By Aaron Bunch Aaron Bunchaap
Two protesters who targeted Woodside Energy’s headquarters with stench gas, forcing the evacuation of more than a thousand workers, have been handed suspended prison sentences.
Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners Kristen Morrissey, 51, and Joana Partyka, 40, faced Perth District Court on Wednesday when they were sentenced to 11 and seven-month terms respectively.
The pair walked into the oil and gas company’s Perth building on June 1, 2023 and released a non-toxic stench gas called ethyl mercaptan in the lobby area.
A police bomb response unit and firefighters were called amid chaotic scenes, with workers unable to return to their desks until later in the day.
Emil Davey, 23, was sentenced to a community-based order for six months with 50 hours of volunteer work for his part in the action.
Judge Hayley Cormann said that while motivated by their concern for the environment, the trio’s actions had caused distress and alarm for workers.
“Your actions were serious and it is conduct that cannot be endorsed,” she said.
Morrissey, a music teacher, previously pleaded guilty to creating a false belief and cause poison to be administered.
Her sentence of 11 months’ imprisonment was suspended for 18 months.
Partyka, a West Australian Greens media adviser, previously admitted creating a false belief, with her seven-month jail term suspended for 12 months.
The protest against Woodside’s plans to expand its gas operations on the rock-art-rich Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia caused some employees and emergency service personnel medical issues and anxiety.
The Burrup Peninsula, located in WA’s Pilbara region and known as Murujuga to traditional owners, contains the world’s largest and oldest collection of petroglyphs.
Disrupt Burrup Hub claims Woodside’s operations there and its proposed expansion are the biggest new fossil fuel project in the country and could produce billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2070.