Depends how close to the beach, jobs, culture and infrastructure you want/need to be and how much you want to pay of course. Somewhere like Murwillumbah has reasonable cost of living, close to beaches, national parks and major airport at Coolangatta but far enough away from the tourist strip to avoid all those negatives. Less than 90 minutes to Brisbane if you need the facilities of a large city occasionally. Mullumbimby is similar but smaller. Nimbin is so-so. I woudn't live there. Uki just outside Murwillumbah can give you a similar counter-cultural, small village lifestyle without the feral tourists and petty criminals. I lived fairly close to Inglewood at Wallangarra on the border for 4 years in my teens. Girraween NP is a great place for photography but I don't think I could live in towns like Tenterfield or Casino. Kyogle might be as far west as I would consider but I come from the personal viewpoint of liking being close the beach and having an occasional conversation with a non-right winger!!
p.s. my wife and I have always had a soft spot for Bangalow. Let's retire to a little bungalow in bangalow
I used to live in Brunswick Heads, in fact spent most of my life there, right next to Mullumbimby. It is one of the nicest places you could ever hope to live. It is also beautiful. It is also not far from the gold coast. It's also a lovely place for a midnight summer's walk, usually very quiet unless there is something on (fireworks, carnival, something at the single pub, which is one of the nicest looking pubs, large outdoor beer garden overlooking the river), warm with a pleasant breeze, and usually a sweet smell in the air down across the river behind the beach.
All the places you are suggesting there are inland, and are not really ideal. They are kind of more isolated than my tiny town of 2000 people (Brunswick Heads) I used to live in.
Lismore is a terrible place to live. It is large suburbia at it's worst. Probably the drug user and dealer capital of the area (not talking about the laid back pot smokers), assault, violence, major crime.. terrible. It is also quite isolated. It is also always cut off by flooding, roads cut off, and even cave in deep into the ground there. Most the place there is very prone to flooding and it happens quite often.
The coastal areas on the north coast on the other hand, all drain out very well during the storms.