National Heritage
Extra officers cost $100,000 a day for gas protest
ABC
The Police Commissioner says it is costing $100,000 a day to station extra officers at the site of anti-gas hub protests near Broome.
About 140 officers have been sent to Broome to keep open the road to James Price Point as Woodside resumes work on the multi-billion dollar project.
The Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan says the final cost of the operation will depend on how long the officers are required to stay in the area.
Protesters follow footprints of dinosaurs
The Australian
GRAHAM LLOYD
DINOSAURS and mosquitoes were the only certainties yesterday in an escalating face-off between police, protesters and politicians over Woodside Petroleum’s planned $40 billion gas hub development near Broome.
Businessman Geoffrey Cousins took a swipe at federal Environment Minister Tony Burke for failing to act to protect prehistoric footprints from Woodside’s near-shore drilling.
Police gas hub action to cost $1m
The West Australian
BEATRICE THOMAS
Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan has revealed a major police operation to combat anti-gas hub protesters north of Broome will cost taxpayers $1 million over 10 days.
Mr O’Callaghan this morning defended sending more than 140 extra officers to Broome at the weekend to coincide with Woodside resuming work on its proposed gas precinct at James Price Point, 60km north of the tourist town.
Blue line in red dirt as gas tensions rise in Broome
The Australian
GRAHAM LLOYD
THE wet season has officially ended in Broome and a new flashpoint has arrived in the protests over Woodside Petroleum’s controversial $40 billion James Price Point gas hub.
Over the past four days, the tropical holiday town, 2176km north of Perth, has been flooded with an estimated 150 extra police who have taken up residence in five-star resorts to conduct a high-visibility operation – including manning outback booze buses and issuing a blizzard of car defect notices.
Ferguson backs Browse project
The West Australian
Peter Klinger
On the same day more than 100 police tried to separate protesters from a Woodside Petroleum convoy entering the proposed James Price Point LNG plant site, Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson gave a much-needed vote of confidence for proponents of the controversial Kimberley project.
“I would hope that the Browse gas project goes to a final investment decision,” he said.
“I can’t question (the project partners’) commitment and expenditure . . . and I would expect them to make a final investment decision in 2013,” Mr Ferguson said yesterday outside the APPEA conference in Adelaide.
Gas hub protesters face forcible removal
The West Australian
Flip Prior
Campers at an illegal blockade on the road to James Price Point will be delivered a written warning from the Broome Shire to dismantle and move on tomorrow or could face forcible removal by police, Shire President Graeme Campbell said today.
Mr Campbell said police would not be used unless there was aggressive behaviour. He said as part of normal processes, rangers would issue a written warning as the camp had no planning or building licences and no applications had been made.
The campers had already had a verbal warning and were likely to be given 30 days to comply with the order.
Mr Campbell said if campers simply moved back from the reserve controlled by the Shire – 20m either side of the road centre line – they would be moving into an interim development area where planning and building codes still applied.
Broome group deliver letter
The West Australian
Flip Prior
As masses of police armed with tasers, batons and handcuffs arrived in Broome this weekend, the town’s residents met them with flowers and expressions of love.
Around 300 people gathered at the Broome markets for a peaceful demonstration against the police influx, widely believed to be linked to a pre-emptive strike against protests at James Price Point as Woodside moves its equipment in this week.
Hundreds face off with police in Broome
WA Today
Cortlan Bennett
More than 600 people have gathered outside Broome police station in Western Australia’s Kimberley in a showdown with authorities over a proposed gas hub.
An estimated 250 police with riot gear started arriving in the coastal town on Friday night in what residents say is a pre-emptive move to clear protesters from the controversial James Price Point gas hub site 60km north of town.
‘Professional protesters’ fear police move
The West Australian
Flip Prior
Update, 5.15pm: Rumours are rife in Broome that more than 100 additional police are on their way north to break up two camps full of “professional protesters” opposing Woodside’s proposed gas hub at James Price Point.
However, police are keeping quiet on what they have described as “operational matters”.
Lachlan Douglas, the son of late Kimberley naturalist Malcolm Douglas, said he had been hassled by police several times on Manari Road in the past couple of days and it “felt like living in East Germany”
Police permanently at Browse gas hub due to increased protests
Perth Now
Rebecca Le May
A PERMANENT police presence is about to be established at Woodside Petroleum’s Browse gas hub site near Broome to deal with an expected ramping up of protests against the development.
Work on the James Price Point project has resumed now that the wet season has ended.
ABC Radio reported today there are plans to station more than 100 police indefinitely at the site in anticipation of an influx of environmental activists.
Nigel Grazier, the vice-president of the project, said geotechnical studies had resumed today.