Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

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................................................................................................................................................................................................... Nuclear FreeWays Campaign The Nuclear FreeWay’s (NFW) campaign was initiated in 1999 by Friends of the Earth’s anti-uranium collective, principally following a proposal from collective coordinator Daniel Voronoff who had been researching international community responses to the transport of nuclear waste. The campaign was developed in response to a Federal government proposal to transport nuclear waste across Australia and dump it at a centralised site near Woomera in South Australia. FoE’s position has been that Australia should be progressive in the way it chooses to deal with nuclear waste; burying it in a shallow grave is short-sighted, transporting it halfway across the continent simply increases the risk of exposure in the event of an accident. The project took its inspiration from a project in the United States called ‘mobile Chernobyl’ which towed a trailer with a replica of the Chernobyl accident to communities that were on the proposed transport route for nuclear waste in Nevada (NIRS Website 2004). FoE enlisted the support of a group of Melbourne artists, ESDG (Environmentally Sound Design Group) who built an impressive lifesize replica of a nuclear “castor”, a container for transporting high level nuclear waste as used in Europe. Nick Curmi of ESDG worked closely with Daniel to create a prop that could be towed behind a vehicle between communities and could be set up like an information caravan in towns to provide information about the campaign. The campaign strategy was to travel along the transport route for nuclear waste, meet with local government and community representatives and encourage these communities to take a proactive stance of opposition to the transport of waste. The first of six tours along the nuclear waste transport route began in 1999, the various Loretta O’Brien tours travelled between Sydney and Woomera along the two preferred routes for nuclear waste transport. Towing a massive anti-nuclear trailer attracts a lot of interest. Ila Marks and Eric Miller parked it in a street in suburban Sydney and it wasn’t long before the fire brigade arrived, responding to a call warning them that nuclear waste truck was parked in the street. The fire-brigade let them off with a warning. When NFW’s was in the mining township of Roxby, WMC, the operators of the Olympic Dam uranium mine, had 24 hour security following the campaigners, including following FoE campaigner Bruce Thompson to the laundry mat to wash his socks. And of course there were the usual pull overs from the police, a regular occurrence. The second tour was launched in Adelaide on World Environment Day in 2000. That year Adelaide hosted an international WED conference and the then Environment Minister Robert Hill was in town. By this time Daniel Voronoff had left FoE and Bruce Thompson and Loretta O’Brien were coordinating the project. They saw the Adelaide event as an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of the nuclear dump issue and the castor was towed around to every major WED event or function. One of these events was a tree planting. The FoE team split into two groups, one lot hid the trailer on a suburban street and while the other signed up as volunteers at the treeplanting mobile phones at the ready to call the others when the dignitaries arrived. When the officials arrived the castor team was notified and pulled the castor into a parking spot directly behind the speaking podium. Minister Hill was not happy to see the castor parked right next to the podium, and media shots showed him looking very uncomfortable with the anti-nuclear symbol directly behind his head. FoE 30 Years 80
Wherever the castor went, media was sure to follow, the prop provided an instant photo opportunity and gave campaigners a platform on which to relay concerns about the planned transport and dumping of nuclear waste. The Nuclear Freeways campaign was highly effective at not only raising awareness of the issue along transport routes, but also generating action at the community level. Local government correctly represented this community concern. Many councils declared themselves nuclear free, others lobbied their local members, passed resolutions at state and national local government meetings and provided funding for the campaign. This local government opposition culminated in a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the issue in 2004. The inquiry found the waste dump project could not be justified and should be abandoned. The NFW’s campaign highlights FoE’s commitment to grassroots campaigning. ................................................................................................................................................................................................... FoE is unique in its focus on working at the community level to affect change. The connections generated by the NFW’s campaign with rural communities are important, the campaign reveals not only how a community can act to stop the imposition of the nuclear industry, but presents a model for community action. Eric Miller, Ila Marks and Daniel Vornoff, on the first Nuclear Freeways tour. FoE 30 Years 81
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Up to a few decades ago, many peopl
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It seemed like a simple idea: to pr
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The optimism, courage and creativit
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Over thirty years, FoE has develope
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decades. In Australia, FoE is commi
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This group acted as an inspiration
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In the 1970s, a handful of key issu
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Apart from working on the direct im
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In the mid ‘70s I was studying en
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In 1976, there was a strong campaig
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egan to jostle for access to Antarc
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Keith Suter The future is never as
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I first became aware of FoE via Pet
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I remember the attempts of the nucl
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I grew up with the threat of global
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Page 37 and 38: In late 1980 a couple of people who
Page 39 and 40: In the 1980s, there was a shift to
Page 41 and 42: The Australian Mining Journal noted
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Page 47 and 48: Ila Marks Dave Sweeney talking at t
Page 49 and 50: from a community radio background,
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Page 53 and 54: In the early 1990s, the nuclear ind
Page 55: With the Gulf War and the Dili mass
Page 58 and 59: What makes these comments sadder in
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Page 62 and 63: Action outside the state government
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Page 72 and 73: From 1985 until 1992, undercover of
Page 74 and 75: Kathleen McCann In 1996 I was in Ja
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Page 78 and 79: Dave Sweeney From its earliest days
Page 80 and 81: March at the Jabiluka mine site, NT
Page 82 and 83: The camp’s office was located wit
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Page 92 and 93: When it was announced that Melbourn
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Page 98 and 99: Steph Long, Kim Stewart Friends of
Page 100 and 101: Australia has been largely obliviou
Page 102: Fossil fuels have not bought wealth
Page 105 and 106: Roman Orzanski Possibly the first F
Page 107 and 108: Everyone helped make the procession
Page 109 and 110: In 1996, Consolidated Rutile Ltd ga
Page 111 and 112: Melia Bugeja, FoE Melbourne Food Co
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Page 115 and 116: East Gippsland (CROEG) to launch th
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Page 119 and 120: 1994. VicRoads was planning to wide
Page 121 and 122: Lee Tan “Let’s chuck in some co
Page 123 and 124: Friends of the Earth in Sydney (FoE
Page 125 and 126: Herald Sun Columnist, Andrew Bolt P
Page 127 and 128: change. Mark Carter, co-founder of
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Page 131 and 132: Their final edition, in the year th
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input to national decision making f
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are independent. A secretariat base
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lead to some form of wisdom: a know
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Anon (1987); Know your FoE; the Coe
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Page 5 • ‘U Mines’ - Through
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1990s Page 46 • Image from Chain
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• The march that followed the ‘
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Page 116 • FoE ran a food stall a
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Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

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