Anti-Woodside Disrupt Burrup Hub protesters block major Perth street during peak
Demonstrators with Disrupt Burrup Hub caused traffic chaos on Monday after blocking a major CBD thoroughfare.
A protester has had to be cut free from underneath a car after chaining himself to the vehicle as part of an anti-Woodside Energy demonstration.
Members of the Disrupt Burrup Hub group drove a Ford Territory SUV up to 58 Mounts Bay Rd in the Perth CBD about 6.30am Monday, before a man, identified by the group as veterinarian Marek ‘Maz’ Misiewicz, chained himself to a “concrete barrel” inside the vehicle.
The Alluvion office building houses the offices of federal offshore oil and gas regulator NOPSEMA, as well as chemical and fertiliser company Perdaman, both of which are involved in projects on WA’s Burrup Peninsula, alongside longtime target of Disrupt Burrup, Woodside Energy.
Emergency services responded to the protest, with Mr Misiewicz cut free from the barrel about 8am, before he was taken to hospital for medical assessment.
The incident caused traffic chaos, closing Mounts Bay Rd during the busy morning rush period.
A statement from WA Police said the 32-year-old man was joined by three others, but would not confirm if charges had been laid at the time of writing.
The protest follows two recent NOPSEMA approvals allowing Woodside to conduct drilling and seismic blasting at the Scarborough gas field, which forms part of their Burrup Hub development.
NOPSEMA on Friday also approved plans for Woodside’s offshore underwater installations.
In a statement, Mr Misiewicz said Perdaman was targeted because they recently destroyed sacred Murujuga rock art sites on the Burrup Peninsula.
“The toxic proximity of the federal government regulator to the fossil fuel companies destroying culture and climate at Woodside’s Burrup Hub is a clear sign of how embedded the fossil fuel industry is with the government offices that are supposed to regulate them,” he said.
“I am a veterinarian, and as such it is my work and duty to safeguard animal welfare where I can. Woodside’s activities actively threaten the precious marine wildlife off our North West coast through seismic blasting in whale migration routes and threatening the entire ecosystem of the Scott Reef if Browse is approved.
“The biggest and final piece of Woodside’s Burrup Hub, the massive Browse gas field, is likely to be approved by the government if we don’t stand in their way. I have locked myself onto a concrete barrel on a busy Perth road this morning to demand the government block Browse this summer — or we’ll be back with more blockades.”
Monday’s protest is the latest in a string of anti-Woodside actions carried out by Disrupt Burrup so far in 2023, including the defacing of a painting at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, releasing a “stink bomb” during Woodside’s AGM, and covering the front doors of both Parliament House and Woodside’s Perth headquarters with yellow paint.
Another protest planned outside the home of Woodside CEO Meg O’Neil was thwarted by police.
Woodside responded to the protests with a statement on their website, calling for the demonstrators to “be met with the full force of the law.”
“It is misleading for extreme groups to describe their activities as “harmless”. Recent incidents have had deliberate direct impacts on people and risk community safety, with a range of harmful consequences,” the statement reads.
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