Nimbin Museum NEWS

You can find news from Nimbin and around the globe on NIMBIN WAVE.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Dear Richard,

I locked the gates as you said I must and as was predictable a piece of the fence has been ripped off. I have been asking people I suspect may deal drugs to stay out of the back yard but they laugh at me, and worse! When I said I had to report the breakage to the police they became angry "first they want us off the street, then out of the museum, now out of the back yard**#@@*#!!" etc. This is true and somewhere the police have to own this is a culture they have let grow for thirty years and now suddenly it is expected to disappear without the police making any effort to communicate to the people involved despite being repeatedly asked. I spoke with Nicole Bruce, the local Superintendant, who said, " decisions on where the cameras go is entirely your responsibility". She also said you had new guidelines, please send them to me. I asked Nicole to meet us at the Museum but it didn't seem important to her.

Its stupid to replace the unbreakabe tin fence with wire until the cameras are up don't you agree?

Will I get Pat who has returned from overseas and has the cameras to put them back up in the same places?

I emailed Raymond on the lease but no reply?

A group of people are interested to lease the back yard for a market place. How much rent do you think?

I am keeping the back door of the Museum closed at all times to make sure no dealing happens inside.

Have a happy hippy day,

Elspeth.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Mr Lyons, would you please pass this on to to whoever makes decisions there. We need to meet urgently on site to discuss the fences and position of the camera. I don't want anymore wasted work and materials, I need an agreement of what will satisfy police without creating a dangerous situation. The fence proposed from Sydney could have been disastrous two weeks ago when Rod helped Mark Pugelise the policeman take a shocking knife off a visiting lunatic. And I can see no point in exposing the filth behind the supermarket to the stage and now beautiful backyard which has become a critical meeting place for Aboriginal people and young people and backpackers. Mat Johnson encouraged us to use the stage and make it beautiful. A lot of energy has gone into it.

Tired of being messed around by ever changing requirements we urgently need an appointment with police to meet us here. Meanwhile I will do what I can which the landlord has requested below. Much of it is ridiculous and impractical and we are tired of what appears to be discrimination, harrassment and victimisation. Your requests are contradictory and confusing. The police encouraged us to use the stage etc but now want a six foot fence around the entire backyard with no entry! We have posted up the new rules and already a piece of fence has been ripped open. I have a welder coming this afternoon to fix it.

With an internal camera and the street camera live to the station trained on the front entrance, why can't we have the back door openning into the secured garden? Is this the best community policing you can do? Please see below more details on his requests.

I am asking my lawyer to forward of this to the Ombudsman and Fair Tenants Tribunal. I understand you have many police on stress leave and Nimbin is difficult but we need a wholistic approach to this issue and I wonder if the Crown Solicitor in Sydney has any idea of the consequences in little old Nimbin near the Queensland border! What do you expect will happen? Many of us have worked tirelessly to keep Nimbin peaceful and compared to other places these days we are a relatively non-violent community. Not bad considering how many hurt people we look after. These new rules will certainly upset a lot of people who treat the Museum as their home . The Police have had the freedom to search without a warrant since it opened in 1992 yet in spite of continued co-operation and liasing with you, we are being penalised in a way that threatens the ambience, and basic freedom of our business. Surely these are the rights that police are meant to protect. Many thanks, Elspeth Jones.....phone 66891123

Monday, March 09, 2009

Title: Minister for Health and Ageing.
Party: Australian Labor Party

Parliament House Contact
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Tel: (02) 6277 7220
Fax: (02) 6273 4146

Email: Nicola.Roxon.MP@aph.gov.au

Electorate Office Contact
Maribyrnong Office:
Location/Postal Address:
1 Thomas Holmes Street
Maribyrnong Vic 3032

Tel: (03) 9317 7077
Fax: (03) 9317 7477

Dear Nicola Roxon

I am a new business owner, and resident of Nimbin for twenty years. I have
been a friend of the Nimbin Museum since it opened, and was employed there
when it was a second hand wares shop. I am also a friend of the owners of
the business but by friend of the Nimbin Museum I mean that I think that it
has become an icon to young people from all over the world. Each day I see
tourists and backpackers walking through there, taking photos and enjoying
the exhibits. It is home away from home for some indigenous people.
Tourists want to see a culture which is unique and almost lost as we
‘hippies’ age. A very small and quite innocent part of that culture
happened to be sharing a joint. We are all aware that this has blown out of
proportion and the 21st century black market makes sure the price of
cannabis is high enough to take the risk of growing, moving and selling it.

Next to the museum is a lane where the cannabis black market thrives and has
done for the time I have lived here. Lately the police have targeted the
museum as a drug house. The owners have always told drug dealers that they
are not allowed in the museum and do not deal drugs themselves. I witness
them actively discouraging known culprits and putting themselves in the line
of fire on a daily basis. Police/Museum relations have deteriorated as a
result.

The police have advised the landowner that their tenant is undesirable and
have requested quite irrational physical changes to the museum’s backyard.
This includes welding bolts on the fence so that it cannot be dismantled;
an unconditionally locked gate 24 hours per day; fire exits closed etc
etc. Their requests verge on the ridiculous and cannot be taken seriously.
There is openly expressed contempt for the tenants by the police, who walk
in and out of the museum at will, and do not address the owners or visitors
respectfully. I don’t believe that this is a service to the community.
Because my business is not near this lane I don’t have the problem but the
dealers will just move on somewhere else (perhaps near my restaurant) and I
will be treated in the same way.
Prohibition is to blame for the state of affairs in the museum, and not the
museum or the people who frequent it. The people who are brave enough to
take the risks of selling in the cannabis market are aged 11 – 21. Usually
after that they will move on, making way for the next generation. They need
protection, so will allow a couple or three older more experienced people
around them. They usually have to be in jail or banned from the village
before they move on, and their replacements are often just coming out of
jail.

Nevertheless, we are a tolerant bunch and understand that people need
somewhere to go after all. Bringing up children in the community requires
very vigilant parenting. Schoolmates tell each other about how much money
you can make. Many schoolchildren and those who have grown up here are
aware of the drug war caused by prohibition. They know people who are
criminalized for using, growing or selling cannabis. They are probably
family friends, and there are many families in Nimbin, in a very close knit
community. We love to live here and share pride in our community. So much
so that people come from all over the world to visit us. Most people who
are at the coalface (those with businesses in the centre of the village)
know all this and also know that, back then, lifting alcohol prohibition
didn’t make more people drink; they were already doing it anyway. We are a
freedom loving community and know that sensible drug laws will not solve all
our problems but will go a long way towards easing the suffering that
prohibition brings.

This is a unique community in that the hippies have prevailed for many
years; we are an alternative example, warts and all. I urge you to take
action to a problem that has not and will not go away in this community’s
experience no matter how much police money the government is prepared to
throw at it. And it will get worse as unemployment sets in.

Prohibition is not a creative answer to a 21st century drug problem.
Regulation and legalization has to begin somewhere and sensible debate must
begin with some hard truths.

9 March 2009
Sincerely
Inez Price
Spangled Drongo Restaurant
1/80 Cullen Street
Nimbin NSW 2480

61 2 6689 0033
0427 409 626

Response to the letter below

Hi Richard,
I've bought locks and put them on the lane fence gates. People have objected to me locking the Museums back door as it's our fire exit and the door opens inward. I'll get the builder to reverse that like he did with the laneway door. I still need 2 exit signs if you could send them up to put on those doors. Meanwhile it is a fire trap if it is closed ...i will put someone there to try and stop any dealer potential from coming thru but it's far easier to just close the door!

The cameras on the inside are focussed on the front and rear doors of the museum. Pat is getting brackets welded to fix them in place so they cannot be moved. The police can come and get the disc whenever they want. They have shown no interest, never asked one single question nor followed up at all after I reported the 2 outside cameras stolen. The Sargent we dealt with, Mat Johnson, never returned to work at Christmas and is still on stress leave for a month or more they told me. The two police I am meant to contact have both proved impossible to find. Michael Smith is away for two more weeks after an operation and Stephen Caldwell's phone hasn't answered today. I'll keep trying, he just got back to work today I was told last week.

I remember clearly talking with you and Mat about the tin fence and that's what he wanted. It also blocks out the ugly rear of the supermarket skips and the carpark.

The eighty plants she is talking about was a handful of seeds thrown down and started to grow in the rain apparently. The police have been there virtually everyday searching every nook and cranny and didn't notice them, that's how big they were! We will endeavour to keep an eye out and pull out any we see. This happens all the time in Nimbin and I bet I could find 80 growing right now in the footpath gardens and potplants. I remember showing you some growing behind another shop when you visited. Police have pulled them out all over Nimbin for years and this is the first I have ever heard of it being recorded. They target the Museum everytime they walk up the street and endlessly tell us we are going to be closed down. Some police in particular have been very nasty. The same woman who recorded the plants is the one who I reported the stolen cameras too and she showed absolutely no interest in that.

I dont really blame the police they have an impossible job and many of them tell me they wish the laws were changed, but they are unfair pinning all this on you...the footpath is alive with dealers each and every day and with unemployment growing so will the number of dealers. Stopping it in your backyard will make no difference, they will just go elsewhere, probably back onto the street, which is certainly not what this community wants.

Believe me I wish there was no dealing anywhere near the museum, it's the source of endless problems for us.

I'm not quite sure what they expected from Elspeth, Mat was going to be in touch with her and he's on stress leave with his files locked up!! Deborah Sands (in house lawyer) has offered to be a new "contact person". I will discuss all of the above with the police when I can contact them. The local policewoman in charge of Nimbin at the moment agrees we need to discuss the situation on site rather than impractical decisions being made in faraway offices! I'll keep you informed with progress and I'll send photos asap.....

Best wishes, Michael

PRESS RELEASE Monday, December 1, 2008

MINGLE PARK STAGE SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATIONS

Jingywalla Blagganmirr Nganyulna Bugal Wern (Welcome Everyone To Our Good Time).

Sunday 21st December the Mingle Park Stage plays host to a Summer Solstice Celebration behind the Nimbin Museum.

Opening with a Welcome to Country at Midday with Auntie Viv, presenting artists and performers confirmed include Bunna Lawrie (and we'll be showing his Whale Dreamers film), Monkey and the Fish, Bib, Chris Bolt, Johnnie Aseron (Lokota songman and storyteller), Bigg Hoolz, Spooki, Al Japaljari, Kaliba, Johnny No Cash, Ghetto Tonto and Nimbins new discovery, singer poet Kara. MC Mark Jago.

"This celebration of the longest day is also to acknowledge the Museums ongoing contribution to the community.This place has stood by our mob through thick and thin over many years. The Museum has helped to raise awareness of many Aboriginal issues. We feel welcome here and we are very grateful the Museum is going to continue", said Widjabal Burri na, Bib.
Elspeth Jones, the new Museum leaseholder says,"I'm learning about where I am. The aboriginal cultural/earth connection underlies everything and my priorities are changing. We have to care for where we are and celebrate our freedom to do so."

Having so many Aboriginal people at the Museum was teaching everyone a lot says Michael Balderstone, curator of the Museum. "They have a much stronger sense of community and family and sharing than us recent arrivals. Fortunately the hippies love of the Earth gives us a connection which has been forged from thousands of years of getting to know this country. Aboriginals are the best friends hippies ever had, and I suspect it may be the same for some of them. We are on a journey to where Aboriginal people already were for thousands of years, in harmony with nature."

The new cameras for the Museum should be installed by the Solstice event, as well as a fence around the backyard, named Mingle Park some time ago by volunteer gardener Aaron Richardson. Resigned to the Police conditions imposed on the landlord recently, Museum volunteers are waiting to see how the new situation pans out. " We'll know soon enough", said Michael.

Admission for the day $10 waged, $5 unwaged and backpackers. The gig coincides with Nimbins 3rd Sunday of the month Christmas Market.

Further info and enquiries phone the Museum on 66891123, or Chris Fisher and Roy Gordon on 0417 246869

 

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'.

>>>>>>>>>>> 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