The last few months have seen the intensification of the sixteen-year campaign to stop the uranium mine under construction at Jabiluka, inside the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. An action camp was established in March, 17 km. from the now fenced acreage leased to Energy Resources Australia (ERA) mining corporation.

Small-scale incursions into the lease and nonviolent actions at the gate have resulted in a steady stream of citations for trespass. The physical blockade originally established outside the mine site had been broken by Territory Response Group (TRG) police commandos, who used much force to shift protesters and the series of obstacles they had set up.

On Monday, June 29, blockaders attempted to stop a kilometer-long convoy of police-escorted ERA trucks and construction equipment from entering the lease. Police helicopters and the TRG hunted down people in the bush by helicopter to clear the road. Early the next morning, June 30, eight activists locked themselves on to some of the heavy equipment. They were also brutally removed, with two sustaining serious injuries. Work to clear land and prepare the site for mining operations was underway in earnest, despite an outstanding appeal of the lease by the aboriginal "traditional owners" of the land, the Mirrar.

Nonviolent resistance spread the same day to the established Ranger uranium mine in the same region, which was supplying water by truck for the new Jabiluka project. Four people locked themselves onto the water tanker. Also on June 30, a shipment of Ranger uranium bound for Belgium was temporarily blocked at the Darwin port by another truck lock-on, by swimmers preventing the ship from docking, and by crane occupiers.

Hundreds of students and other concerned citizens converged on Jabiluka over the next few days, swelling the number of people at the blockade to over five hundred. With the legal requirements to mine fast approaching completion, and with the news that a high-level delegation [including the chairman] from the United Nations' World Heritage Bureau was set to visit the site later in the year to assess whether Kakadu should be listed "In Danger," the stakes were higher than ever as the busloads of people arrived to try and delay the mining process.

On July 2, a protester exclusion zone was declared, preventing all but through traffic from a 10 km. stretch of highway near the lease access road.

The previously small and sometimes clandestine actions gave way to mass action. On the morning of July 3, over 300 people marched up to the access road. A line of only six riot police greeted them. Spontaneously, 160 people rushed past the police line and ran up the dirt road towards the mining compound. Initial police resistance gave way as they realized they could not stop the weaponless mob. When the group arrived at the compound gate they sat down in rows blocking the entrance. When mine operators told police the mob had trespassed, people held up their action camp "passports" indicating permission of the Mirrar people to be there, and began to chant "E.R.A: whose land did you steal today?" When told they had one last chance to leave, about 40 people did. The arrests began about an hour later , 106 people in all. Most were transported to Darwin's Berrimah Jail.

The day after this, about thirty people walked up to the police line, sat down and meditated. The police, trained to meet force with force, didn't know what to do.

The second huge wave of students arrived in Jabiluka around July 6, just as ERA won a major political battle and moved to obtain the required export license. To be granted an export license, ERA needs to build a tailings pond and to obtain a core sample.

The blockade camp was consumed by an extreme sense of urgency; while planning for a mine-delaying action that could take advantage of the massive numbers of people went on and on through seemingly endless strategy meetings, blasting at the site had begun. The blockade's strict stand of nonviolence meant that not even the mildest forms of sabotage could be performed. While a vigil and traditional nonviolent actions were sustained at the gate of the lease, other options were explored.

One afternoon a small group of activists snuck into the lease area to use the "black wallaby" tactic - they surrounded the compound, running and hiding, and calling out to miners to force them not to detonate explosives or fell trees. They succeeded for that night, but the next morning the TRG moved in and arrested a few, and explosions resumed despite the fact that there were still protesters around.

The next mass action was postponed to coincide with the trespass trial of senior traditional owner Yvonne Margarula, aiding media coverage. In the earliest hours of Tuesday, July 14, over ninety people walked 10 km. through the bush into the lease. Just before dawn, they climbed under the fence and stormed the compound to prevent work from starting, with a smaller contingent arriving at the gates to occupy security forces. Over twenty people locked on to machinery, some formed a human chain around the huge drill, and others ran around the compound screaming and yelling. An Aboriginal flag was waved from the top of one giant piece of machinery as the protesters reclaimed the land for the Mirrar. Before long the miners resumed work [once again despite the safety threat to those present] while ERA security and police forces brutishly removed protesters. One man was knocked unconscious and denied medical treatment for nearly two hours. Women were sexually harassed and assaulted. In the extreme heat, water bottles were poured out in front of locked-on activists.

In all, 118 people were arrested and all taken to Jabiru police station. Threats of a job action at Darwin's Berrimah Jail if another huge group of arrestees were taken there prompted police to throw all 118 into a single holding cell awaiting processing. The group was then divided and most spent the night in two freezing cold cells designed to hold twelve, with two blankets between the group and a single, often-blocked toilet. All but seven who refused bail were released the next day.

The pressing of charges was an arbitrary affair, with many people accused of things they didn't do, and the reverse also true. Most people were charged with trespass, forcible entry, and breach of the peace. Some people were hit with the charge of "damaging a mine", which carries a possible seven-year sentence. In addition to the Jabiluka Ploughshares, four people remained in jail through August, but at press time we had no up-to-date information about their names, addresses or charges. Over 500 arrests have been reported to date, and progress on the mine, while delayed, has not yet been halted.

For more information, contact Jabiluka Blockade, POB 227, Jabiru, NT 0886, Australia, email: blockade@jabiluka.net

(Thanks for Ben Langford, Friends of the Earth/Sydney, and the blockade camp for parts of this story.)