EVEN in this virtual age, a well-organised protest with foot soldiers is still one of the best ways to irk authorities and engender change.
Cockburn has a rich history of protesting stretching back to 1830, when Nyungar leader Midgegooroo and the Beeliar people resisted the European colonisation that threatened Beeliar Boodjar in the early 1830s.
A new exhibition shines a light on some of the most notable Cockburn protests over the years including Tony Galati’s campaign against the Potato Marketing Board (1998-2017), the campaign for the new railway line to pass through Jandakot (1902), and the Farrington Road protest (1984).
• A stand off between Roe 8 protestors and WA Police.
Also featured is the grassroots campaign to stop the Roe 8 extension through the Beeliar Wetlands.
It was one of the most passionate and long-running protests in recent history – lasting 17 years – and was spearheaded by community figures like Kate Kelly from Save Beeliar Wetlands.
Then-Greens South Metro MLC Lynn MacLaren was in the thick of the action, down in the dusty bushland fighting to save the conservation reserve from the bulldozers.
• Curator Jo Darbyshire and City of Cockburn local history officer Denise Cook.
“The turning point in my memory was the day the fence came down in Malvolio Road and the crowd surged into the area within the bush where bulldozers were parked, where courageous citizens were locked on underneath to keep the machines from continuing their destruction that day,” MacLaren says.
“In the crowd that day I saw people who were leaders in the original Save Old Growth Forest campaign of the 90’s, former Senator Jo Vallentine, a group of school girls and their teacher from a local private college, and mothers and fathers with their young children, alongside our tireless activists who I came to know over the many months.
“They brought cameras and guitars. I came away feeling strong, feeling that people power had prevailed and there was no way that the forces trying to destroy nature would win.”
Ultimately the campaign was a success and the Roe 8 extension was binned. MacLaren says it was all down to good-old fashioned people power.
• Local Sam Wainwright at the Roe 8 protests
“Eventually, when thousands mobilised, from school children to grandparents, the Opposition decided it was an election winner and caved in to pressure,” she says.
“In my view, their political opportunism was unprincipled, but we welcomed the victory after 13 years of campaigning, and finally shifting our focus to healing the wounds that the bulldozers created across huge areas of what was beautiful bushland, destroying everything in their path.”
The intensity of the Roe 8 protests took its toll, as people juggled private lives, full-time jobs and the searing heat and dust.
• A protestor at the Roe 8 demonstrations.
MacLaren gave an insight into the personal sadness that can accompany such public wins and the personal sacrifices involved.
“It was a huge relief, but I was so full of anger and resentment by then that I couldn’t celebrate,” she says.
“The long days starting in the dust on the protest lines and ending in Parliamentary sittings were taking a toll.
“My inner focus was on my wife, who was in cancer treatment and who would succumb to the disease only a few months later. Understandably, this, as well as an election loss, dampened my enthusiasm to celebrate.”
Passion and Protest: Cockburn Community Speaks Up was curated by artist/social historian Jo Darbyshire, who sourced various artefacts including a shirt lent by Spearwood-raised spud king Tony Galati in his fight against the now defunct Potato Marketing Board, and the bright orange shirts emblazoned with ‘Hands Off Cockburn’, as residents fought to stop the City being disbanded and split between neighbouring councils during former WA Premier Colin Barnett’s unsuccessful amalgamation campaign.
• People enjoy Passion and Protest: Cockburn Community Speaks Up.
The exhibition had a successful soft launch at the State History Conference, and will be on display to the wider public at Memorial Hall in Hamilton Hill from October 1-5.
“It’s fitting that we’re hosting this exhibition at Memorial Hall to recognise the 100th year since the community celebrated the results of their affirmative action to raise enough funds to build a hall for where everyone could gather,” says Cockburn mayor Logan Howlett.
“And also to honour the district’s fallen and returned sailors and soldiers who served in World War I.
“It is the action of our passionate community that has helped shaped our history.
“This exhibition is a reflection of the courage and bravery of those people, starting with Nyungar leader Midgegooroo, who defended his people but was executed in 1833 without trial.”
by STEPHEN POLLOCK