Residents take fight to Lutwyche streets over Airport Link trucks
INNER-city residents are using guerilla tactics in a campaign against the builders of the Airport Link tunnel and Northern Busway.
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INNER-city Brisbane residents are using guerilla tactics and threats of mass civil disobedience in a well-organised campaign against the builders of the Airport Link tunnel and Northern Busway.
To highlight what they say are inadequate responses to their complaints about heavy truck movements, noise, dust and parking problems, the residents are employing techniques borrowed from the military to disrupt the project.
It is putting pressure on its proponents: project manager Thiess John Holland, developer BrisConnections and the State Government.
At the centre of the protests is the Kalinga Wooloowin Residents Association, set up last year in response to controversial plans to open a new work site at Rose St in Wooloowin.
Last week the group began a "park out" campaign whereby residents deliberately park their cars on the street, even when off-street parking is available, to prevent the spaces being used by site workers, who residents say should be using dedicated parking facilities.
The group even took photos of a car owned by a BrisConnections executive parked on a residential street and sent the images to his superiors. The executive is no longer with the company.
Earlier this year the KWRA stopped an unannounced TJH plan for trucks hauling dirt excavated from the tunnel to use suburban streets after making a direct appeal to Infrastructure Minister Stirling Hinchliffe and threatening to blockade roads. And residents previously forced Airport Link trucks off another disputed route by parking a boat and trailer at the road's most narrow point.
KWRA founder and president Brian Nally said his approach was "wholly shaped" by his own military experience.
"Dealing with these people is exactly like dealing with an enemy," said Mr Nally, 43, who stressed most residents supported the project. "We did what's called 'centre of gravity analysis' and realised that one of the things that would stop them functioning is serious, organised local resistance, and anything that causes delay. If they piss off the residents, that will cause them operational problems."
Mr Nally said the KWRA now had 250 members.
"I've never been involved in anything like this before. When I turned 40 I decided I was sick of people being stomped on.
"To me this thing . . . it's bullying on a corporate scale."
Wendy George, spokeswoman for City North Infrastructure, which manages the project for the State Government, said: "The Wooloowin community was surprised by the project's decision to seek an additional work site."
"CNI understands it wasn't welcome. We understand that it's taking its toll on people.
"We can always do better, both as TJH doing the work and as CNI sitting over the people doing the work."
