Save Our Beaches – impact

Save Our Beaches – impact

Anthony Psarros

I joined Henley and Grange Residents’ Association in 1992. Environmental issues were important to me. My background was in geography and environmental studies (Adelaide University). I understood the coast and local river systems. I knew where stormwater drains and the sewerage plants were located. I understood what the main pollutants were and why seagrasses were dead. I thought I might be able to make a difference at a local level, given my dissatisfaction with state and federal politics. I went to a few local monthly meetings and met a man named Doug Price. He was the heart and soul of the Henley and Grange Residents’ Association. Most of the positions were vacant on the committee at the time. This is my recollection; it may not be accurate. As soon as Doug saw me at the meeting, he reportedly said this is someone who can take over from me. He was desperate to get me involved. His son and I were friends at school, so he had known me for quite a while. I was voted in as the secretary of the Henley and Grange Residents’ Association and held that position for about three years.

At that time, the residents’ association consisted of a small group of older people. They talked mainly about rates, rubbish and footpaths. I thought we needed to look at broader issues like stormwater and beach erosion. I wanted more consultation with Henley and Grange Council. Of course, that was before the merger with the larger council, so you could have a conversation with the local councillors. I became president and started to look for other people to become involved. Alan Shepherd was my secretary at the time. Eventually Jim Douglas joined us. I knew Jim through the union movement; he was a personal friend.

As president, I oversaw constitutional reform. We worked on beach management policies and talked about the built environment – the way people wanted to live. We branched out a bit. In 1996, Bridget Bannear became president and Jim Douglas became secretary. I nominated myself as the environmental officer. I was involved with the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). Networking with environmentalists has always been important.

If you talk about community mobilisation, the Save Our Beaches (1997-98) campaign was it. The West Beach Boat Harbour was to be a $10 million rock wall rising 10 metres from the seabed. It would be longer than Henley Beach Jetty. All professional advice warned against its construction. An environmental impact assessment (1996) stated that development was not an option.

Initially Jim and I were a bit reticent being involved with the campaign, to be honest. We could see the amount of energy that needed to be put into it. But it was not up to us to kill it off either. We organised a public meeting to talk about what would happen if the boat harbour was to go ahead. Four hundred people rolled up at the Henley Town Hall. People were in the doorways, cheering throughout the presentations. The meeting elected an executive group to drive the campaign. I said to Jim: ‘How can we let this go now – it is so huge.’ Those at the meeting pledged to stop the West Beach Boat Harbour. So we went into the campaign. Picketing in the form of non-violent direct action would take place at Barcoo Road as soon as construction commenced.

We gathered good people on the committee: people from the residents’ association and people elected from the public meeting. Experts came from various backgrounds: marine scientists, lawyers, environmentalists and, mostly, local residents. They were really committed.

Organisation was required for protesting and picketing. Bridget, Jim and I had those organisational skills. We had regular committee meetings, we spread our networks, the media was ever present thanks to Bridget’s perseverance. She was running PR from her workplace during her lunchtime. There was a press release nearly every day. Cameras were on, newspapers, radio interviews, we knew how to do these things. We did not all have mobile phones back then. Contacting 400 people about the protest blockage was achieved regardless. Imagine if we had access to mobile technology, what we could have done. But we did extremely well rostering people to turn up at the site using the phone tree network (described in the account above). Residents painted messages on their rubbish bins. On rubbish bin collection day, we could read: Save West Beach/No Boat Harbour. We fought to halt the construction for about four months.

We built good relationships and made a lot of new friends. It was a really good time. There is nothing like an issue to bring people together. When people are committed to something, they make it happen. Henley and Grange Council had merged into the City of Charles Sturt. The council and Mayor Harold Anderson were initially on our side. Our networks grew enormously.

Towards the end, construction work people tried to fence off the site. I went to the Land Titles Office and found out that Barcoo Road, which was the entrance to the planned boat harbour, was not a public road. I told the police on site that they could not block this road. One policeman said he wouldn’t arrest people if he did not have the legal authority. He was smart enough to back away. Legislation to make the road public had to be passed in parliament. We had six weeks grace. Up to ten people were on site at Barcoo Road every day. They had a tent, and protest signs were up. Eventually the regulation to close the road was passed and the protest became active. I don’t know how many times we sat in front of trucks. The developers got the fence up of course.

Our protest was non-violent, definitely. But police were quite fierce, don’t you worry about that. We would link arms but to stop you they would pull your thumbs back. And even when we were linked up in position, police would try to drag us away. Being dragged away was quite vicious. We were manhandled. There is quite a bit of footage showing this. Once I was put in a paddy wagon but not arrested. I ended up with sore ribs and sore thumbs. The police were often violent from our point of view.

Some media covering the blockade was not flattering to us. Some of the pieces in the local papers described us in a derogatory manner: we were a bunch of unemployed people, career protesters and Labor Party stooges. Also, I was getting nasty phone calls at night. This was quite upsetting. A group wanted to meet me on the site after hours to sabotage the dredge that was starting to remove sand for the boat harbour. I said no, that was not something we would do. ‘If you want to talk with me come to my home.’ I think they wanted me down there so that they could beat me up. I let the police know about the threatening phone calls.