Adani or Bravus – actions speak louder than words as protester locks on

Work was stopped at the Adani (who yesterday renamed their Australian operations Bravus) rail construction site near Belyando, Queensland this morning.

Magnetic Island resident, Barney Jackson, attached himself to a concrete batching plant. Mr Jackson said he was highlighting the impact the Adani operation would have on both the Great Barrier Reef and water in the region.

‘I grew up on Magnetic Island on the Great Barrier Reef and I’ve seen the damage and pressures that are being put on the reef, something that the Adani coal mine will exacerbate’, says Mr Jackson.

‘If anything is sacred; it’s water. If there is no water we all die, humans included. Water is life says it all.’

Mr Jackson used a steel elbow lock to attach himself to the top of the machinery in order to cease operations at the construction site. The elbow lock was painted with a ‘Water Is Life’ message alongside a banner with the same words.

In relation to the water messaging, Mr Jackson said, ‘Growing up in north QLD where water is often very scarce, Adani having a license to take unlimited amounts of water makes me very concerned’.

Mr Jackson’s action comes approximately a year after the new lock-on laws were implemented by the Queensland Government, an attempt to deter concerned citizens from using a device such as an elbow lock.

In response to these laws, he states, ‘The most dangerous thing I could do with this [elbow lock] is not use it. The repercussions from the Carmichael mine are far more dangerous than me locking on with a steel tube.

‘I don’t want to be arrested, but I don’t want the mine to go ahead even more, so, here I am.’

Adani – courageous or mercenary?

In an amusing aside Crikey reported that The Guardian had some Latin experts take a look at the name Adani has given its Australian operations and has pointed out that changing ‘the name of its Australian operations to “Bravus”, a word chief executive David Boshoff claimed means “courageous” in Latin but experts say more accurately translates to “crooked”, “deformed”, and “mercenary or assassin”.’