Yesterday there was a big protest in my old hometown, Wollongong Australia. This has been in response to the Offshore Wind Farms Proposed for East Coast Australia that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t go to the protest myself, but my family and friends who still live in Wollongong were there and it was one of those Organic Protest Movements that sprung up and organized itself in a very short space of time...and got a pretty decent turnout in the end.
There were a few politicians there but to date it seems like the local council are a bit slow on the uptake. This is a safe Labour (Leftist) area and there is a fair bit of complacency amongst the local politicians, which is unsurprising and possibly even the reason why this area has been targeted for this type of development. While there are economical reasons that people oppose Offshore Wind, the primary issue locals have is that they want to preserve the beautiful coastline and the marine life. We’ve had an abundance of Whale Sightings up and down the coast this season and people don’t want to see the whales habitats damaged with new these environmental hazards introduced.
Don’t take my word for it though, have a look at some of the photos my family has taken from the event. You can see the beautiful coast and the signage of the protesters.
After the speeches there was a Paddle Out part of the Protest which also had a good representation from the local surfers who inspired and then spearheaded the event.
Some of the mainstream media have picked up the story (see HERE) and I suspect that this is probably the beginning and not the end of the campaign to stop Offshore Wind Turbines in the area. It will be interesting to see how this develops as the protest was very well organized with a peaceful and mature crowd in attendance. I expect that one of the next moves will be for the Protesters to front up to the upcoming Council Meetings. My belief is that this is where the battle can be won.
