Four and Twenty Blackbirds…
Today is a day when MPT (Marine Protection Tasmania) supporters should be mourning, I suppose. The anchor points for the fish pens go in this weekend. No doubt the Tassal toadies around town think we should be backing down.
That we are crying in our tea.
That we will crawl back into our ‘shacks and sip lattes’.
That we will rush off and pay subs to whatever the latest call for Green support might be.
Goodness, how foolish and how wrong they are!
People tried to have a peaceful picnic at Okehampton today, in solidarity with professional fisherman, Chris Massey, who has been conducting a two week vigil, to underline many people’s fears for the east coast. Nothing more than that. No dramas, just a social get-together.
The gates on the access road were locked. And a team of six tax-payer funded police plus a police rubber-duckie were on stand-by. We laughed – how afraid these Tassal supporters must be to have to lock gates to a public beach and arrange such a law-enforcement team! It shows how little Tassal has studied their enemy. Have a look at the ages of those who managed to come to the picnic at such short notice. They are hardly terrorists!
Being spontaneous folk, another place was quickly organised and all the cars arrived, a spectacular piece of sand signage was created, and with permission from National Parks, we lit a fire and had a wonderful picnic, with a demographic of toddlers to oldies enjoying the white sands and the turquoise waters of our coastline.
Most noticeable was the bonhomie, the happiness, the love of the east coast. People bagged all their litter, the fire was lit from wood from our homes, not from the foreshore. A sea eagle flew over – a sure sign we are blessed by the nature gods!
We ate homemade pies, drank homemade soup, ate bread and fruit pastes and cheeses.
We had homemade cakes, fruit, beer, champagne and cordial. A good occasion…
So what came out of the event?
This wide spread feeling:
You have not listened to me…
You have not listened to my family…
You have not listened to my friends…
You have not listened to the young or to the old…
You have not negotiated honestly, nor independently…
So we will never give in or give up…
We have a whole east coast to protect…
We have waters around the state to protect…
We have a nation and a world to inform…
We will vote against Council and against Liberal and Labour at the next respective elections…
This is just the beginning…
PS: Remember the title of the post ‘Four and Twenty Black Birds’? It was chosen for the featured image. And what happened when the pie was opened?
The birds began to sing!
Bingo!
Great article Prue, keep fighting
Thank you, Libby. I can always count on you!
Spot on Prue…. Well said and I totally agree…..Keep up the fight….
Cheers, Glenn. Thank you. A fight is only as good as those in the army and I think that out there, there’s a wealth of good fighters and people with their hearts in the right place.
I support the cause Prue but think your being rather harsh on Paul for deciding that he didn’t want heaps of protestors on his land. He’s a farmer too. He’s been in the paper saying he supports the fish farm. We all knew that so we shouldn’t be surprised. My neighbours round here at Oatlands don’t just let any old kid wander onto their farms and I reckon you’d be the same with yours. So I reckon we should lay off and just fight the fight.
I agree with you to a point, Mick. Of course we’d be the same with our farm. BUT – this was a group of people who were just going to have a picnic. No protest, no force, no damage – just sitting on the beach eating and playing with kids, the same as we have all done in various ways for years at Okehampton. We are educated people who respect our environment and would never have done anything to damage an iconic property . The beach itself however is a public beach and until this morning, anyone could go through without fear or favour. Why did that change with police on standby.