‘None of us should have been convicted’: Bob Brown to appeal $500 trespass penalty

Veteran environmentalist Bob Brown will appeal a sentence handed down on Wednesday. Watch what he had to say after court.

Environmentalist Bob Brown has vowed to appeal his sentence after receiving a $500 fine for the 2022 logging coupe protest in the state’s northeast.

Brown, 79, and fellow protesters Kristy Alger, 42, and Karen Weldrick, 64, appeared at Hobart Magistrates Court on Wednesday, to receive a sentence from Magistrate Jackie Hartnett on their trespass matters.

The charges date back to November 8, 2022, when the Bob Brown Foundation trio was at Royal George, in the North East highlands, protesting logging by Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT).

Australian environmentalist Bob Brown being arrested at Snow Hill in November 2022, while protesting the logging of swift parrot habitat. Picture: Bob Brown Foundation

They claimed the critically endangered swift parrot used the land for foraging and nesting, and they were protesting to protect the bird’s habitat.

However, Ms Hartnett found that both Alger and Brown’s arguments on protesting to protect the swift parrot habitat were not “reasonable”.

“There is a legitimate and democratic right to protest but it is not unfettered and does not permit you to break the law,” she said.

Ms Hartnett described Brown as being of otherwise “good character” and agreed with his lawyer Roland Brown’s request not to record a conviction, instead ordering Brown to pay a fine of $500 and court costs.

Alger received a conviction and a $1600 fine for her efforts, with Ms Hartnett stating both her and Weldrick’s use of “concealed mechanisms” to fasten themselves to both an excavator and boom gate at the logging coupe intended to prevent work by STT.

Jim Everett, Bob Brown and Kristy Lee Alger. Forest protesters at Hobart Magistrates Court. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“Landing number one where Alger was located is recorded as the location where harvested timber is loaded on to log trucks for transport,” Ms Hartnett said.

“By attaching herself to machinery, I am satisfied the defendant substantial impeded works and intended to impede works.”

Outside of court, Brown and Alger, joined by Tasmanian Elder Jim Everett, claimed the outcome was disappointing for Australia’s critically endangered Swift Parrot and planned to appeal their sentence.

Bob Brown arrives at court. Forest protesters at Hobart Magistrates Court. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“The Court did indicate that the logging may have been illegal at some stage,” Brown said.

“We maintain from the outset that none of us should have been convicted.”

Weldrick’s sentence was adjourned to November 18, when she will appear again in the Hobart Magistrates Court for another matter.

Brown and protester Collette Harmsen will return to court for a day-long hearing relating to trespass charges at a Styx Valley logging coupe where no pleas have yet been entered.