We jumped into the "frackmobile" and drove into town. We had considered catching the train but could not manage all of the merchandise.
I didn't realise how expensive parking in the city is until I checked on the net before leaving. Luckily, after dropping Julie and Shelly at the protest site, I was able to find a parking spot behind Sydney Hospital (4 hours for $24).
When we arrived (very early) it was quiet. Police were arriving. One of them even returned my wave. As he headed across the road (I thought he was coming over to talk to us) he was called back and started running like mad acros the street. The next thing we knew there were anti-CSG banners and chants coming from the front door of the Sofitel. A group of protesters had managed to gain access to the conference to make our views known directly to the delegates from industry.
Once escorted from the Sofitel they gathered across the road and held a pre-protest protest rally.
The protest proper got under way at 12 noon.
We were blown away at the representation from the Far North Coast. It was great to see familiar faces from Nimbin, Kyogle and Ballina.
I was able to speak to those assembled and talked up our speaking tour and the National Day of Action.
We were also able to make personal contact with people organising community meetings over the next 6 weeks.
It was great to see people at the protest who had either organised or attended community meetings that we had addressed. It was almost like "old home week". We saw people from our Bellingen, Taree, Wentworth Falls and Springwood meetings. If we missed anybody please forgive us.
A couple of people (quite independently of the main protest) abseiled down the front of the Sofitel and unfurled a banner saying "Enough is Enough - Stop Coal and Gas Expansion". They were greeted with cheers and a mulitiude of police, including the Police Rescue Squad.
We are grateful for the support shown to us and our speaking tour. We were particularly touched by the $50 donation from the Nimbin Environment Centre (via Lisa). Thank you to everyone who bought merchandise or made donations to support our tour.
Julie set up and ran our "shop" and we had a good day raising money to support our speaking tour.
For all of the media presence, we were disappointed at the trivial nature of the coverage on the evening TV News.
After the protest we went back to Blacktown, where we are staying, and distributed brochures to shops in the main street. We had a very good and positive reception.
Here is a 360 degree video I took during the protest:
We head off tomorrow to Muswellbrook for a meeting on Saturday with Rivers SOS. The support keeps growing.
Cheers
Michael & Julie
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