WA Parliament Woodside spray painter charged with criminal damage for protesting state capture by fossil fuel industry destroying sacred rock art

Tuesday 21 February 1:00 PM AWST – Perth

Graphic designer and mother of two Tahlia Stohlarski has been charged with one count of Criminal Damage by WA Police after she sprayed the Woodside logo six times in yellow paint across the front doors of WA Parliament to highlight the government’s control by fossil fuel interests.

The Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner was demanding no more industry on the Burrup.

The charges come as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Federal Cabinet and WA Premier Mark McGowan visit the Pilbara region where Woodside’s Burrup Hub continues to damage and desecrate sacred rock art at Murujuga and emit vast quantities of toxic CO2 into the atmosphere.

At 8.00am Tuesday AWST, Tahlia Stolarski, a graphic designer and mother of two young children, sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on multiple doors at the front entrance to Parliament House in Perth.

Stolarski explained that the WA government permits Woodside to destroy culture and climate with toxic emissions from the Burrup Hub, exchanging generous tax benefits and political access for sizable donations.

She also explained that the WA’s status as the only state with rising carbon emissions, and its flagrant disregard for cultural heritage, conflicts with a federal Labor government claiming to care about Indigenous culture and Australia’s international climate obligations.

After leaving police custody at the Perth Watchhouse today, Tahlia Stolarski (0433 661 228), a graphic designer and mother of two young children, said:

“While he paraded around Port Hedland with the Prime Minister, the WA Premier claimed to the media that he doesn’t let vandals influence his government’s policy. Clearly the WA government makes an exception for Woodside’s Burrup Hub in exchange for the largest corporate donations in the country. Our government has remained silent while Woodside has already destroyed more than five thousand rock art sites building the Burrup Hub so far. The true figure will never be known as it was not even recorded by the WA government or Woodside.”

It’s only thanks to the media’s reporting that the truth about the Burrup Hub is becoming known - just down the road from Port Hedland, it’s spewing out more emissions than any other project in the country. No wonder WA’s carbon emissions keep climbing when Woodside’s Burrup Hub alone will emit more than 6 billion tonnes by 2070 after this government approved its expansion. How can the Prime Minister claim to care about Australia’s climate obligations when the WA government is making it impossible with every new approval?”

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'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. Last Monday 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.