Media release: Not Guilty pleas entered for protest outside house of Woodside CEO

Matilda Lane-Rose

Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners Matilda Lane-Rose, Emil Davey and Jesse Noakes have each pleaded Not Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit an Indictable Offence for a protest outside the house of the Woodside CEO on August 1. 

WA Police attempted to move the matters to the WA District Court this morning but were forced to withdraw Section 5 Applications after being unable to justify the applications when pressed by the Magistrate. 

It comes as the Woodside CEO is expected to appear in a Perth court this Friday to be cross-examined during an appeal of four interim Violence Restraining Orders issued after the protest to Ms Lane-Rose, Mr Davey, Mr Noakes and a fourth co-accused Gerard Mazza, whose matter was not heard today.

On August 1, Ms Lane-Rose was detained by more than a dozen counter-terror police waiting inside the Woodside CEO’s property before Ms Lane-Rose could commence her protest outside the house. A yellow spray paint can and some water balloons were found nearby.

Today's matters have been set down for Trial Allocation in the Perth Magistrates Court on January 30.

Barrister for the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign Zarah Burgess said after court this morning:

“This morning in court, three Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners entered Not Guilty pleas for a protest outside the house of the Woodside CEO in August. WA Police were forced to withdraw their Section 5 Applications to send the charges up to the District Court, after being pressed by the Magistrate as to what justified the applications, which are usually reserved for more serious charges.

On August 1, 19 year old Matilda Lane-Rose was ambushed outside the house of the Woodside CEO by more than a dozen counter-terror police already lying in wait inside the property. 21 year old Emil Davey was not present at the protest but was pulled over at gunpoint by police earlier. Jesse Noakes was sitting in a parked car with the engine still running and never left the vehicle until ordered to do so by police. All three have pleaded Not Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit an Indictable Offence and will seek to list the matter for trial in the Perth Magistrates Court early next year.”

Background:

The Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia is known as Murujuga to traditional custodians, a deeply sacred place that contains the largest, oldest collection of Aboriginal rock art in the world. This priceless cultural treasure is currently nominated for UNESCO world heritage listing, but the sacred songlines and stories contained in these carvings are being damaged by emissions from the Burrup Hub and face total destruction within decades. Woodside has previously been responsible for the destruction of around 5,000 sacred rock art sites in the construction of earlier parts of its Burrup Hub mega-project, including the Karratha Gas Plant and Pluto LNG processing facility.

Woodside's Burrup Hub is the biggest new fossil fuel project in Australia. It consists of the Scarborough and Browse Basin gas fields, the Pluto Project processing plant, and other linked liquified natural gas (LNG) and fertiliser plants on the Burrup Peninsula in WA’s remote north-west Pilbara region. The Burrup Hub is projected to produce more than 6 billion tons of CO2 by 2070, making it four times larger than the Adani coal mine and one of the biggest carbon bombs in the world.

On January 19, Joana Partyka, a ceramic artist and illustrator from Perth, sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on the colonial masterpiece ‘Down on His Luck’ at the Art Gallery of WA. The protest was subsequently endorsed by most descendants of ‘Down on His Luck’ painter Frederick McCubbin. On February 13, punk musician Trent Rojahn coated the Woodside building with a fire extinguisher full of high-pressure yellow paint and sprayed the slogan ‘Disrupt Burrup Hub’ across the glass at the entrance to Woodside’s corporate headquarters. On Tuesday February 21, graphic designer and mum of two Tahlia Stolarski sprayed the Woodside logo six times in yellow paint on the front doors of WA Parliament.

On April 28, Gerard Mazza and Tahlia Stolarski were charged with Aggravated Burglary attempting to evacuate the Woodside AGM in Perth using harmless stench gas and smoke flares. On May 3, environmental activist Violet CoCo, the first person jailed under repressive new police powers legislation in New South Wales, sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on the front of the Perth Police Centre in protest at the escalating police crackdown on climate protest in Western Australia. On May 20, musician and student Emil Davey invaded the pitch of an AFL game during Indigenous Round, sponsored by Woodside, disrupting play for several minutes with a large flag reading Disrupt Burrup Hub. 

On June 1, Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner Kristen Morrissey safely evacuated Woodside’s corporate headquarters in Perth using harmless, non-toxic ‘stench gas’ to simulate a hoax gas leak, successfully evacuating several thousand Woodside workers and stopping work for the day. On July 25, Woodside threatened to sue Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners in the Supreme Court of Western Australia for loss of earnings and brand damage after the safe, successful evacuation of Woodside’s corporate headquarters in a hoax gas leak on June 1.