Bursting with creativity and revolutionary ideas, a bunch of dreamers found shelter from the storm in Nimbin.

Whether from pure madness or for the sake of love, the small rural town spawned a big movement.

The new audiovisual book Out There chronicles 50 years of alternative revolution: the simplest, yet strangest journey ever undertaken. It is an insightful collection of 39 separate self-told stories that concisely capture different aspects of Australia’s counterculture movement.

The book is a wonderful body of interviews and art, including many perceptive and exquisite photos of Nimbin, its people and the surrounding area.

It gives a strong voice to much of the philosophy and practices that have survived and flourished here, while holding a lovingly realistic but inspirational lens to the Nimbin experience.

This is the real Nimbin – naked, deconstructed and spontaneous – revisited through a unique concept that combines powerful photographs with poignant audio recordings and gripping sound-tracks, all individually crafted to each tale.

The book is the creation of the duo of photographer Goff and musician Quentin Merlaud. Music lovers working at different ends of the music industry, they met a decade ago and decided it was time to take on the world.

Driven by their love for the sixties and seventies era, and probably because of their French roots where revolution is the national anthem, they ended up in Nimbin.

What is more enriching than to have a yarn with rule-breaking visionaries, activists, dreamers, artists and self thinkers?

Persuaded that stories shape the world, this led them to capture and create a unique format, merging the stillness of photography and the motion of sounds through an interactive multi-art book.

This format invites readers to immerse themselves and experience a multi-sensory journey.

After years of a labour of love, they finally launched the book at this
year’s MardiGrass, with a weekend photography exhibition and audio installation punctuated by local artists’ performances.

The event was a real success for the book, and a huge heartfelt experience for the authors to be back among their people, receiving amazing feedback from their community.

To see and hear more, and to purchase a copy of the book, go to: www.goffimagery.com/outthere

This article appeared in The Nimbin GoodTimes, June 2024.