features shut down.
“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,” she said. “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 30 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!

“The Museum is not without it’s problems and it’s a huge baby to hold but it’s a place where anyone can come, the tourists, the locals and the lost souls. For many people it’s home.”

Meanwhile, Michael, president of the Nimbin HEMP Embassy, is busy across the road renovating the HEMP Bar so it can be re-opened soon. The Nimbin HEMP Embassy has agreed to run the place and allow several groups to work together under one roof.
It will re-open as the headquarters for M.O.B. (MardiGrass Organising Body) while a group of locals plan to use it to re-invigorate the political HEMP Party and reapply for registration.
“Others include the Medical Cannabis Research Board (Australia) Pty Ltd and Mullaways Medical Cannabis Pty Ltd, which 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,” Michael said. “We live in hope that Kevin Rudd will sometime bother to question and actually look at the war on drugs and what it’s doing to millions of Australians. California just celebrated 10 years of regulated medical cannabis but here in Australia John Howard’s psychosis propaganda has still got most people bluffed and drug law reform is in the too hard basket.”

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'.

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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