Hinchinbrook protesters face vigilante threats
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties has called for a police investigation into alleged threats against environmentalists protesting against the Port Hinchinbrook development.
QCCL president Ian Dearden said on September 12 that anonymous threats from a "fisherman" at the nearby north Queensland town of Cardwell amounted to a conspiracy to murder. Dearden called for Port Hinchinbrook resort developer Keith Williams to "pull in the heads of his supporters".
The threats followed a call by Cardwell business owners to "don white hoods" and run protesters out of town if they continue their campaign against the Oyster Point development. The "fisherman" told the Brisbane Courier-Mail that his colleagues were considering throwing berley into the Hinchinbrook Channel to lure crocodiles and sharks to attack seaborne protesters.
On September 9, 100 environmentalists joined a protest at a Townsville shipyard to stop a dredge leaving for Port Hinchinbrook. The action is part of a "Franklin Dam-style" campaign to prevent the dredging of the channel for Williams' mega-resort, which will endanger the nearby World Heritage-listed marine park and its dugong population.
Protesters chained themselves to the dredge, but police and security guards cut the locks and allowed the dredge to sail off. Conservationists have said that dredging the entrance channel was "the line in the sand" from which they would not retreat.