So we're 17 Ks from the Eden woodchip mill. we've arrived at midnight for a couple of hours sleep, and I've slept through the whole 3am tripod, roadblock and treesit construction. shit. It took 'til about midday for the states' finest to unhook the treesit from the steel cables blocking the road. Some crazy bugger had tried to ram the cables but we stopped him before he managed to kill himself (and the guy in the treesit). Anyway all that's left is the tripod/Aframe, and we know a cherrypicker is on the way to get him down so the road can be reopened. Damn, man, but its not the massive picker with a max speed of 15kph, but a crane on the back of a domestic truck going 80ks with a police escort. No-one managed to lock on, but a group gave it their best by rushing the truck after it was in position under the tripod. Officers responded .. er.. boisterously, and so I moved to a position where I could witness the ..interaction.. between the police and the protesters. One officer advised me to move from my position since I was too close to the road which had been declared a crime scene. I responded by asserting what I felt to be my personal responsibility to witness possible ..um.. overzealousness.... I was subsequently arrested, and ever-so-gently led to the 'paddywagons'. But they've got no real paddywagons! Just these toyota landcruisers with room for only three prisoners in the back - and there's only three of them, and ten of us(arrestees). I was the last to arrive - and THERE'S NO ROOM FOR ME IN THE VEHICLES. The cars drive the protestors away, and I'm left with this copper and we're both a bit embarrassed at the situation. I hung around for a bit after he let go of my arm - and I'm a bit confused over what to do. A few of the other protestors learily hung shit on me for a bit before I (sheepishly) wandered back to the group.
The Bust of Ferntree Blockade, Jan 28 2004I was involved in the defence of a roading blockade in the Ellery block, Far East Gippsland. At around 11am, the camp was raided by over 15 government officials including local police from Orbost and Bendoc, Search and Rescue police, and officers from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE). The infrastructure of the roading blockade included a fortified Fence and gate, an extensive structure (tripod, bipod, monopoles), a treesit connected to the structures, and a "dragon". The dragon consisted of a metal plate covering concrete that fastened the lock-on pipe to Ferntree Road.At the time of the police raid, my arm was attached to the road in the dragon. Police and DSE officers inspected the blockade and approached me almost immediately. One local policeman (from Orbost) when he approached me violently ripped a jacket from underneath me and confiscated my water. On requesting my water, local police again denied it from me, and stated that I could "make a deal" and be supplied with water if I withdrew my hand from the lock-on. I was approached by DSE officers several times and advised to unlock myself from the road, to which I informed them that I could not comply with this request. I was asked to unlock once again and upon refusal, was placed under arrest by a DSE officer, who touched me and said "I am placing you under arrest, do you have anything to say?" Water and provisions were still denied by local police and DSE officers. Almost from the onset of the police raid, Search and Rescue Officers dug at and inspected the dragon device with a piece of wood. After my arrest the Search and Rescue officers dealt more directly with me and at one point used pressure points attempting to get me to unlock from the road. My arm was pulled at forcefully, which tightened the chain bracelet around my wrist and the lock on, whilst pressing a point on my forearm. This resulted in great pain and at the time my arm felt as though it was at the point of explosion. During the use of this pressure point (which lasted for around two minutes) a local police officer knelt in front of me smiling, and asked, "have you been suffering from this irritation for long?" and laughed aloud. |
Search and Rescue now worked at the removal of the dragon by digging around the metal plate with a crowbar. The metal plate was tugged at which detached it from the concrete. The Search and Rescue officer who seemed to be the authority figure in the operation now approached me with a portable angle grinder and held it to my arm. He said "Well, it looks like a good fit", to which I nervously laughed. I was covered with a wet blanket and a fire blanket, and supplied with ear-muffs and a face mask. The metal plate was cut at with the angle grinder until it's removal and a jackhammer was used to break the concrete. While the jackhammer was being used, one police officer from Orbost said "You'll be lucky to get out of this alive." Around 3 hours after the raid began I was dragged to a police 4WD with the lock-on pole still attached to my arm. I unlocked from the pole, which took some time as I was stuck inside it. My only identification I possessed at the time of my arrest was a Bank Account card and I was informed by the Orbost police and DSE officers that this was not sufficient to prove my identification. Police informed me that I was to be taken to Orbost Police Station to be processed and have my identification verified. We then drove out of the blockade site towards Orbost and around fifteen minutes into the drive I heard over the police radio my personal details being read out by the police superior at the arresting officer's station. The police officers and DSE officers accompanying me in the car matched me with the description that was read over the radio and stopped the car. I was told we were 10 kms away from the blockade site and that I would be sent a summons in the mail to inform me of my charges. I asked the officers if I was being driven back home or to the blockade site and was informed that "it's 10kms, have a nice walk". Again I requested water and was denied again any provisions. The point I was dropped off at by the officers was past Yabby Track and I ran and walked quickly in the fear that I would be left alone at Ferntree Road without any transport or water or provisions. After more than an hour I arrived at the blockade site and was confronted by an officer who was present at the time I was left past Yabby Track. He attempted to deny me any access to the blockade site where my friends and provisions were, and yet again denied me of water upon request. The officer said "Well it's only 10 kms so I thought it mightn't take you long to get back." I stated "My home is 40 kms from here and if I'm not allowed through it will be more trouble for you as I can't walk home without provisions." The officer then moved aside as I walked through to where my friends had been directed to, at the edge of the site by the DSE and police, and informed me I could not pass that point. |
(taken from "The Story so far", a diary of the Goolengook campaign post-bust. Click here for the complete campaign diary)
And in the bush……one of our secret camps (now not so secret camp) got majorly busted, it was majorly funny though. There was quite a few people there and we were having a slightly boring moment so a couple of people decide to have some fun with the two way radios knowing that NRE listen in and started making jokes about Tim Collins (NRE Enforcement Officer). Not long after we got bored with that (which took awhile) who should materialize from the depths of hell but good old timmy himself. He read us he's stupid little card and then ran away to get reinforcements. We took that oppurtunity to pack down camp (I'd never seen a bunch of hippies pull down tarps so quickly before in my life) and run away. So the cops rock up and theres no hippies to be seen anywhere……
(interview taken Goolengook reunion, 2002)
F: So tell me when you first came to Goolengook and what you saw when you first got here, what you didJ: We came across a camp. It was so dark and all of a sudden we came across
a camp and we heard dogs bark, I don’t know what we were going to do.
And we were walking along and Hawk had, like, this jacket on and it was going
– chh chh chh – and it just seemed so loud at night and I thought
we could be heard for miles. And there was this corner, and all of a sudden
we saw lights come on so we dived off the side of the road, we’d been
going for hours at this stage, so we’re hiding on the side of the road
and Hawk’s on the walkie talkie saying “Is that you Delta One? Is
that you? Stop Stop do not proceed” (laughs). By this stage we’d
got each other so paranoid (laughs). Its funny now but….I wrote a song
about it called “The Long Walk Home” actually. They stopped, and
we climbed up and walked down the road and all these headlights were there and
we started running towards the head lights and we could see all these silhouettes
of people and I just for a second thought “What if it’s the loggers”
and we’re running straigh in coz you’re running towards these lights….but
it was just the other kids
F: I actually remember the .look on your face when you burst out of the darkness…
J: Oh so you were in one of the vehicles….
F: You looked pretty freaked out (laughs)
J: Hawk’s a pretty intense guy
F: Yeah
J: Yeah, so anyway, we did that.
J: And then there was another action at Quadra when we left the camp here (at
Goolengook) and we stopped at Cann River to get petrol and all the hippies just
hanging around in Cann River. And there was this girl Angie in the Kombi decided
to turn the doof [techno music] on and open up the doors and the loggers came
out of the pub with their beers and were just looking and we’re supposed
to be sneaking in to do a coupe action and they’re dancing, and I’m
going “Oh no! no!” And then we got to Club Terrace and they did
it again! And this local redneck car drove up, and had a look and then –
drrrrrrr – and he burned out then drove off and it was dark and I’m
going “ohhhhh.” And we were rendezvousing with GECO….anyway,
at that action, that was the action where the GECO truck was parked last and
the loggers came in at about dark…
F: Dawn, I think it was
J: It was still dark when they first came in actually. They had their headlights
on, I remember that. And they backed back and rammed the GECO truck and I’m
going “Flynny quick you gotta film this, ramming the truck!” and
they back back a bit, and you heard from within the truck “I can’t
find me glasses!” and I look in the truck and Flynny’s up like this
in the back of the truck trying to find his glasses and he bent over to try
and find them and they rammed the truck, and he just falls over (laughs). It’s
funny now, but it wasn’t at the time
F: It was hilarious
J: Every time he’d stand up they’d ram the truck again and knock
him over and he couldn’t find his glasses to film it. We got photos of
it.
F: That’s right, and we had legal observers at that time, which was good
J: And then when we left that action, that girl Angie, who had that Felicity
Princess Kombi – I came round the corner in the GECO truck and they were
OFF the road and the Kombi was on its side, and I remember Big Bear crawling
through the passenger window with this dazed look on his face. One of the many
incidences when noone was killed.
F: And it was really hot too
J: And the first person to show up to help us out of that bother was a jinker
driver
F: He was good
J: He was a nice guy. He said to me, “Yeah this clearfell logging’s
wrong. We know we shouldn’t do this one. We don’t want to do it
this way but the Department says if you won’t do it this way you won’t,
we won’t allocate any more coupes.” So that was a revelation to
me. I understood more to liaise with workers, not go the aggro with workers.
We sat down with those workers for ages. Still won’t drink your tea but
…
F: They’ll have a chat
J: They were pretyy good though, yeah yeah
F: Yeah we did actually have quite a big rave with them at that action didn’t
we
J: Yeah. So that was good
" Just one morning we came in, we were all camped at Bee Tree and the crew came in. Were we camped at Bee Tree or – look, I forget, there’s been all the different camps but one when we had a whole crew to go in and I always get nervous before actions like that, butterflies, and um, I had the video camera but the batteries were flat and it was [logging contractor] Wayne Burgess, and we went in and they were already moving the bulldozers around just down over the bridge down at the log dump down there and um, these two teenage girls who hadn’t been to an action before, just bolted in and locked on, they had lock ons and they did it, and they were amazing. They always amaze me, its usually the younger girls who are most gung ho who will lock on to moving machinery. And I had this camera with no batteries! And I was worried about Wayne Burgess, but he just sat down. He was really chilled out. He said, “Oh, I wouldn’t lock on to that bulldozer, I haven’t got the handbrake on. It could move” And we said, “You’d better put the handbrake on then Wayne” And he went up and put the handbrake on and sat back down. They were just ready for it. They just sat down and had a smoko."