“They’ve been spending a lot of time and money on the Nimbin Road”, a family member, Karran told me a few months ago. Her former partner (and father of her children) is a council worker, and that’s how she knew. “It’s a shame they aren’t spending more time fixing up the potholes around town”, she added.

In addition to all of the well-canvassed problems caused by this year’s floods in the Northern Rivers, there’s the issue of the roads. There are still roads (such as the road to The Channon) that remain severely damaged. Some roads and bridges collapsed, due to the floodwaters or heavy rain.

But as we drove to Nimbin today, we were quite impressed.

“I haven’t seen the road look this good in many years”, my friend, Sue, who grew up in Nimbin said today.

If there’s one good thing to come out of the floods, it will be that some long overdue infrastructure improvements occur.

“Everywhere you go in the Lismore CBD, you can smell fresh paint”, I said to my friends. “They’re also installing fairly similar shop windows and fittings, and so it’s likely to give the main block a more consistent look”, I noted.

There are still lots of empty shops of course.

For a number of years, we’ve been heading to Nimbin, because an old school friend and his partner live there, where they run a dairy and goat farm, making milk and cheese. On occasion, we’ve actually helped with the milk-making, though mostly we spend the time at Nimbin sitting, chatting, making lunch, drinking wine, and enjoying the long friendships we share. (45 years!).