More than 1,000 people gathered at Gate A this morning, the core of the Bentley anti-gas protests over recent months, for a final 5am ‘welcome the dawn’ gathering to celebrate their success in having the petroleum exploration licence for the site suspended.
Shares of junior gas explorer Metgasco, which held the licence for the site, tumbled by 40 per cent to around five cents after mining minister Anthony Roberts made the announcement suspending the licence last week.
The Office of Coal Seam Gas has declined to withdraw its suspension following a submission by Metgasco late last week.
Gasfield Free Northern Rivers say it will take some time and money to remove the substantial lock-ons and so-called dragon devices buried beneath the ground at gates A and B of the Bentley site.
Photos Marie Cameron
Protector and CSG lecturer Aidan Ricketts told local media today that Bentley would go down in history along with the Franklin River and Terania Creek environmental protests of the 1970s.
He said that in a way Bentley was more important, in that the Terania and Franklin River protests at the time did not have wide support, whereas the Bentley protest had the support of almost the entire community.
Recent stories tagged Bentley Blockade:
Steve Bolt talks activism and the law
Lismore-based lawyer Steve Bolt has recently retired, after thirty years of practice in the Northern Rivers. The Echo caught up with this illustrious local legal legend to talk about the intersection of activism and the law, in his own life and the wider community.
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Commemorating ten years since V Day at Bentley
It's ten years today since a wave of relief spread through Camp Liberty at Bentley, when those gathered discovered that the riot police would not be coming, and gas company Metgasco was being referred to ICAC by the NSW government.
Almost ten years since the Northern Rivers made history at Bentley
With hundreds of riot police expected to confront thousands of protectors on site at the Bentley blockade, west of Lismore, it was a great relief to many when the NSW government suspended Metgasco's Petroleum Exploration Licence on 15 May 2014, effectively handing a historic win to the community.
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