This year 25 Bond University criminology students have volunteered for the Jungle Patrol  and we need to balance them with more old heads and locals. The Jungle Patrol needs you!  Plug into the training and planning sessions.

We also need volunteers to come and make art for Mardi Grass. We want to sew up, print and  paint a whole host of banners, flags and signs. We need a bamboo sculptor to rebuild the  Big Joint. We want to create a fire spectacle for the opening ceremony. A mass of lanterns  is already in production and this year we will be lining the village with special Mardi  Grass lighting. Our aim is to create colour and movement by day and enchantment by night.

Call in at the Nimbin HEMP Embassy Arts Factory or ring 6689 1842. Backpackers welcomed  (and fed!) And if you can’t come help the making, make art at home and bring it to the  Mardi Grass. A costume, a mask, a flag. Dare to be visible! Dare to be powerful! Dare to  be beautiful!

Graeme Dunstan
Commander, Jungle Patrol

PS. Can anyone lend me a pith helmet?

Twenty four students (24) from the Crime and Deviance course of Bond University’s Faculty  of Humanities and Social Sciences have signed on to assist in the crowd friendly crowd  management of the Nimbin Mardi Grass and Cannabis Law Reform Rally (29 Apr–2 May).

The Nimbin Mardi Grass celebrates the hemp harvest and all things hemp. It is the biggest  annual drug law reform rally in Australia attracting a crowd of up to 10,000 to the  Northern NSW village that houses 600.

The students will be working along side Nimbin residents and other volunteers as members  of the Nimbin Mardi Grass Jungle Patrol. Their job will be to maximise crowd enjoyment of  the celebration and to minimise the impacts the event will have on the non- participating  residents of the village.

The students and other volunteers will be participating in a 2 day training session on  Crowd Friendly Crowd Management on the weekend before Mardi Grass. The training program  will be led by Snr Sgt Neville Plush, the officer in charge of Nimbin Police station, and  Graeme Dunstan, the Mardi Grass crowd friendly manager.

The students will be given course credits based on the written work they turn in on the  Mardi Grass experience as a practical experience in community policing.

“Many of my criminology students are seeking appropriate qualifications for careers  in Australian police services; others come from overseas and value the opportunity to gain  some direct Australian community experience and understanding of policing issues and  community based policing responses,” said Professor Paul Wilson, Dean of Humanities  at Bond University.

“We are delighted to have Professor Wilson’s students to help out on the Mardi  Grass,” said Superintendent Barry Audsley, Lismore Area Commander.

“They are in  good hands learning cooperative, community policing approaches from Sgt Plush who is the  region’s senior and most experienced police negotiator.”

Sgt Plush has described planning the crowd management of Mardi Grass as the most  difficult, most time consuming and most successful negotiations that he has ever  undertaken. He was awarded a NSW Police Service citation for his work negotiating the  crowd management of the 1998 Mardi Grass.

“It is local Police experience from previous Mardi Grasses that the crowd is peaceful  and co-operative”, said Superintendent Audsley. “For the most part, the Bond  students and other volunteers will be managing gates, parking, information dissemination,  emergency responses, radios, camping, first aid and chill out services – all the back up  and infrastructure services that managing large crowds requires.”

Further Information:

Professor Paul Wilson
07 5595 1124

Superintendent Barry Audsley
02 6623 1523

Graeme Dunstan
02 6689 1842