As if Byron Bay is not laid-back and alternative enough there is a city less than two hours away called Nimbin where people are still living like the Vietnam War was never over.
I had booked a day trip through my hostel where the driver was an old stoner playing music from the 70s and telling stories over the speakers. When stopping at Nimbin Rocks, a mountain at the outskirts of the town he told us that it used to be a sacred site for aboriginals and attracted alternative people when loggers wanted to cut down the woods.
Today it is just a small town with less than 400 inhabitants and just one main street withmostly cafés and handicrafts shops. Cannabis is openly sold and consumed, and the police in town seem not to care at all about it although it is illegal in all of Australia. It was quite a unique place worth seeing on a day trip but not a place I would spend more time in.