Diana Jane Roberts was awarded an Order of Australia Medal on the King's Birthday honours list on the long weekend in June for 'Service to the community of Nimbin'. 

After some time to reflect on its importance, as well as a short holiday, we speak with Diana about her close relationship with the community she has adopted, influenced, and played an instrumental role in shaping.

After moving to Melbourne, Australia from the UK, Diana's grammar school education began her on her path of ethics, beliefs and ideals. After school, Diana went on a week-long holiday to Sydney, and never went back home. Instead, she embarked on a journey where she met like minded people and had the importance of community instilled in her.  

Diana‘s ideals of community were further enmeshed with her work.

“I worked in the professional development of teachers for seven years. It was a government-funded entity and ran very progressively as a collective. So, nobody was the boss. It had a management committee as a community organisation, but within the actual working environment, everybody was equal. Whether you were the cleaner, the gardener, the research officer, whatever.”

In a twist of fate, “One of the people I worked with for quite a few years during that time was Bob Dooley. Who now puts out the Nimbin Good Times. He was actually there as a media officer teaching media skills to teachers.”

Through another ironic turn of events, she turned down an early trip to Nimbin to the Aquarius Festival for a job—it turned out to be an unfulfilling one that did not last past three months!  

Diana started activism work while in Sydney. After the nuclear disaster in Harrisburg she joined “the anti-uranium mining movement at that stage was very closely linked to the land rights movement that I started in. I was engaged in that peripherally because the mines they were talking about were on Aboriginal land and the Northern Territory.”

After meeting the first love of her life, who pined for rural Australia, she moved away from Sydney with him and four other friends to find an idyllic place to start a small communal living arrangement.  

“Six of us set off on this quest to find somewhere where we would actually like to live, and as we moved up the coast land got cheaper and cheaper until they got to Stoney Chute.”

“I built a house, with the help of friends. But in the beginning, I didn't have any power. It was all handheld drills, and they made me build a house out of hardwood. Okay. With six-inch nails.

“In the beginning, most people move up here and just build a shed, which will be our garage and then build a house to go with it. And then you realise that, ‘Oh, I've just put all my money into building a garage’. So now I'm going to have to extend the garage and make it work as a house.”

The shed ended up as a three-bedroom tiny house, and Diana lived in it for 30 years. A new owner loves it and lives in it today.

“I think for me, it probably took about six years before I really found a network of people who were interested in the things I was interested in.

“In the early days, I was focused on building a house. I was teaching bookkeeping at TAFE to Aboriginal women. I had Aboriginal women and community organisations, and I also had a naturopathic practice in Lismore and Nimbin. 

“When I had my daughter, I just didn't want to do that travel anymore, so I left the Lismore part and focused on Nimbin, and that's when, after a year, I set up the apothecary.”

The apothecary moved from the Bush Theatre to the main street behind the Environment Centre. The building went through a number of tenants.

"The building had been renovated as a birthing project, employing women builders and giving them building skills, so they've done a whole lot of renovations and set it up as a birthing centre." But the need for the birthing centre fell away.

“The apothecary expanded and expanded. The Environment Center put me into direct contact with a whole lot of really fantastic community people, and that's when I probably really started to feel like Nimbin was my home.”

Diana turned her newfound community spirit into action, “Stopping burning at the tip was probably the first campaign I got involved in. It involved dealing with the state Pollution Control Commission at the time and getting them to put a stop to the practice, which they did. 

“And then we set up waste busters which was a comprehensive waste management system. We had a revolve shop. People would come with their stuff, and we would separate it. I wasn't so involved in that actual physical part of it. I mean, I did play a role but there were really dedicated people who were doing that work.  

“That work was really pivotal because it brought me into contact with council. At the same time Council was looking at putting in a centralised sewer scheme for the village at incredible costs. And that put me in contact with a guy called Stuart White, who has headed up the Institute for Sustainable Futures in Sydney.”

Later, Diana ended up running for council with Stuart.

“In the process, I went and addressed the Council meeting on behalf of the community.”

Diana was not impressed by what she found at the council at the time. Diana wondered just how much impact she could make.

“I would never have thought about running for council without having that experience.” 

After working with Helen Caldicott on her campaign, an opportunity came up for Diana to run.

“Stuart, Lyn Carlson and Ros Irwin asked me if I would like to run for council with them. Stuart and Carlson had no intention of getting elected. But as it turned out, three of us got elected. For me, that was a really pivotal point.”

In those early days, Diana contributed to getting things done, as she had the backing of the community. They acquired the Nimbin carpark and the community centre from the old school. Prior to this, “there was no place within that council to provide services to the community. After, they had a really good community services division. ”

“I'm still involved in the chamber. Though it's businesses, not communities, my passion. But, the chamber in Nimbin is very community oriented and has strong roots in the community. So, it's actually been a very easy partnership for me.

“As a business owner, my business has very much focused on providing a community service. For me, if you're going to be in business, your practice has to be ethical. We never charged for our professional advice over the counter. It was always about making herbs and natural practices more available and more understood by the community.”

“I think the biggest part of my development occurred while I was a Lismore councillor. It opened up lots of opportunities, and if you're diligent, you can take advantage of those opportunities. So, I chaired the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Board, for instance, which was a government appointment. I was on a state Waste Advisory Committee. Again, that was a government appointment. 

“I was involved in, what was, the Rous County Council water supply. For four years, I was on Far North Coast Weeds, who never ever seconded a motion of mine until the very, very last meeting. 

“For me, it presented incredible opportunities. And it also made me experience directly the value of working across the political divide to find common ground to bring about change. So, it gave me wonderful opportunities. You know, my personal growth during those 12 years was immense. 

(Diana's campaign manager tried a little photoshop work to get these posters turning heads and talking)

“But I couldn't have done it without the support of my community. It was the strong support and the vote from them, and that got me elected every time. 

“I think Nimbin needs a voice on council, someone who can actually listen to the community and bring that voice into the council arena. Over time, you earn respect, and you can bring about change, but it's not easy.”

(Diana's new loves of her life - grandchildren)

There are two achievements that Diana has accomplished recently that she was very pleased with, and that went well. 

“One of them was writing the grant that obtained the money for the Rainbow Road Walking Tack. So, that brought $2.54 million into this community, and hopefully we'll see something that makes visitors stay longer and understand Nimbin better. 

"I also wrote a grant for the Nimbin Headers (Sports club) which put night lighting on to their field. And it really transformed soccer for women because now they can play at night and they don't have to travel away from families.

“I'm really proud of my grant writing skills. I learned from council. Seriously, because you assess lots of grants. The best way to learn great grant writing skills.”

Diana acknowledges that all of this could only happen as the town and her beliefs were aligned, and she is ever grateful that she had the opportunity to be a part of Nimbin's story.