Jeni Kendell, The Nimbin GoodTimes

Each May, the Nimbin Aquarius Foundation is planning to put on an event to celebrate the original Aquarius Festival in 1973 which helped reawaken and renew our wonderful town of Nimbin and ripple out in so many ways to far corners of this country.

This annual event will resemble the ‘Festival of Dangerous Ideas’ that has become a landmark for people thinking outside the square. The first of these Aquarius Talks will be on ‘Landsharing, affordable housing and Community’ to be held in the Nimbin Town Hall on Saturday 24th May from 10am-5pm. It is a free event and we really want you to come along, to hear and participate.

Housing has become a huge talking point in the Australian election with incentives being put forward to try and help what is a desperate situation. Having a house is a human right and yet it has become largely unaffordable and renting a nightmare of unavailability and inflated prices.

The day will be introduced by Aidan Ricketts, legal academic, social change trainer, author and activist. He supports many social movements and protest groups and wrote ‘The Activist’s Handbook’ on organising ourselves and our communities and how to take political action. Aidan will talk on ‘The current state of housing and creating better outcomes.’

We can learn from our own experiences of Community and as part of Aquarius Talks will hear from Carol Perry, co-founder and community member for 52 years at Dharamanda community. She is an extraordinary mediator and has much to teach us. Her talk will be ‘Creating Involvement, Harmony, Continuum in Community’. “…it is easier to learn living skills than work skillfully with people when things go wrong. Nothing is going to happen if people can’t resolve the issues in front of them.”

Next Gai Longmuir, founding member of Bodhi Farm, community member for over 45 years. Her talk ‘Living your Truth and standing up for Change’. In 1977 Gai’s aspirations were to share the land in “Voluntary simplicity”.

“We were very undemanding of what life might serve us, and grateful for what we got”. However back then Bodhi Farm was not “quite legal” and after the Terania Rainforest Protests Lismore City Council wanted to bulldoze down 15 buildings not meeting building codes. 650 people protested, it went to court, then appeal and the Bodhi farmers won the day. Laws and building codes changed.

Rob Doolan will take this further with his ‘Journey of Multiple Occupancy and Beyond’. Rob has lived on a multiple occupancy for over 30 years and has been involved in the planning/approvals process of over 120 intentional communities in the Northern Rivers. He was also involved with Col James from Sydney University to prepare a Multiple Occupancy Manual for the state government to assist Councils and would-be communities.

Rob’s thoughts are that our region with its five decades of lived experience has made a huge contribution to the creation of multiple occupancies contributing to housing many people. We have much to offer. Throughout NSW, countless rural towns and villages could benefit from a modern version of the model.

Shane Sylvanspring, founder and manager of ‘Planning Regenerative Communities’ has assisted development of ecovillages, intentional communities and alternative land ownership models. He has also successfully established a new community at Afterlee, west of Kyogle. He has first-hand knowledge of many communities throughout the world. Shane will talk on ‘Landsharing now – new Ethical Communities’ and offer further ideas on planning, DAs, consent, models and ways of getting results in reasonable time.

We are honoured to have Wendy Stone, Professor of Housing and Social Policy at Swinburne University. Wendy’s research is generational and gendered housing, precarity and wellbeing, innovative housing solutions and aspirations across generations and citizen engagement through Public Policy.

Her talk, ‘Housing as a Human Right – new models and ideas.’ Wendy says – Home ownership – the great Australian Dream is out of reach for so many people who have become anxious, overwelmed, trapped, crushed, worried about having children and feel hopeless because of their housing situations. Time for more investment in public housing, stronger rental regulation, special needs housing and Life Skills taught in schools.

Nick Sabel, CEO of Common Equity NSW, whose mission is to lead and grow co-operative housing for the independence and well-being of people and communities. His talk is called ‘Developing and providing community housing for all ages and needs’.

Through the co-operative model, people are connected to long-term, safe and secure housing, training, education, employment, community engagement opportunities and improved quality of life.

So after these talks, suggestions, models, ideas it will be time to decide what it is we might want and need in landsharing and housing and community and do this together again. It can be done.

Sue Higginson, Greens MP for NSW, activist, lawyer ex-CEO Environmental Defenders Office, will be speaking on ‘What can we do to be heard by Government and make change happen?’

Please come along and participate in what we expect to be a lively and stimulating discussion with Q&A. Please contact us if you are keen to offer help. Phone Meg 0429-009-594 or Jeni 02 6689-7236 or email: paulandjeni@icloud.com.

Tickets free from Humanitix or at the door. 

This article appeared in The Nimbin GoodTimes, May 2025.