Farrington Road Blockade 1984
In 1984, local residents and university students attempted to stop the extension of Farrington Road through the pristine wetlands and bushland surrounding North Lake.
The proposed changes to Farrington Road, West Australian, 12 September 1984.
Plans for the Farrington Road extension had been under consideration by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) For some time. Initially the EPA opposed the project and recommended the area become a regional park. However, it eventually reversed its decision despite the significance of the local wetlands and remanent bush.
Phil Farmer, who grew up in the bush in Attadale, was the President of the Kardinya Residents Association at the time of the Farrington Road dispute. The Association's 400 members objected to the extension of Farrington Road from Gilbertson Road, Kardinya through to Murdoch Drive. The campaign to protect the bushland around North Lake was also supported by a dedicated group of students and staff from Murdoch University who were keenly aware of the area’s environmental significance.
The Farrington Road dispute was an unforgettable experience for many of us… It marked a tremendous reawakening of public concern about wetland conservation and open government. For although we may have failed to protect the North Lake wetlands from this unnecessary road, the fight will go elsewhere, and similar events will recur unless the Government has understood the message from Farrington Road.
~ Phil Jennings, 1985
On the day work was scheduled to commence, Audrey and Brian Johnson (who lived in Windelya Road, opposite the proposed site) made the brave decision to hold up work by standing in front of the bulldozers:
‘We told them we would not move until the Melville City Council told us directly that they had granted permission for the road,’ said the Johnsons.
Newspaper article about Brian and Audrey Johnson, West Australian, 11 September 1984.
Main Roads was used to getting its way with the government and decided to proceed with its plans to extend Farrington Road, collaborating with the cities of Cockburn and Melville to apply for Bicentennial Road funding for the project. This was a direct challenge to the authority of the EPA. They pressured the EPA to reverse its position on Farrington Road and, after a secret meeting in August 1984, it yielded to their request.
~ Andrea Gaynor, Peter Newman and Philip Jennings
After an urgent Supreme Court application by the Conservation Council of WA for a 48-hour moratorium failed, the numbers of protesters swelled in the next few days.
The roadworks were severely hampered by protestors holding up work by standing, sitting and lying in waist high mud and climbing trees in front of the bulldozers.
On 12 September Jim Breadmore drove his car in front of the bulldozers and other residents soon followed his lead.
As the protests continued, Melville Council called for an inquiry into the EPA’s handling of the dispute. In contrast, Cockburn’s Mayor Don Miguel dismissed Kardinya Residents as ‘elitist’ and claimed they were only interested in protecting their views.
The protests were mostly non-violent, although a number of activists were arrested for non-violent offences including hindering police.
The Director of the Conservation Council WA, Michael McGrath, risked serious injury when he ran out in front of a moving bulldozer, which scooped him up in its bucket along with a tree stump.
Protestors surround a bulldozer at Farrington Road, photograph courtesy of Jan Rodda, 1984.
All we wanted was for people to stop and look at the situation without rushing into it…but unfortunately the more strongminded the environmentalists get, the more bloody-minded the developers get.
~Jan Rodda
Geologist Lawrance Geoffrey Capill pegged out a 4’.6 Ha mining lease around Roe Swamp in an attempt to stop construction work. More than 150 people signed on as agents for the lease.
A bulldozer driver was fired after recklessly attempting to drive through a line of protesters. In another incident, a small group of residents who supported the extension of the road doused protestors in diesel fuel as they sat on logs before attempting to set the wood on fire.
When tensions continued to escalate, the State Government called for a two-week cooling off period; however, Don Miguel, the Mayor of Cockburn, did not support the idea. He ordered the bulldozers to continue clearing which further escalated the situation. Large numbers of police were in the wetlands daily for almost two weeks.
Protestors being arrested in the mud at Farrington Road, photograph courtesy of Jan Rodda, 1984.
Despite the efforts of the protestors, by early October 1984 the road reserve had been cleared, the swamp filled, and most of the road base had been laid. An EPA review released later ‘lamented that such a situation had occurred but concluded a 7.4 metre single carriageway road would not have a detrimental effect on the area’.
This review also revealed that of 263 public submissions, only three had favoured the Farrington Road extension.
It only later came to light that the new road cut directly through an Aboriginal Heritage site listed by the Western Australian Museum and the National Estate Study of 1976. The area was recorded as a site of significance because of the evidence that Nyungar people traditionally camped on the northern bank of North Lake.
Only after they had cleared the site, did Main Roads apply for permission to do so under the Aboriginal Heritage Act. Aboriginal Rights activist and National Aboriginal Conference Chairman Rob Riley, said the state government faced a ‘mini Noonkanbah’ over the North Lake site, and should have re-routed around it.
Bulldozing bush, Farrington Road 1984, photograph courtesy of Jan Rodda.
The Farrington Road blockade lasted for nearly two weeks. Many people turned out to protest but in the end, they could not stop the clearing. However, some significant trees and the Roe Swamp (which was within the North Lake Reserve) was saved.
Twenty protestors, mainly University students arrested at the Farrington Road protest appeared in court in October 1984.
When Roy Thomas Moss (26), a student, appeared before Magistrate R. Gething after his arrest at the blockade, Gething reminded everyone present that:
Protesters were a necessary part of society... They remind the largely apathetic public of matters which are of a very great concern to the community.
Magistrate R. Gething.
However, as Gething noted, this did not give protestors like Moss immunity under the law. Moss pleaded guilty to hindering police at Farrington Road. He was placed on a $100 good behaviour bond for 12 months and ordered to pay $214.05 for damage to uniforms.
Phillip Jennings, then Associate Professor of Physics at Murdoch University, was a prominent activist in the Farrington Road Protest. Others involved included Dr Peter Newman, Dr John Bailey, Jan Rodda, Ray Polglaze, Bob Howard, Liana Joy Christensen, Bill Hare, Moira Finucane, Roy Moss, Megan Packer, Sharon Gray, Tony Poynton, Karen McRoberts, Anita Staude, and the Australian Conservation Foundation.
A documentary about the proposed Farrington Road extension and the subsequent blockade produced in 1984. Thank you to Philip Jennings and the Cockburn Wetlands Centre who donated the original VHS to the Cockburn Local History Collection.
Credits:
Camera: Linda Butcher, Michael Ward, and Peter Walden
Narrator: Doug Foley
Assistance: Peter Jeffery and Tony Poynton News
Coverage: TVW CH 7 Wildlife Shots: Film Centre WA
Production: Peter Walden, Phil Jennings and Jan Rodda, 1984
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