Mount Gambier anti-vaxxer staying put in Canberra protest ‘convoy’

A Mount Gambier woman who joined a horde of anti-vaxxers and conspiracists in Canberra says she’s staying put even as police clear out their camps. Take a look inside the compound.

Within a small dusty camp on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, about 25km west of Canberra, hardcore anti-vaccine fanatics are spreading bizarre and dangerous ideologies.

The Cotter Campgrounds have been taken over by dozens of fervent protesters left over from the infamous Convoy to Canberra – a nationwide movement that grew out of intense animosity towards vaccine and mask mandates, with Mount Gambier woman Maddy Fry as a key organiser.

Only some have permits to stay there, but almost all are motivated by anti-government hysteria and a belief the human rights of future generations have been imperilled.

There’s a unique intersection of Australians sheltering at the camp. Far-left vegans and far-right Australian merchant navy flag wavers are united in a common faith they can topple the federal government and put an end to state-enforced vaccine mandates by marching on the streets of the nation’s capital en masse.

Many are former Coalition voters who say they feel betrayed.

The group inside the camp is just a small section of the movement, which is becoming increasingly fractured over a bizarre plan to buy their own compound since a huge rally at Parliament House on Saturday.

The South Australian leader

For weeks, Ms Fry has been rallying fellow protesters, urging them to join her perceived “war” against vaccine mandates.

She has told her social media followers “vaccine-related injuries” were at “an all time high”, and demanded the Governor-General “dissolves the government and appoint a new temporary executive committee”.

She also says she has been wrongly blamed for stealing thousands of dollars in donations.

Maddy Fry from Mount Gambier SA has been attending the Convoy to Canberra protests in Canberra. Picture: Facebook

Thousands of protesters are chasing money they donated to organisers under the guise of purchasing a 120-hectacre plot of land to set up a new mega camp.

A teary Ms Fry vehemently denied having any part in the plan.

“If I had taken donations, I sure as hell wouldn’t be here (in Canberra),” she told her hundreds of social media followers.

“I would have filled up my car with petrol and went home and seen my mum and my dad and my family and my other dog.”

Ms Fry remains in Canberra in attempts to assemble another mass protest at Parliament House this weekend.

“Money means nothing to me – I lost my job and I cleaned bloody toilets to keep a roof over my head.”

Footage emerged of Ms Fry cheering on as a male protester urged crowds to donate $10 each to buy a new plot of land on Saturday.

“We as the united sovereign nations of Terra Australis will become our own micronation, 20 minutes from Canberra – they cannot move us from that property,” the male protester urged.

Michael Muller at Cotter Campgrounds, Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire

The campground

The Advertiser arrived unannounced at the Cotter Campgrounds this week and spoke to protesters spouting anti-vaccine sentiments.

One former truck driver from Queensland in the camp is convinced he can detect if someone is vaccinated against Covid-19 just by looking into their eyes.

“I can tell you’ve had it (the vaccine), you look stoned,” Dave Leech says.

Mr Leech denies being “into any of the conspiracy theory stuff” such as the QAnon movement.

Yet he is convinced the Australian federal government is actively harbouring paedophiles. He also believes Covid-19 vaccines are making people “sick” across the world, including his 74-year-old father.

“It just about killed my dad,” Mr Leech, a single grandfather, says.

“He sleeps 15 hours a day instead of five (and) he’s lost heaps of weight.”

Serious side effects from Covid vaccines are extremely rare, with just 108,003 reports of adverse events out of more than 51m doses administered in Australia. Adverse reactions can range from a mild jab response to more serious side effects.

Protesters at Cotter Campgrounds. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Future warriors

The most common belief permeating through the camp is that the freedoms of future generations of Australians are under threat.

“I would rather see my grandkids know that I’m fighting for them,” Mr Leech says.

“Whatever happens, they will know ‘Pop’ stuck up for them.”

Another man, known only as “Em”, vows to camp and protest in the ACT for as long as it takes to achieve “change”. It seems he wants widespread societal reform, and is committed to being separated indefinitely from his four children while protesting in Canberra.

“Vaccine mandates are just the tip of the iceberg, that’s just what set everybody off,” Em says.

“I want to see a new government. It’s a hierarchy of control. It’s absolute bullshit, it’s all rigged.”

Em references Sweden as a “beautiful society” and one that Australia should emulate. The Nordic country has a death rate from Covid of 1611 per million, compared with 186 in Australia.

Mixed within the hardcore anti-vaxxers are Australians who have simply been swept up in the hysteria, finding themselves in the middle of a global “freedom movement” that is intent on toppling governments for attempting to protect citizens against a deadly virus.

Michael Muller, 43, of Ballina, joined the convoy to “support a friend” two weeks ago.

When asked what he is protesting against, Mr Muller responds: “Nothing really”.

“I just came down here for a holiday because I like the Canberra Raiders and I haven’t been to Canberra in years,” he says.

But Mr Muller, who has received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, found himself running the main kitchen at the Exhibition Camp in Canberra – the main convoy camp until thousands of protesters were forced to leave on Saturday night.

“I came down to support a friend that was on the convoy and I wasn’t meant to stay, but I enjoyed it and I was working in the kitchen,” Mr Muller says.

Outside influence

The group’s more extreme views are shared far and wide outside the camp, with others making equally bizarre claims that often spread like wildfire on the protesters’ preferred social media platforms Facebook and Telegram.

This week footage emerged of the strange moment a group of anti-vaxxers whipped themselves into a frenzy over an alleged “hidden camera” in a tree.

The strange episode, uploaded to social media platform TikTok, began with a man approaching a tree and declaring “it’s a f … ing peephole camera, motion detected”.

In an even more unbelievable claim, one social media user was convinced her friend had collapsed after being shot in the neck with a dart containing the Moderna vaccine while protesting in Canberra.