A free event called ‘Landsharing, Affordable Housing and Community’ will be held at the Nimbin Hall on Saturday, May 24 from 10am to 5pm – all are welcome.
The Nimbin Aquarius Foundation Inc say they, ‘decided to hold an anniversary event each year that honours and celebrates the radical spirit created at the 1973 Aquarius Festival’.
‘This marks the first of the “Aquarius Talks”,’ they say.
‘This year, the subject of major concern is housing. Come and hear a selection of speakers who are passionate about positive solutions to the housing crisis’.
Speakers
Speakers include Aidan Ricketts, Carol Perry, Gai Longmuir, Rob Doolan, Shane Sylvanspring, Prof. Wendy Stone, Nick Sabel, and MP Sue Higginson.
The 1973 Nimbin Aquarius Festival evolved into community landsharing that is now law in NSW, say organisers.
‘After the festival, a group of inspired young people calling themselves the “Nimbin Karavan” toured Sydney and Melbourne in a bus, spreading the word about buying shares in a 200-acre ex-dairy farm at Tuntable Falls. Shares were $200 each, and soon $100,000 was raised to buy the land and Tuntable Falls Coordination Co-operative was born as an experimental model of affordable housing, shared land ownership, and sustainable community development’.
‘In the 1980s, the PanCommunity collective (PanCom) was formed from members of the many different landsharing communities that had developed throughout the region.
Origins of MOs
‘PanCom worked to challenge the state and local government legislation around housing, and in 1983 the concept of multiple occupancies (MO) was enshrined in law. Fifty years later the Tuntable Falls co-op continues to thrive. Dharmananda has been successfully going for 52 years, and the MO creation continues to grow and change with all kinds of different communities which of course have their joys and problems, but continue to provide so many people with affordable homes, gardens and a deep experience of community.
‘This was the answer then, we can explore all the options for now.
‘This talk is to explore “doable” solutions to the housing crisis, particularly within our Northern Rivers communities’.
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