Sunday, 16 February 2014, 11am
This was another educational episode in my efforts to
document the fight against Big Coal and Gas. I spent four days in the
oppressive heat of central NSW near Narrabri looking at the work of the
activists in the Pilliga State Forest against coal seam gas and the Maules
Creek mob fighting the expansion of the Maules Creek Mine and the Boggabri Mine
(and a few others) into the Leard State Forest.
While Sarah attended a meeting in Narrabri, I trucked off to
the Pilliga Protection Camp, arriving about midday on Monday. The first drawing
was obvious and straightforward – the camp itself, which I completed within a
couple of hours of arriving.
“Pilliga Protection
Camp”
What to do next wasn’t quite so obvious. I took the opportunity
to join an expedition to check on the welfare of a protester that had locked on
to a semi near the drilling rig. After a drive of about 20km into the bush we
arrived at the site where Carmel had been freed and was having an escorted pee
before being taken away in a paddy wagon. I was immediately approached by a cop
who told me to put my camera away (which they’re not empowered to do) and some
words were exchanged about Carmel’s welfare, which was found to be OK when she
emerged from the bush. Managed to squeeze off a pic of Carmel being taken away
as we left, but no opportunities for arting as we had been told to move on or
risk being arrested –
After returning to camp, I attempted to draw some people in
camp, but found their constant movement problematic and ended up rubbing it
out. I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the shade and trying
unsuccessfully not to sweat too much as I listened to the camp chatter and
asked stupid questions.
Three people turned up who had been arrested that morning.
They came to get their gear and leave before they were arrested for breaching
their bail conditions by being within 50km of the Pilliga.
As evening approached the temperature dropped and the whisky
started to work. I was attracted by an Ironbark in the light of the setting
sun. It was drawn on the panel I’d previously erased and had a dirty backgound
–
“Ironbark”
After this I sat down and chatted in the camp, trying to get
to know some of the activists. I met up with Frida, one of the artists from
Bimblebox, who had dropped by to pick up her tent after being arrested the
previous day for locking on.
Eventually I noticed a group of camping chairs that
attracted me as an interesting composition, so I went off to get my gear. When
I got back Dave was sitting in one of the chairs, so he was included. Dave was
a (relative) local, as were about half the protesters at the camp. He was one
of those arrested that morning, but was staying on after convincing the cops
that he needed to rest before moving on.
“Dave from Dubbo”
A while later I noticed the moon and Jupiter and thought a
nocturne was in order. As I walked back to get my gear again, I was hailed by
Bruce Copeland from the local Gomeroi Mob – “Come and sit with us, brother”. As
good a place as any to draw the sky, so I sat down and got to work. His mate
Monty leaned against his ute right in front of me, so was included, to the gain
of the composition –
“Jupiter over Black
Monty”
That was enough for one day and eventually I retired to sweat
out a night in my tent, though not before a memorable encounter with a chemical
toilet. I discovered after downloading that there were no poo tickets, then I
couldn’t work out how to get it to flush in the dark. Bent down over the bowl,
I finally found the lever and sprayed my face with shit water as it flushed. I
stumbled off to my tent looking for water and tissues with my pants around my
ankles. I survived.
Next morning I decided to set off to draw the water piping
laying along the road to the well sites, prior to burial. I knew I wouldn’t be
able to get anywhere near the drill rig. Ten km down the road I was stopped by
a cop who told me I could go no further, even if I was just a harmless artist.
Two helmeted Santos (Santossers) looked on and smirked. I asked if it was OK if
I stopped back the way I’d come and draw the road, he said no problem. I kicked
myself later, I should have asked if I could draw him and his companions. No
doubt he would have refused.
I found this side track fairly active –
“Pilliga Plumbers at
Work”
I had now used half my panels and wanted to keep the other
five for Maules Creek, so thought I’d just sit around and chat until I had to
meet up with Sarah later that day. Bruce had other ideas.
He approached me with a proposition:
1.
Do his portrait.
2.
Give the portrait to him.
I explained that I was trying to tell the story of the
action, had limited panels and that I intended to exhibit the work. If he could
find me something else to draw on I would be happy to give him a portrait. When
he heard that it would be shown, he was happy to let me keep it. So he set
himself up, I asked him to leave his shades on and this is the result –
“Bruce Copeland -
Speaking for Gomeroi”
Bruce turned out to be the nephew of a gent I’d already
drawn for the Dying Darling series – Uncle Alan Hall. His real nephew that is,
not a nephew in the aboriginal sense. Small world. The Gomeroi are very active
in the fight in this area, especially since some of their sacred and burial
sites had been trashed in the fossil fuel stampede.
I was going to sit down and take it easy for the rest of the
day, but after receiving a call that the cops were on the way to bust the camp,
thought I’d leave to avoid having to unpack my car. As I was leaving, Dr. Mehreen
Faruqi, NSW lower house Greens MP, turned up. I was to meet her later at Maules
Creek. Her account of her visit can be found at
http://www.mehreenfaruqi.org.au/a-tale-of-environmentalism-and-police-intimidation/
After a cold shower in the truckies’ showers at the back of
the Shell roadhouse in Narrabri, I lay down in the shade in a park to read and
wait for Sarah’s meeting to finish.
We headed off to Maules Creek that afternoon and were made
welcome by the large group of activists. Sarah caught up with a lot of her
mates while I looked unsuccessfully for something interesting to draw. The camp
had just been relocated to Cliff Wallace’s farm ‘Wando’ after they were kicked
out of their previous camp in the State forest by the local council, following
an occupation of over 500 days.
That night about twelve activists set out to do some
‘scrubbing’ around the Maules Creek Mine. This involved blocking the roads with
logs dragged out of the bush. At one stage they met up with the security guard,
and while he was busy removing some logs, they crept around and threw some logs
on the road behind him. Then the cops arrived. The scrubbers were later
retrieved without incident after the cops left.
At this stage Sarah and I decided to set off to do a drawing
of the mine. We were pulled over just inside the forest boundary by a cop in a
4WD, who checked our rego, breathalysed me (unsuccessfully), asked if we were
there to pick people up, then started to hint that he’d like to check our car
for roadworthiness. After explaining that we had a very obsessive mechanic that
kept us poor, he decided not to bother. I explained that I was only there to
draw and he let us continue on.
Issuing defect certificates is one of the main tactics of
the police. Every time they see a suspect in a car, they pull them over and
defect their car, trying to keep them immobile and cost them money. Several
cars were defected in our two days there.
A couple of K’s later a cop car came the other way, turned
behind us and followed us all the way to the mine site, where I pulled over to
draw. He assured us that we weren’t there to draw, but indeed ‘to cause
trouble’ and gave us a ‘move-on or else’ order. So we returned to camp
creatively unfulfilled.
That night, after a very hot and unmotivated day, I did a
quick sketch of the evening meeting –
“Meeting at Maules
Creek”
I was attracted to the tarp in the foreground. Di Martin had
turned up to record events for a ‘Background Briefing’ program on Radio
National on the local fossil fuel and biodiversity offsets schemozzle, to be
broadcast on March 16. She is second from the left in the back row.
The next morning we managed to draw the mine without any
problems, as there’d been no actions to stir up the ants nest that night. As I
finished, the company security guard pulled up. He admired my drawing before
wishing us ‘Avagooday’. The map was overlaid afterward and shows the extent of
the two mines’ incursion into the forest. There are other smaller mines as
well, which are not marked. Precious little of the forest will remain. The map
will be ‘pushed back’ in the painting.
“Scar - Plan and
Elevation”
We drove on to Boggabri to attend a meeting with the Gomeroi
elders where an agreement between various environmental groups and the Gomeroi
was signed, followed by a friendly BBQ laid on by the Maules Creek Mob.
Thursday evening I persuaded two activists, Dani and Kat, to
pose for me in the outfits they’d made for an upcoming action, specifically
protesting the decimation of the local bat population. They couldn’t hang
upside down for long, so each portrait was restricted to about four minutes.
Kat was amused that I’d given Dani big boobs. It wasn’t intentional. Really.
“Dani and Kat - Bats
Behaving Badly”
I had hoped to do a portrait of Muzza, long term organiser
who had been at the protest from the start, but he decided to play hard to get
and we left the next morning with one panel undrawn. We managed to avoid the
police that had set up nearby to defect as many of the protester’s cars as they
could.
After all we’d seen, it was a sobering drive home.
Further reading -
