As a tribe of surfers bail on the mainstream and pursue the country-soul dream, Tracks co-founder John Witzig illustrates the scene in Byron Bay and the far north coast.  Many will see striking parallels between the issues affecting the region then and the one’s being debated now. This week’s Classic Tracks is from the pages of Tracks Issue #9 (June 1971). 
           

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Sometimes when I sit at home. Usually on the verandah looking to
the sea. Or else in front of the fire. I
can imagine that there are no houses crowding my view and my privacy. That the roads don’t encircle my home and that the cars don’t rip down
them on Saturday nights. It’s all
part of the country dream. Then
I’d have a soup that I made on the stove in case someone came by. Things’d be slow, and of course, happy. Now I open a can of Campbells soup that reminds me of Andy Warhol
which is a long way from country
soul.

I like to imagine that I am more pragmatic now. That the dream is tempered by useful practical things and’s probably closer to realisation. Though sometimes I deny it, much is still tied in the north. It started there when we thought about living forever where there were those magic waves. Some of us went there and lived and more of us went there and stayed. We
rather imagined that we’d found the way. We were pretty evangelical about it all. ‘Come and share the brown
rice’.

Now there’s a lot of people living along the coast. At Yamba there’s Newcastle guys and a group from Wollongong and the odd South Australia. Gary Keyes and Chris Brock are talking about when they’ll be leaving. There’s too many people and it’s not like it was they say. Undeniably they’re right. A decent day …