Extinction Rebellion Protesters Take To Perth CBD, Blocking St George’s Terrace

Dozens of arrests have been made after some of the busiest roads in Perth’s CBD were thrown into cha­os on Friday morning by clima­te activists as part of a nationwide Extinction Rebellion demonstrati­on. A group of about 400 men, wo­men and children from Extincti­on Rebellion marched along Willi­am Street through the heart of the city during the morning peak hour. The protesters gathered near Eliza­beth Quay about 8:30am and made their way up to St Georges Terrace, stopping traffic on the Esplanade as they went. In anticipation poli­ce closed St Georges Terrace from Howard Street to King Street,

with three lanes of traffic redirec­ted onto the narrow one-way shop­ping street. The group staged a yo­ga session in the middle of St Ge­orges Terrace before continuing to Hay Street. A sit-in protest was then staged, with some protesters linking their arms with plastic pi­pes and chains. One man dressed as a pirate glued his feet to a woo­den pedestal. The large police pre­sence which had been lining the route and following the march all morning then began to close in. There was about one police officer for every four protestors. The inter­section was taped off and the group warned if they did not leave the ro­ad they were breaking the law and may be arrested. Police announ­ced those instructions over a louds­peaker and began informing pro­testers one by one, including the el­derly and wheelchair bound. Whi­le the crowd then thinned about 60 remained in the intersection as an “act of civil disobedience”. Poli­ce used power tools to cut the pro­testers’ plastic pipe arm locks, and a solvent was needed to unglue the pirate’s feet. The activists were then marched or carried to police vans and taken away from the area, with about 65 arrests made in total. So­me members of the public voiced frustrations at the disruption, ot­hers said they sympathised with the cause, while many were simply bemused by the spectacle.