Dozens of protesters have been arrested in Darwin as land clearing continues at an environmentally and culturally sensitive site.
Activists clashed with police and security for a second day on Wednesday as construction crews began clearing trees for the 800-home Defence Housing Australia development.
Dozens of protesters staged a sit-in at the 100-hectare site on the city’s northern outskirts before arrests were made on Wednesday night.
Binybara Camp member Jessica Black said a total of 21 people had been arrested this week.
She said she understood the 18 people arrested on Wednesday had been charged with trespass and released on bail.
“There was a man in a tree on Wednesday who was there for about 12 hours but he managed to escape,” she said.
“They had a chain between two bulldozers and had them running rings around him.
“Trees were falling right next to him and his patch of trees was the last thing left.”
She said protesters had alerted police to the man’s situation.
“They kept clearing and we ran to the police to say that there was a man there and they looked at us with disdain and did nothing,” she said.
“We called the firies and they did nothing.
“Basically the bulldozers seem to be just completely lawless.”
Ms Black said the workers had cleared stages two and three of the project area.
“It’s unclear whether they actually have approvals,” she said.
“It was our understanding that they only had approvals to clear to stage two.”
Environment Centre NT executive director Kirsty Howey said the destruction at Lee Point had been “devastating for the thousands of people across Darwin – and the country – who have dedicated years of their lives to protecting this place”.
“That our politicians will not save a precious biodiversity corridor with over 270 bird species – including the endangered Gouldian finch – in the midst of a biodiversity and climate crisis says a lot about our priorities as a nation,” she said.
“This is the result of the failure of our federal environmental and cultural heritage laws which are speeding nature and culture destruction instead of halting it.”
Defence Housing Australia welcomed the recommencement of works on stage two of the housing project.
“Since the project’s commencement, DHA has obtained all necessary approvals to undertake the development including planning, environmental and cultural heritage approvals,” it said in a statement.
The current works allow for stage two of the project to progress before the wet season, marking an important step forward after a pause of almost two years while environmental and cultural matters were addressed.
The project will proceed in stages to its estimated completion in 2033.
DHA stopped work at Lee Point in August 2023 to allow a cultural heritage application to be assessed after members of the Larrakia nation described the area as culturally significant and asked that it be preserved and protected.
The application was rejected in March despite pleas to Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to act to protect numerous threatened species in the area.
Source Agencies
