Chris Dobney
Six people have been arrested following a second blockade of Metgasco’s Glenugie CSG testing site overnight.
Around 3 o’clock this morning a family of three, including a local a farmer, locked onto a ute to block access to the site. Other farmers then built a cattle fence around them.
Simon, a spokesperson for the group, told Echonetdaily a cement mixer and a water truck were blocked inside.
‘Big cattle gates were erected in a semi-circle around the entrance to the driveway. The farmer’s ute was inside the cattle gate and he was locked onto his ute underneath.
Another spokesperson Daniel-John Peterson told Echonetdaily that the cattle gates were removed by police around 8.30 this morning and the two trucks inside moved past the lock-on vehicle.
‘Plain clothes police with firearms arrived soon after in extra vehicles to take away the people arrested.
Echonetdaily understands four people who had been locked on were arrested and another two who stopped concrete trucks have also been arrested.
Police remove child
‘Rescue police began cutting off those locked on at around 9.30am,’ Mr Peterson told Echonetdaily.
‘There was a whole family – mother, father and a seven-year-old girl – on the ute. The mother and child were on the back of the ute (not locked on) and the father was locked on underneath.
‘The mother was moved first and then the police held onto the child’s arm to pull her off the truck. The crowd erupted in fury. It was very traumatic for everyone, no less the child. Everyone was petrified and upset and the child was traumatised.
‘Her father and mother are now in custody and I’m not sure of her whereabouts at this point in time.
‘The vehicle is now being pulled onto a tow-truck,’ he said by phone at 10am.
‘There are lots of protesters still standing around. I can see (Metgasco rep) Stuart George. He always seems to be here at these times.
‘There are children, toddlers an elderly gentlemen and a lady who seem to be in their 80s. There are locals who arrived in the night because of the noise and the light – they can’t sleep.
‘There are around 15 police and around 30 protesters at the site.’
Activists are calling on more protesters to return to the site today.
Late last week, more than 60 police broke through a blockade, arresting 18 people.
A group of activists then established a vigil on private land adjacent to the site.
Metgasco has announced that drilling commenced at Glenugie last Thursday night and may continue for several weeks.
Kyogle CSG free
Meanwhile, Kyogle Group Against Gas has released its CSG-Free Communities survey results for the Kyogle LGA.
Following a public meeting at Kyogle, over 2,400 people on 172 roads were surveyed by residents from each area and over 90 per cent want their areas to be gasfield free.
Susan Somerville, who coordinated the survey said, ‘Right across the northern rivers well over 12,700 people (over 95 per cent of people surveyed) have declared their communities Gasfield Free’.
‘The results undoubtedly confirm the over 87 per cent “No” vote registered by 21,600 Lismore voters at last September’s local-government elections when asked if they supported coal-seam gas exploration and production in the
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