August 28, 1977 - The Authorities

(Bob Hunter at the helm of a Zodiac off the whaling station on August 18, 1977)

By Chris Pash

The government of Western Australia reacted swiftly to the protest at the gates of the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company's whaling station at Albany.

There was a strong police presence at the demonstration. Later the state govenment moved to plug holes in legislation which allowed the activisits to run interference against the whale ships at sea. If the protesters ever came back, they would face new laws.

Sir Charles Court, the state premier, viewed with contempt the activities of Greenpeace. “I don’t think they deserve any public sympathy at all. The Cheynes Beach whaling project is one that has been conducted strictly within the rules … the company is harvesting whales, not pillaging them as these people would have us believe. As far as I’m concerned, the Cheynes Beach people have always conducted their operations properly. It ill becomes a group like the Greenpeace people to come here trying to make trouble and to attack a company which has done the decent thing all along the line.”

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