Around NSW With Andrew: Bellingen

Gateway To The Hippie North

It's been many a year since I followed the Waterfall Way down from Armidale to the coast. As will be revealed in some following entries for this blog, when we touch upon Ebor, Dorrigo and Coffs Harbour the route taken off the New England tablelands leaving due east of my old uni home town is one I've not taken lightly, nor recently. And so it is arguable that my so-called insights into Bellingen are about as useful as a hip pocket on a singlet. Still, I want to mark my passage through this town and show it as much respect as my minimal travelogue talents can offer:


View Around NSW With Andrew in a larger map
Bellingen has been in the news recently for its periodic bouts of flooding, and having passed through town several times I can vouch for the vulnerability to big rains. However it's not so much the roaring tumults of water that drench you when you come into Bellingen, it's the Mother Earth new age sensitivities of many a recent Belligenite that you soak in. Like a southern suburb of Nimbin there is a noticeable hippie-esque quality to the town.

Now there's nowt wrong with this per se. However I am fascinated by how in an area which was once salt of the earth, Country Party voting, lumber felling and dairy cow raising countryside the introduction of Zen, Gaia worship and reflexology has landed here. You don't see Bellingen's social mix replicated down in the Riverina, or west of the Blue Mountains. Whatever is in the Bellinger River is obviously further up stream at Byron, at Mullumbimby.

Aside from the Haight-Ashbury near Coffs aspect to the town the most important experience you can have in Bellingen is coming to a stop after coming down the winding turns of the Dorrigo road, or preparing yourself for the ascent. I've done this both ways in army buses and 76 Corollas, ex-cop cars and a Camry laden down for a naughty weekend. Your brakes may smoke a little on the descent if you're too eager, or perhaps if careless a huge gash may appear in a sheet of sparks on the side of your vehicle. In fact the road off the tablelands into Bellingen is much like the Snowy as it winds its way up from Bega to Cooma. So be careful folks; it ain't an easy road to swan along on.

Sad to say, with my recent travels keeping me on the Pacific or the Newie as I head north, I've had no reason to detour down the Waterfall Way and revisit Bellingen. I'm sure it is a hedonistic bucolic town with enough dampness to make a Chux superwipe happy. So in conclusion, who knows if and when I'll be back.
Share on: