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The Protests
As soon as we became aware of the clearing work, we joined forces with OzGREEN and other supporters and an on site vigil commenced on Tuesday 8th June 1999. This was attended by a large numbers of people and was well covered by press, radio and TV.
Politicians who gave their support include David Barr, Richard Jones and Lee Rhiannon, Tony Abbott, Kerry Chikarovski, and many Manly Councillors. Disappointingly, Warringah councillors generally stayed away.
An on-site meeting between Warringah Council, Ardel, union and community representatives secured a 48 hour stop work on the site. However, immediately after, the police moved in and six peaceful protesters were arrested and charged with intimidation. These charges were dropped when the matter went to court in September 1999.
There have been numerous other actions including
u a rally attended by an estimated 1000 people
u several protests at Parliament House
u candlelight vigil held at the dam
u Scientific forum held at the Australian Museum
u schools rally at the dam
u protest in Bob Carr's electorate of Maroubra
u march and "Jam for the Dam" rally in Manly.
u group named the "flying squad", wearing Manly Dam Tee shirts, has also visited numerous areas to spread the word and hand out leaflets.
u "Save Manly Dam Golf Classic" designed to raise awareness and raise funds.
Council Elections
The September 1999 council elections had six of our supporters standing in Warringah's B-ward.Three were in the "No Urban Villages, Save Manly Dam" group, headed by David Parsons, and three in the Greens' group, headed by Peter Forrest. Both did very well with David's group polling 17% and Peter's 11% of the primary vote. Unfortunately, when preferences were allocated, David just missed out, but Peter won a seat.
The Negotiations
Meanwhile negotiations continued to try to achieve a stop work and to secure funds for a buy back.The effort that we put into the Nature Conservation Council grant application to the Federal Government in February 1999 proved helpful.
They were prepared to consider $2 for $1 funding towards a buy back if either the State Government or Local Government could come up with their share.
In July 1999 the committee asked Warringah Council to join forces with the Federal Government in a buy back. The proposal outlined methods that could raise the necessary revenue for council. The initial response of some councillors was disappointingly negative, however a renewed effort in August 1999 following the "Jam for the Dam" rally, resulted in a decision to investigate this option.
A meeting was held in Canberra on 1st September 1999 to clarify details of the Federal offer. The Warringah Mayor John Caputo, General manager Denis Smith, Federal member Tony Abbott and SMDCC secretary Ann Sharp met with Senator Hill's staff who confirmed the $2 for $1 funding arrangement.
Council was very slow to follow up on this, but they eventually obtained a valuation for the Ardel site and arranged an environmental assessment. In the meantime work on the site continued. In May 2000 Council allocated $1m towards a buyback, provided this was backed by the federal government within a certain time limit. However, indications suggested they were not seriously considering the buy back and were merely stalling.The $1m offer lapsed when the federal government failed to offer supporting funds due to the amount of damage that had occured to the site by that time
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