Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

the anti-uranium collective were becoming
familiar with the springs and Roxby; this
was another motivation for the tour, to
share this experience with other people in
an organised and constructive way.
The “dry-run” was important because
permission was needed from traditional
owners for camping in their country and
information on culturally appropriate
behaviour. They also needed to meet
with communities they would be passing
though to organise joint actions against
nuclear activities in their areas. These
included CRA’s proposed mineral sands
development near Horsham in Victoria and
the Rare Earth Tailings dump at Port Pirie.
Later tours took in the Beverley Uranium
Mine and the Honeymoon Project, and
at the invitation of the Kupa Piti Kungka
Tjuta, camping at Ten Mile Creek just out
of Coober Pedy. In more recent tours the
proposal for a low to intermediate level
nuclear waste dump in the Woomera area
has also become a focus.
In organising the tours we endeavoured
to make them more than just an outback
adventure, we have organised public
meetings on radiation exposure levels
at the Roxby Downs Community Centre,
leafleted the entire town on workers’
and community health issues, produced
a performance at the Woomera Primary
School that involved all of the students
as well as the people on the tour, and
organised many stalls and actions with
local environmentalists.
Following a tour in 1996 the participants
formed a collective and organised the
‘Roxstop Action and Music Festival’ in
1997, where over 300 people gathered at
Roxby to protest against the expansion
of the mine. Here they hosted a public
meeting attended by over 120 people with
the United States epidemiologist Dr David
Richarson as the key note speaker talking
about his work and the effects of low level
radiation exposure on nuclear workers.
Roxstop also included an exhibition of
paintings by the Melbourne Artist Lyn
Hovey in the Roxby Library. After three
days at Roxby the protestors moved to
Alberrie Creek on Finnis Springs Station
where a music festival was held over three
nights to celebrate the Mound Springs,
while during the day there were cultural
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workshops and tours given by members of
the Arrabunna community including Reg
Dodd and Kevin Buzzacott.
In August 1998 the collective that had
organised Roxstop received a fax from
the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta saying, “We’re
trying hard about this rubbish - the radioactive
waste dump. We don’t want that...,.
We want your help! We want you to
come up here to Coober Pedy and have a
meeting with Aboriginal people (and any
whitefellas from here who want to come)”.
In September that year a group of over 12
people travelled from Melbourne to Coober
Pedy, held a public meeting on the dump
and met with Aboriginal people.
Things did not always rum smoothly, one
year we were stranded on the Borefield
Road between the Oodnadatta Track and
Roxby Downs with forty people and three
buses for one night when the road became
impassable due to rain. Another time at
Mambury Creek in the southern Flinders
Rangers emus raided our camp and
scattered cereal, bread and fruit over the
campsite while people were in Port Pirie at
a protest. And there have been high-lights:
the first time the Kungka Tjuta invited us
to Ten Mile Creek just outside Cooper Pedy;
the moon rising over Lake Eyre South; the
leaflet on workers’ heath and the effects
of exposure to low levels of radiation;
protesting outside the Woomera Detention
Centre; seeing the representatives of the
Honeymoon Uranium Project squirm as
participants asked questions about the
chemical structure of the waste solution
to be pumped back into the aquifer; and
being warmly greeted by members of the
Adnyamathanha community at Nepabunna
even though we were four hours late.
There have been many great and rewarding
outcomes from the Nuclear Exposures
Tours, but what stands out and must be
acknowledged is the strengthening of close
working relationship between Aboriginal
communities with both Friends of the Earth
and many individuals who have taken part
in tours. Every person who has gone on
a tour has had an amazing, memorable,
never-to-be-forgotten experience and
many of the participants from various tours
have made a considerable contribution to
the anti-nuclear movement.
FoE 30 Years 42