Regional Australia's University Cities and Cafe Life

Photo: Gordon Smith, Autumnal Life

I often use Gordon Smith's photos to illustrate stories simply because they are so good. I cannot do them full credit because I have to reduce them to fit the blogger format. I recommend that you do visit Gordon's photo blog not just because the photos are so good, but also because they give such a clear picture of rural life in one part of Regional Australia.

When the Australian colonies were established a university was established in each capital city. It would be many years before the first tertiary institutions were established in Regional Australia with the foundation of the Armidale Teachers College in 1928 followed by the New England University College, now the University of New England, in 1938.

There was then a gap of many years before there was any further action. As though to make up for this initial slow progress, the last forty years have seen a proliferation of tertiary education across Regional Australia.

This spread has had a major impact at local level as students and staff merged with locals to form a new and very civilised cultural mix.

This trend has combined with another, the desire for alternative life styles dating back to the counter culture movement.

It is hard to believe now that it was only in 1973 that the Australian Union of Students (AUS) chose the Nimbin Valley in Northern NSW as the venue for an experimental Aquarius Festival.

The festival was to be 'a total, cultural experience through the lifestyle of participation' and attracted students, alternative lifestylers and hippies from all over Australia. It was an extraordinary period when people put up tents and camped and talked and dreamed.

Most of the weekend visitors returned to the cities and their regular jobs but a small number of idealists and visionaries stayed on and formed the basis of a lifestyle experiment which has attracted attention over the years.

Since Nimbin, there has been a steady drift of people to particular locations seeking the alternative life style dream. Despite sometime tensions with the locals, the drift in combination with the spread of tertiary education has greatly added to the depth and diversity of the Regional Australia experience.