Mullumbimby is known as the anti-vaccination capital, but a group of locals are changing the narrative

Mullumbimby has long been defined by its “live and let live” ethos. But for those left to grapple with the reality of lagging vaccination rates, this isn’t a game of semantics — it’s life and death.

Take a trip to the Brunswick Valley, where the tiny town of Mullumbimby sits under the shadows of Mount Chincogan, and there’s one topic that’s met with a pause.

“Around here, vaccines are like politics or religion,” says local Heidi Robertson.

“You just don’t bring it up in conversation.”

With childhood immunisation rates in northern New South Wales among the lowest in the country, this reticence is unsurprising.