Orphan School Creek protester exonerated

Susan Stringfellow, 59, was arrested last year when she, along with other residents and some City of Sydney councillors, occupied a Council worksite at Orphan School Creek, which had been the last forest in Forest Lodge.

The protesters said Council had broken faith by building a wide, zig-zag concrete path through the reserve designed for wheelchair accessibility. They said the path and the low designer plantings either side of it destroyed the wild nature of the gully which, during a long consultation process, Council had promised to preserve.

Despite this assurance, however, Council had ignored the pleas of residents and gone ahead with the work. In turn, the residents occupied the site and police were called. They ignored Greens councillors Chris Harris and Irene Doutney, and Labor councillor Meredith Burgmann, who were among the protesters, and arrested Ms Stringfellow on a charge of Obstructing Traffic. The protest had stopped a large articulated truck from entering the site. It was parked some distance up Wood Street and was unable to back out of the narrow street.

Ms Stringfellow fell during the arrest and was dragged by police into their vehicle, suffering a black eye and bruised arm.

At a Downing Centre court in November, Ms Stringfellow was found guilty, but no conviction was recorded under a Section 10 provision.

But the guilty decision was reversed last month on appeal. Judge G D Woods found that, although the protest might have prevented access to the truck if it had attempted to enter the site, the truck had not approached the site and therefore had not been obstructed.

“It is possible the appellant… may have committed some offence, but it was not the one charged,” the judgement stated.

The judge added that, “the police conducted themselves with complete propriety. They believed they were entitled to arrest the appellant and… used no more than modest force.

“Episodes such as this, reflecting the exercise of an important public right to protest, are difficult for police, who are confronted by the need to uphold the law and yet permit citizens the exercise of fundamental democratic rights.”

Defending barrister Roger de Robillard commented: “People should be made aware of their rights. That’s the main reason Ms Stringfellow fought this case.”