In the rolling hills of New South Wales' Hunter Valley, now famous for its world-class wineries, lies a remarkable piece of Australian counterculture history that has become the stuff of legend. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Hunter Valley was home to a cannabis infestation covering about 30 square kilometres, spawning one of Australia's most enduring folkloric tales: the saga of the "Weed Raiders" and their moonlit expeditions with sleeping bags full of wild cannabis.
The Discovery That Changed Everything
In the spring and summer of 1963, attention was called to the presence of large amounts of Cannabis sativa growing wild on river banks, along creeks, and near irrigation channels in the Hunter Valley. When the discovery was made public in November 1964, startled residents of the Australian town of Maitland awoke to the news that the Indian hemp plant—which the newspapers called "the dreaded sex drug, marihuana" had been discovered growing wild along the banks of the Hunter River.
The infestation was massive. The Customs Department would estimate that 500 acres of the Hunter Valley were heavily infested with cannabis: the largest patch was over 80 acres. Unlike the low-potency "ditchweed" found elsewhere, Hunter Valley's wild hemp was a good smoke, described in contemporary reports as "a powerful psychoactive aphrodisiac."
The Birth of the Weed Raiders
The authorities' discovery sparked something entirely unexpected. Rather than deterring public interest, groups of surfers and hippies flocking to the Hunter Region in search of the wild weed created a new phenomenon. These groups became known as the Weed Raiders—legendary characters who came back from expeditions with sleeping bags brimming with reefer and wild tales of monster plants 12 feet high.
The folklore surrounding these nocturnal expeditions has become deeply embedded in Australian cannabis culture. Some guys used to fill their hubcaps with grass. Others went quietly on moonlit nights and took their time to pick pounds and pounds of the herb. The raiders developed elaborate strategies to evade both police and landowners, turning their harvesting missions into adventures that would be retold for decades.
Historical Roots Run Deep
The wild cannabis didn't appear overnight. Experts now believe that the infestation had been there for over 150 years, as it was most likely planted by settlers William and Archibald Bell in 1823. The hemp cultivation was part of Australia's early colonial economy, as Cannabis sativa seeds first arrived in Australia in 1788 on the First Fleet at the request of Sir Joseph Banks, with the British envisioning Australia as a commercial hemp-producing colony.
In 1892, the Department of Agriculture distributed Cannabis sativa seeds to hundreds of farmers in New South Wales as an experiment in the cultivation of hemp due to the high prices of binding-twine at the time. When cannabis became prohibited in NSW in 1935, these forgotten agricultural patches continued to thrive in the Hunter Valley's fertile conditions.
The Cat and Mouse Game
In April and May of each year of the infestation, small but determined bands of marijuana devotees evaded detection by police and landowners as they harvested the flowering tops of the plants. The raiders' success was remarkable - much of the resulting cannabis flower was then smuggled to Sydney, where it was dried, cured, and illegally distributed.
The government's response was intense but ultimately futile for years. The NSW Agriculture Department began a new campaign of eradication... The department confidently predicted that "the bulk of the infestation should be cleared in a fortnight." In fact, it was to take five years. Some sources suggest it took nine years for the Government of New South Wales to eradicate it.
Cultural Impact and Legacy
Both police statistics and popular folklore confirm that the wave of marijuana smoking that was to engulf Australia over the next three decades had its origins among the Weed Raiders of Hunter Valley. The Hunter Valley infestation coincided with broader cultural changes in the 1960s and 1970s, when cannabis was not widely used in Australia until the 1970s.
The folklore of sleeping bags filled with wild cannabis became symbolic of a generation's rebellion against authority and the beginning of Australia's cannabis counterculture. These tales helped establish the romantic mythology around cannabis that would later find expression in places like Nimbin, which became the weed capital of Australia following the 1973 Aquarius Festival.
The End of an Era
By the early 1970s, authorities had escalated their efforts significantly. In 1971, the government had decided to take drastic action, using the herbicide 2,4-D on the cannabis. This was no small operation, as large patches had to be sprayed from crop dusters while officers battled the bush weed with backpacks of poison.
Today, the Hunter Valley's cannabis infestation exists only in memory and folklore. The region has transformed into one of Australia's premier wine destinations, but the stories of the Weed Raiders persist - tales of adventure, rebellion, and sleeping bags stuffed with the bounty of wild cannabis plants that once flourished along the Hunter River's banks. These stories remain a fascinating footnote in both the history of cannabis in Australia and the broader narrative of 1960s counterculture that swept across the nation.
The legend of the Weed Raiders serves as a reminder of how quickly cultural landscapes can change, and how the folklore of a single decade can capture the imagination of generations to come.