Stories from the front line:
...eye witness accounts of blockading and being in East Gippsland...
Arrested arrest at Eden Chipmill, Feb 2005
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.
|
I 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……
I started walking up hill which I thought would take me to the treesits in ecodeck
but I walked up hill to soon and hit regen, I then found a trib and followed that
which proved to be quite treacherouse but beautiful, I had to climb big granite
boulders that were all slimy and thought I was going to fall to my death and never
be found again……I eventually found the road to ecodeck and thought I would just
follow that but as soon as I got there I had to dash across the road and hide
cause cars were coming, so once again I went bush cause I thought the road was
to risky and since no one had seen the possums [tree sitters] in the treesits
for a few days I knew it was pretty important to reach them. So once again I started
bush bashin but it was heaps easier because the bush was heaps more open, I walked
up and down quite a few gulleys and after what felt like a few hours kinda thought
I should have been there by now and then I hit a fullon wall of wombat grass and
smilax which made me nearly cry but in the end saved me from getting really really
lost. I decided to turn back and find a pub and drink lots of beer and ditch the
doods up the trees cause I didn't care anymore. On my way back I sat down on an
old snig track cause I was stuffed and I was just sitting looking at the bush
around me when two lyrebirds glided about one metre from my head, one after the
other, it was totally amazing, they looked like something out of star wars. Pretty
much straight after that I heard gus laugh (he was one of the treesitters) and
realized I was directly above the treesits and I had walked too high and had walked
straight past the sits and had just kept goin……after NRE left the coup I ran
down to the treesit and was pretty proud of myself that I hadnt got totally lost
cause I used to get lost goin to the shitpit. So in the end a forty minute walk
on the road turned into a big dramatic whole day walk through the bush. I ended
going up the tree with gus cause I couldn't walk any further and he did a mad
dash to get water, while he was gone NRE turned up which was pretty funny cause
they were like " mmm your voice sounds a lot higher than before".
(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 did
N: I first came in here, I think it was January, February 97
F: And what was happening
N: It was very different. It was very fresh, the road. There were lots of people
here when I got here and um, it looked like the blockade was going ahead full
stream
F: Weren’t they putting up a tripod structure when you first arrived
N: yeah
F: and what happened there?
N: well after a long journey all I wanted was a cup of tea, fortunately, and as
I was making myself a cup of tea in the kitchen I heard this crack and these screams
and this massive tripod fell on top of about 20 people
F: an auspicious start….
N: It was, I was glad I was just in for the cup of tea
F: And what happened after that, that structure ended up getting up in the long
run didn’t it?
N: yeah it became much more spectacular that when it started but um, oh you know,
it was greenie luck once again and nobody got really hurt
F: So tell me what it was like in that first six months, from when it first got
set up to when it got busted
N: It was very energetic, lots of people, lots of enthusiasm … Pretty organised,
really
( Interview taken at Goolengook Reunion, 2002)
J: 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.
(Interview at Goolengook, 2002)
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
F: There was such a big strong feeling in Melbourne as well as out here, that’s
what was so good about it [the goolengook campaign]. There were rallies, that
vigil, that NRE action.
J: We did that first one when we got in, we all got in en masse, and the ABC crew
got in as well, and we cornered [Head NRE officer] Gerard O'Niel and he looked
very uncomfortable. He can’t escape his karma, he might have snuck off to
Parks now but he won’t get away with what he’s done, logging in Goolengook.
Um, that was good but that didn’t get on the media because it was the same
day that Hong Kong was given back to China, believe it or not…
F: Oh really?
J: All the news, half an hour of that. Then they increased their security so we
went in again, …. I don’t know if that was the first or the second
one, but we went in first, dressed up in suits and everything and got an article
in the [Melbourne tabloid] Herald Sun about that, naming us, and saying “Oh,
they wrote on the white boards and things, and left a mess in the tea room”
instead of the issues. Typical Herald Sun rubbish. Another time we went in and
it was my birthday and we dressed up in suits and said we had appointments at
National Mutual, and I had these National Mutual papers from some old insurance
policy, and they’ve got all this security and they’re checking everything
and we still got in! We got upstairs, they wouldn’t let us in the glass
door. And some security guy came up and said “What’s going on here”
and opened up the glass door to talk to us and we just went - Bang! And went straight
in! Almost knocked him out of the way! And he was, he couldn’t believe it,
he was almost begging, going “Please, please leave” . And I’m
saying “No, I’m sorry man, this is more important than your job, this
issue.” That was the irony, that this security guy, he opened up the door!
(laughs)
F: Good on ya
J: I remember talking to Neil Mitchell that day, live. And you know, all the purveyors
of misinformation, like him. That was a strong action. We got in again when they
had all this security, couldn’t believe it, it just showed them up. Shut
the building down again, they just shut the whole building down
F: And it was that time when Goolengook was becoming a household name, pretty
much, that was the seed of it all. There was Goolengook graffitti all over Melbourne
, Goolengook always in people’s minds…
J: It’s still there, there’s Goolengook grafitti opposite the Night
Cat on Johnson St there’s “save Goolengook” still up there.
(Interview at Goolengook 5 year reunion)
F: So, tell me, when did you first come to Goolengook?
M: It was……I don't know exactly……October, 1997, and I'd just missed out
on that big three months thing, and everyone was fucked, and all the crew
who had been there for three months fighting every day were leaving…I came
at the end of that.
F: Is that when the log trucks were going past every day and people were
getting very frustrated?
M: Yep, and there was only about six of us going "We've got to stop this"
and every day we -huh!- tried to do something! Scrub the road or something
fucken demented. Drove us crazy, so yeah.
F: So what made you come back if it was so bad?
M: It was the first time I'd ever got to live in the forest like that and
it was absolute - it was an absolute awakening for me, I was like "Oh my God!
You can shit in the ground, be responsible like that, drink fresh water from
the river, you can get the shade from the trees, you can make things from the
trees, you can eat from the forest, as much as you can, yeah…
F: How long did you stay for the first time?
M: It was three months, I think
F: and did you live out here all the time?
M: I did, I think I did two months straight, it was - bang, like that, and
I was totally changed, and when I came out, you come out of the forest, and
you go to the city, and your freaking out, there's concrete everywhere, you're
just totally changed
F: Yep
M: Yep, it was amazing. Yeah, you're on the mission. At that point, it was
a crack up coz I was going to the city, and we were going on the mission to
bring people out, and I didn't know anything about the issue, all I knew was
"I love this forest" and it was my home, you know what I mean, so you know,
I had the core nucleus but I couldn't talk on any level, so naturally I went
through huge freak outs after that, because it takes time to understand everything.
Your freaking out, because there's so much to it, your child's been awoken and
you have to grow up and understand the wicked ways of the world, how to put
it into perspective
F: So how do you think things have changed in five years, for you and the…your
whole perspective on it?
M: Okay, well, I reckon, for me, I can see the bigger picture I can see, understand
how the world works, and understand that we just, all the earth people have
got to keep learning all the skills, you know, walking the path, of earth, and
you know, following that and just keep getting more self-sufficient and independent
of the system and getting stronger as communities and that's the strength you
know like, growing little families, growing vegetables and everything we can…
" 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."
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