Magnetic Island anti-mining protester charged with locking onto machinery
A Magnetic Island man has been charged after he locked himself to machinery and halted work at Bravus Mining’s rail construction site.
Townsville
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A MAGNETIC Island man has been charged after he locked himself to machinery and halted work at Bravus Mining’s rail construction site.
Barney Jackson attached himself to concrete mixing machinery using a steel elbow lock, to stop work at the construction site near Belyando.
The elbow lock was painted with a “Water is life” message.
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“I grew up on Magnetic Island on the Great Barrier Reef and I’ve seen the damage and pressures that are being put on the reef, something that the Adani coalmine will exacerbate,” Mr Jackson said. “If anything is sacred, it’s water. If there is no water we all die, humans included. Water is life says it all.”
His action comes about a year after new lock-on laws were implemented by the Queensland government, an attempt to deter concerned citizens from using a device such as an elbow lock.
“The most dangerous thing I could do with this (elbow lock) is not use it. The repercussions from the Carmichael mine are far more dangerous than me locking on with a steel tube,” Mr Jackson said. “I don’t want to be arrested, but I don’t want the mine to go ahead even more, so here I am.”
Mr Jackson was removed from the machinery and arrested.
Police said the 23-year-old Nelly Bay man had been charged with trespass, use dangerous attachment device to halt an operation and contravene a direction. He is due to appear in Clermont Magistrates Court on December 9.
Originally published as Magnetic Island anti-mining protester charged with locking onto machinery