Hippy capital fear freedom

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NIMBIN, Australia, Apr 20 (Reuters) The pungent smell of marijuana fills the air outside The Rainbow Cafe in Australia's hippy capital Nimbin as a shopkeeper smokes a joint during a coffee break.

Across the road the Hemp Embassy is busy with shoppers inspecting bongs and pipes, as well as hemp T-shirts and hats, while a few enjoy a joint of marijuana in a side room.

''Hey mister, want some weed,'' says a voice in a dark corner of the Nimbin Museum, a cave-like labyrinth which tells of the hippy birth of Nimbin following the Aquarius Festival in 1973.

Selling and smoking marijuana may be illegal in Australia, but in Nimbin on Australia's fertile northeast coast authorities unofficially ignore the pot smoking.

Nimbin's marijuana smoking reputation is global and busloads of young foreign tourists, too young to ever have encountered a real hippy, arrive each day to get high or just wander through the village's shops which still promote the hippy way of life.

''Nimbin is a pot town,'' says Andrew Kavasilas, president of the Nimbin Chamber of Commerce, as he draws on a reefer of marijuana inside his Nimbin Cafe.

Nimbin's hippies are gathering for a wake at his cafe and a couple of grey haired women in kaftan tops and cotton pants chat and smoke marijuana, while two men playing chess roll a joint.

''Its a relaxed, alternate town. If you fit in, you fit in,'' says Kavasilas, who inspects the Reuters business card on the table and declares it would make good filters for his joints.

NIMBIN'S BIRTH Nimbin was originally a dairy town, perched on a ridge surrounded by lush valleys. In 1973 the town was on the verge of closing when a group of university students held the Aquarius hippy festival in a nearby paddock.

An abundance of cheap land and buildings, and the prospect of growing potent marijuana in fertile cow paddocks, saw many hippies put down roots and build an alternate culture.

In its early years Nimbin struggled to survive with hippies constantly clashing with authorities over issues such as drugs, unauthorised communal housing and the environment.

Today Nimbin's rainbow-coloured shops, such as Bringabong, the Hemp Embassy and the Rainbow Cafe, are heritage listed.

Nimbin's communes, one of which is 2,000 acres, now boast state-of-the-art ecological houses. The village's Rainbow Power Company exports alternative energy generating technology.

''Nimbin has changed from an isolated alternate culture to this village which is mainly tourism,'' says Michael Balderstone, a former stockbroker who arrived in Nimbin 20 years ago and now runs the Hemp Embassy and lobbies for marijuana to be legalised.

Even ageing hippies like Wavy Gravy, the master of ceremonies at the 1969 U.S. Woodstock festival, pilgrimage to Nimbin. Shuffling down the street with walking stick in hand and wearing a ban the bomb T-shirt, Gravy says he admires the communal vibe.