Fireproof Australia’s protesters block traffic at Lilyfield

The tough new anti-protest laws have so far failed to deter activists as familiar faces were back blocking the City West Link at Lilyfield on Wednesday.

The tough new anti-protest laws have so far failed to deter activists as familiar faces were back blocking the City West Link at Lilyfield on Wednesday after walking from court with ineffectual fines on Tuesday.

In the first test of the new laws, Fireproof Australia protesters Andrew Duguid, 46, Martin Wolterding, 77, Catherine Adams, 61, Sarah Edwards, 48 and Jay Larbalester, 36, faced Newtown Local Court after being arrested on Catherine Street at Brighton-Le-Sands where they blocked frustrated commuters at 8.30am.

Three of them, Duguid, Edwards and Adams, were back after being fined on Tuesday after pleading guilty to blocking three lanes of traffic on General Holmes Drive.

This time the trio was not so lucky as they were hit with community corrections orders and banned from associating with each other for two years although the sentences were far short of the new maximum penalties of two years in prison and $22,000 fines.

Community correction orders allow offenders to serve their sentences in the community.

Fireproof Australia supporters blockade a major road at Botany Bay in peak hour.

Fireproof Australia activists at a protest in Brighton-Le-Sands on Tuesday morning.

Two of the protesters, Wolterding, a professor of Biology and Marine Ecology from the Blue Mountains, and Adams, remained in police cells overnight on Wednesday refused police bail after their cases were not heard in court. They are expeated to appear in court on Thursday.

Duguid, who had no conviction and a $440 fine recorded after Tuesday’s protest, was on Wednesday convicted, fined $220 and sentenced to a two-year community corrections order.

He is not to commit any offence while subject to the order and is prohibited from associating with Edwards, Adams, Wolterding, Larbalestier or Deanna Coco. Veteran protester Coco, who was fined $630 after Tueday’s protest, had -in October 2020 stormed a government building in Sydney’s CBD topless to protest the Narrabri gas project. Then she was acting on behalf of Extinction Rebellion.

Coco was not arrested yesterday.

Fireproof Australia have caused traffic chaos again.

Edwards, who also had no conviction recorded against her on Tuesday, was on Wednesday convicted, fined $220 and made subject to a two-year community corrections order on the same terms as Duguid. She was also banned from associating with the same people.

Larbalester was convicted and fined $220 and made subject to a two-year community corrections order with the same conditions and banned from associating with the same people.

All three had pleaded guilty to “enter ect Sydney Harbour Bridge etc disrupt vehicles etc” and to refusing to comply with directions.

On Tuesday Adams had pleaded guilty along with Edwards and Duguid at Sutherland Local Court to three counts of wilfully prevent free passage of a person or vehicle, refuse to comply with police directions and fail or refuse to disclose identity and fined $440.

This is now the fourth time the climate change activist group has caused disruption in Sydney peak hour traffic.

The new laws that make it illegal to seriously disrupt vehicles or pedestrians on roads if the road is identified in government regulations, passed last Friday but were only activated late on Tuesday.