Save Our Beaches – another perspective

We fought all the way. We even fought when they were putting the first groyne rocks out to sea. You can see footage of us jumping in the water in protest. Eventually it was all over. The rock wall was built.

One consequence is that that the once beautiful West Beach is now severely eroded. And the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club will be lost. When the Patawalonga Lake drainage system overflows, stormwater is diverted under the channel at Barcoo and piped polluted water goes out to sea. Environmental damage is real.

We lost it. That was it for me. They were four of the most intense months of my life. I was exhausted. I dropped out of the residents’ association after that.

Anthony Psarros representing protesters at Parliament House (1998)

Save Our Beaches – another perspective

Bridget Wardlaw (Bannear)

In 1998, I was president of the Henley and Grange Residents’ Association. I will talk about ‘we’ referring to all members. We learned to use the media effectively during the campaign Save Our Beaches. That year we received a media award for the story thread that had the most hits. Jim Douglas was terrific, appearing on my doorstep with drafts for a media release. Jim and I would hammer it out and get it off. I distinctly remember using the fax machine at work. Having the fax machine on fast dial and pressing the all media button meant all outlets were reached simultaneously. I think my employer was secretly tolerant about my fax use because we were environmentally sound, though later it became a bit tricky. The mayor of the council where I worked was actually friends with the developers. It was not unusual that at lunchtime a television crew would turn up at work. People working in the council were expecting that the mayor or the town clerk was about to be interviewed. I’d say: ‘It’s OK folks, it is me.’ Then I would hop into the car park, do a quick interview to camera, and return to work. They were exciting times.

Working full time and being a single mother, my son and I were often up first thing in the morning. We would go straight to the demonstration (demo). I would be in my formal office clothes and he in his school uniform. Precise start times at work and school meant we were very organised. It was quite stressful too. And then we were called out by Steve Condous (Liberal Colton MP, House of Assembly, 19 February 1998) as ‘unemployed non-contributors to society’.

There were lots of people just turning up to protest. We had written and were guided by a code of conduct. Its emphasis was on non-violence, not doing things that could be misinterpreted by the TV cameras which were mostly onsite for the duration of the demo. If someone was just clowning around, the camera would capture this and show it on the news channel as behaviour belonging to all of us, so we were very careful, including the way we dressed and how we spoke to the media, learning not to voice our opinion sarcastically as we found our words could be twisted or manipulated in the press. Some of our protesters were older women. That was a good look. That contradicted Steve Condous’ portrayal of us as hard-core unemployed protesters. Young people were dispersed among others so that we could not be photographed and interpreted as dreadlocked youth clumped together. We paired up people of varying ages and asked them to look after each other. It presented a united front to the press. There was a lot of combatting deliberate misreporting from the various media outlets. However, some of the media were on our side. When we chatted with reporters, they were often a source of information. ‘Do you know…?’ and we would often find out from them the background to some of the issues we were dealing with.

I realised when I was standing talking with developers who came on site that I was getting a crick in my neck. I am not very tall, not quite five feet. I’d be looking up at these people thinking: ‘Mmm, there are a lot of tall people.’ And then I was told that all these people used to play basketball together in their youth. There is this little clique of basketball players turned developers and suddenly it all started to fall into place, including the mayor of the council where I was working.

We kept saying that the community had not been consulted. I distinctly remember an appalling attempt at community consultation that took place in Glenelg Council Chambers. They wanted us to speak so that it could be recorded in the minutes as consultation. It was just a stunt to say the community had been consulted. After a while we were wise about real consultation and events we should avoid. Through it we learned from each other, learned about much better ways of campaigning.

One of the successful strategies during the campaign was the phone tree we used for communicating with each other, with a structure of sea eagles, pelicans, seagulls and terns. I was in a pub one night in East Adelaide. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and said: ‘I like what you are doing and by the way I am one of your seagulls.’ There was a real sense of community. I think we had as much reach using the technology of the late 1990s as social media does today. I would go to work and people would say: ‘I am sick of hearing you on the news.’ I mean people were getting calls at 6am to say the protest or blockade was on, and they would turn up on the site. We had turnouts of 400 people. I don’t think you would do much better using today’s social media.

Has anyone told you about the Blessing of the Beach? This happened when we were labelled as ratbags, dissidents and other kinds of troublemakers. One of the protesters, an older woman from a local church, mobilised her church group to support our cause. Soon all church leaders in the area were alert to Save Our Beaches and wanted to help. Four ministers were on the beach, all from different denominations. This support in Adelaide, known as the City of Churches, gave us the stamp of respectability.

We set out to make a difference but realised at the beginning that it was going to be difficult. We did force developers to modify their plan. The groyne rock wall was reduced in length, and the design of the boat wash facility was changed so that pollutants would not be flushed into the sea. We pointed out that maintenance of our beaches was going to be costly and we were absolutely vindicated in that. Look at the problems today.

I think our campaign was successful in providing environmental information, gathering community groups to work alongside each other, skilfully organising a protest, and managing the media. In this situation, developers I refer to as the basketball team had positioned themselves in places of power and could bulldoze anything. It seemed that those who were in positions of power had the final word. If we really want to change things and combat developers, we need to be elected to parliament. If there was general economic value in environmental protection instead of destruction, it might have a chance. Owning a newspaper might help.

Bridget Bannear negotiating with Police Sergeant Mart (courtesy of The Advertiser, News Ltd)