Protesters follow footprints of dinosaurs

GRAHAM LLOYD, ENVIRONMENT EDITOR 

From:

The Australian 

May 16, 2012 12:00AM

DINOSAURS and mosquitoes were the only certainties yesterday in an escalating face-off between police, protesters and politicians over Woodside Petroleum's planned $40 billion gas hub development near Broome.

Businessman Geoffrey Cousins took a swipe at federal Environment Minister Tony Burke for failing to act to protect prehistoric footprints from Woodside's near-shore drilling.

And thick clouds of mosquitoes due to the late arrival of dragonflies posed an immediate, uncomfortable threat to heavy police reinforcements manning an outback booze-bus on a wide red stretch of road far from town.

The heavy police presence and lack of action led state Opposition Leader Mark McGowan to accuse Premier Colin Barnett of overreacting.

Mr Barnett told state parliament neither he nor Police Minister Rob Johnson played a role in the decision to send a large number of police to Broome.

Kimberley police superintendent Mick Sutherland said his priority was to keep the roads open and Woodside's heavy machinery flowing to the construction site.

"I live here and at the end of the day this is about Woodside and James Price Point; it is not about the police," he said. "My objective at the moment is to keep the road clear and that is it."

But Perth-based police confirmed reinforcements estimated at 150 officers had been sent in anticipation of a repeat of the Heirisson Island confrontation when police stormed an indigenous protest camp near the city centre in March.

They are waiting for an invitation from council rangers to assist in an eviction when a verbal instruction to move the camps expires tomorrow.

But Shire president Graeme Campbell said yesterday the process may take longer than expected if normal procedure is followed and a written demand to leave is made.

For Mr Cousins and Save The Kimberley director Mark Jones the need for action of another kind to protect the dinosaur footprint fossils was urgent.

Mr Cousins said the company's work program and Mr Burke's lack of action was "unconscionable".

Mr Burke said he had been advised the work that was happening offshore was not having any impact on the footprints and was therefore outside his powers.

"I will end up with decisions that go well beyond the heritage values in terms of the environmental assessment itself," he said.

Blue line in red dirt as gas tensions rise in Broome

BY:GRAHAM LLOYD, ENVIRONMENT EDITOR 

The Australian 

May 15, 2012 12:00AM 

WA police give a show of force yesterday at James Price Point, the site of Woodside Petroleum's controversial $40bn Broome CSG hub. Picture: Damian Kelly Source: The Australian

THE wet season has officially ended in Broome and a new flashpoint has arrived in the protests over Woodside Petroleum's controversial $40 billion James Price Point gas hub.

Over the past four days, the tropical holiday town, 2176km north of Perth, has been flooded with an estimated 150 extra police who have taken up residence in five-star resorts to conduct a high-visibility operation - including manning outback booze buses and issuing a blizzard of car defect notices.

Yesterday, a large contingent of riot police had its first confrontation with a small group of protesters manning the barricades at "black tank" camp, where Manari Road joins the Cape Leveque Road for James Price Point. The display of police power to shepherd through Woodside machinery to the proposed gas hub site was seen by locals as a forerunner of what is to come.

Broome Shire President Graeme Campbell has declared two protest camps - where more than 40 arrests were made last year - to be illegal. A protest organiser said the camps had been given a deadline of Wednesday to be pulled down.

West Australian Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said police had been sent to Broome to "keep the peace and ensure Woodside can go about its lawful activity".

But Mitch Torres, a traditional owner from the Jabirr Jabirr-Djugun Yawuru tribe, said the traditional families of Broome were alarmed at what was taking place in their town.

Ms Torres said she represented the "old families of Broome" who had invested in the town for generations.

Visiting the Manari Road camp after yesterday's police operation, Ms Torres accused police of acting as a private security firm for Woodside.

"Who are they protecting us from?" she asked. "Ourselves?"

Ms Torres said Labor Party polling had shown 79 per cent of Broome residents were opposed to the gas-hub development.

The project still enjoys the support of the Kimberly Land Council, which has negotiated a $1.5bn compensation package for traditional owners.

On Sunday, 300 people delivered flowers to the Broome police station to mark Mother's Day and as a gesture of peace.

But beneath the public niceties there is a sense of foreboding and deep divisions over the project, which enjoys the strongest possible support from Premier Colin Barnett.

Woodside this month sold a 15 per cent stake in the Browse Basin project to a Japanese consortium for $2bn, raising doubts about the company's determination to proceed with James Price Point as the site for a gas hub.

Woodside's joint-venture partners reportedly favour pumping gas from James Price Point to LNG facilities further south.

But a defiant Mr Barnett has declared that the state government will decide where the gas-processing facilities are located, not the companies.

Woodside has yet to make a decision on whether to proceed but company chief executive Peter Coleman said the Japanese investment would not affect its plans.

The resumption of work at James Price Point is considered by many Broome locals to be a provocative act in the face of a Supreme Court decision to overturn the state government's compulsory acquisition of the site and new legal wrangles by traditional owners.

Protesters at the Manari Road camp said about 80 police were used to assist a convoy of 14 Woodside trucks to pass, with protestors blocked so they could not approach it.