“It’s a lot more hippie than I remember”, my friend Sue said as we made our way along the main street of Nimbin. “There’s a lot less drugs on offer”, I thought to myself. Sue had actually grown up in Nimbin to a family who had lived there for a couple of generations, whereas I’d only visited on a few occasions.

My only really significant connection with the “Rainbow Generation” was when they arrived at South Lismore Railway Station in 1973. I was living close-by and remember and to this day remember walking down the street to take a look at the arrival of the hippies.

Sue still has a lot of family living in Nimbin. Our other common connection is Paul who we went to school with (and his partner Kerry) who run Nimbin Valley Dairy which specialises in cheese production (especially goats cheese) but who also run a small milk line as part of their operation.

When you’re a dairy farmer, both Christmas Day and Boxing Days can tend to be like any other work day. And so when we were invited out for Christmas Lunch/Dinner, there was an in-between period when we helped them with bottling, capping, and crating the milk ready for delivery. Sue was the capper. I was the stacker. “Are we slowing you down or speeding you up?”, I asked at one point with a smile.