A Disrupt Burrup Hub protester caused rush-hour traffic to come to a standstill on Monday after he parked a car across Mounts Bay Road and chained himself to a concrete block in the car’s boot.
The stunt caused chaos with cars lined up bumper-to-bumper for kilometres as firefighters and police tried to clear the car and the activist.
The man behind the stunt, named by the group as Marek “Maz” Misiewicz, was charged with unreasonably obstructing a pedestrian or vehicle on a carriageway, obstructing public officers and failing to obey an order given by an officer.
A four-wheel-drive, spray-painted with the words “Disrupt Burrup Hub”, was parked across the eastbound lanes of Mounts Bay Road, near Mill Street after the activist group arrived at about 6.40am.“One man used his Ford Territory to block Mounts Bay Road near Mill Street in Perth,” a WA Police spokeswoman said.
“He was lying underneath the vehicle with his arm ‘locked’ to a drum of concrete in the boot of the vehicle.”
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Firefighters began cutting through the chain at about 7.50am and within five minutes the protester was arrested and escorted into a police vehicle.
The 32-year-old was issued with the move on notice and then taken to Royal Perth Hospital for a health check.In a statement, Disrupt Burrup Hub explained their motives.
“I am blockading access to the office of Federal oil and gas regulator NOPSEMA in the Perth CBD after they waved through seismic blasting, drilling and installation approvals for Woodside’s Burrup Hub late on Friday,” Mr Misiewicz said.
The protest came just days after another brazen stunt by four Greenpeace protesters who scaled a 140m crane outside Woodside Energy’s Perth headquarters.
Four people were charged and the act was slammed as a “cheap stunt” and “incredibly risky”.Earlier this year, Disrupt Burrup Hub trio Jesse Noakes, 34, Emil Davey, 21 and Matilda Lane-Rose, 19 were met with counterterrorism police on August 1 when they arrived with an ABC crew at the home of Woodside Energy boss, Meg O’Neill.
The group were each charged with conspiracy to commit criminal damage amid allegations they illegally trespassed onto Ms O’Neill’s property with yellow paint, water balloons and a bicycle lock to intimidate her.
The group pleaded not guilty to the conspiracy charges and will face court again in the new year.
In another stunt activist Joana Partyka defaced the iconic Australian painting ‘Down on His Luck’ with the Woodside logo.
Partyka glued her hand to the wall of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and spray-painted the plastic covering Frederick McCubbin’s 1889 painting, in January this year.
More than 2000 workers at Woodside Energy headquarters in the Perth CBD were then, just a couple of months later, evacuated from their offices after protesters let of “stench” gas. That resulted in the bomb squad being called in.
Disrupt Burrup Hub confirmed they were behind the gas attack, with musician Kristen Morrissey also letting off yellow smoke flares.A few months prior, Woodside was again targeted during its AGM at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in April.
Climate activists Gerard James Mazza and Tahlia Madeleine Stolarski were arrested after they allegedly tried to smoke out the event — again with “stench gas” and yellow flares.
The attack triggered an emergency evacuation of more than 300 event attendees. The duo, which are also part of the Disrupt Burrup Hub group, were apprehended a short time later after police allegedly found them in possession of the non-toxic gas inside PCEC.
Mr Mazza and Ms Stolarski were both charged with one count of aggravated burglary with intent.
