Those of you who have been following the (seemingly interminable) court processes will be relieved to know that today the four of us who pleaded not guilty received the date of our trial. We will front the Yeppoon Magistrates Court on April 24th 2008. Having already signed and submitted a formal admission of our presence on the base, we intend to argue that we had lawful excuse for doing so. While the chances of such an argument succeeding are slim, we plan to take the same spirit of transforming hopefulness, joy and peace into the courtroom that we took with us into the military zone.
If you're of the praying persuasion, please pray that the truth would be spoken and known on that day. Pray for boldness and courage, for peace and the presence of Christ in our words and actions.
For those who follow the church year, our trial date falls on the feast day of St Fidelis of Sigmaringen, who paid the ultimate price for refusing to renounce his beliefs (ironically, at the hands of my fellow Protestants). He died praying, as Jesus did, "Pardon my enemies, O Lord: blinded by passion they know not what they do." May we all, like Jesus, have the courage to renounce violence even when threatened, and learn to love and forgive our enemies.
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Welcome to the Frisbee 5 news page!
In June 2007, five Christian peace activists (Sarah Williams, Simon Reeves, Carole Powell, Krystal Spencer and Simon Moyle) were arrested while resisting Australia/US war games in Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area in central Queensland. In August one pleaded guilty to the Commonwealth trespassing charge, and four pleaded not guilty; they are now awaiting trial. This is a page where you will find the latest news including what happened, various musings from the group about their experiences, any court developments that will subsequently happen, and news related to saving Shoalwater Bay.
The Verdict
The verdict? Guilty.
The sentence? 6 months good behaviour bond (no conviction recorded).
Blog Archive
Links
FAQs
Where is Shoalwater Bay and what is its significance?
Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA) is a huge military base on the central coast of Queensland, and part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It is home to an enormous amount of wildlife that need to be protected, including endangered whales and dugongs. With the Australian and many other militaries doing live fire exercises there, including land and sea bombing, this should be an issue of concern to the Australian people.
Who are the Samuel Hill 5?
Simon Moyle (Urban Seed, Melbourne), Simon Reeves (Jahwork, Melbourne), Krystal Spencer (Jahwork, Melbourne) and Sarah Williams (Jahwork, Melbourne) and Carole Powell (Pace e Bene, Brisbane).
What did you do?
As part of the wider peace convergence, the four Melbournians travelled to Shoalwater Bay on Jun 17th. Two days later Carole joined us there. After four days of intense planning (preceded by several weeks of planning), and a long walk through the bush in the rain, we arrived at the fence which marks the boundary of the restricted military base. Soon after, we entered the military training area, found the main control centre base (Samuel Hill) and walked openly down the middle of the airstrip in an attempt to be as obvious as possible.Despite our openness, it took quite some time for anyone to notice us. When they finally did we approached them, assured them that we were unarmed and peaceful, and asked them to play frisbee with us. To our surprise and delight, they did. I asked to see their generals as we had two letters to give them. They then called their commanding officer who shut down the base, and they invited us inside for coffee and lunch. We spent about an hour and a half talking with both Australian and US soldiers about Iraq, violence and nonviolence, and the exercises themselves before being arrested by Queensland police and taken to Rockhampton.
Why on earth did you do that?
There are three main reasons for why we did it:
1. To establish a reasoned and respectful dialogue with the soldiers. As protests are often restricted to yelling from behind a fence, we wanted to change the dynamic, to engage face to face with the people behind the uniform, and for them to do the same with us.
2. At the same time, we knew that any presence of civilians on the base would immediately halt the war games. Therefore another aim was to disrupt the exercises with our presence.
3. We wanted to see the base transformed from somewhere war games were conducted to a place where peace games are played. Hence not only did our presence cause the shutting down of the military activities, but we invited the soldiers to play frisbee with us on the tarmac.
Why are you the Samuel Hill 5?
Samuel Hill Air Force Base is the place we walked onto in the SWBTA. It is the main command centre for the SWBTA. Sometimes we've been referred to as the 'Frisbee 5' because we played frisbee with the troops.
Why is it sometimes the Samuel Hill '4' and sometimes '5'?
Five people were involved in the original action, and four of us are contesting the charges. For court purposes we are wanting to be heard together; hence the '4', but we remain a group of 5.
What have you been charged with, and why did you plead not guilty?
The full Commonwealth charge is 'trespass without lawful excuse'. We are in no way disputing our presence on the base, but we wish to argue that our actions were nonetheless lawful.
If you have any more questions, please contact us at samuelhill4@gmail.com.
Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA) is a huge military base on the central coast of Queensland, and part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It is home to an enormous amount of wildlife that need to be protected, including endangered whales and dugongs. With the Australian and many other militaries doing live fire exercises there, including land and sea bombing, this should be an issue of concern to the Australian people.
Who are the Samuel Hill 5?
Simon Moyle (Urban Seed, Melbourne), Simon Reeves (Jahwork, Melbourne), Krystal Spencer (Jahwork, Melbourne) and Sarah Williams (Jahwork, Melbourne) and Carole Powell (Pace e Bene, Brisbane).
What did you do?
As part of the wider peace convergence, the four Melbournians travelled to Shoalwater Bay on Jun 17th. Two days later Carole joined us there. After four days of intense planning (preceded by several weeks of planning), and a long walk through the bush in the rain, we arrived at the fence which marks the boundary of the restricted military base. Soon after, we entered the military training area, found the main control centre base (Samuel Hill) and walked openly down the middle of the airstrip in an attempt to be as obvious as possible.Despite our openness, it took quite some time for anyone to notice us. When they finally did we approached them, assured them that we were unarmed and peaceful, and asked them to play frisbee with us. To our surprise and delight, they did. I asked to see their generals as we had two letters to give them. They then called their commanding officer who shut down the base, and they invited us inside for coffee and lunch. We spent about an hour and a half talking with both Australian and US soldiers about Iraq, violence and nonviolence, and the exercises themselves before being arrested by Queensland police and taken to Rockhampton.
Why on earth did you do that?
There are three main reasons for why we did it:
1. To establish a reasoned and respectful dialogue with the soldiers. As protests are often restricted to yelling from behind a fence, we wanted to change the dynamic, to engage face to face with the people behind the uniform, and for them to do the same with us.
2. At the same time, we knew that any presence of civilians on the base would immediately halt the war games. Therefore another aim was to disrupt the exercises with our presence.
3. We wanted to see the base transformed from somewhere war games were conducted to a place where peace games are played. Hence not only did our presence cause the shutting down of the military activities, but we invited the soldiers to play frisbee with us on the tarmac.
Why are you the Samuel Hill 5?
Samuel Hill Air Force Base is the place we walked onto in the SWBTA. It is the main command centre for the SWBTA. Sometimes we've been referred to as the 'Frisbee 5' because we played frisbee with the troops.
Why is it sometimes the Samuel Hill '4' and sometimes '5'?
Five people were involved in the original action, and four of us are contesting the charges. For court purposes we are wanting to be heard together; hence the '4', but we remain a group of 5.
What have you been charged with, and why did you plead not guilty?
The full Commonwealth charge is 'trespass without lawful excuse'. We are in no way disputing our presence on the base, but we wish to argue that our actions were nonetheless lawful.
If you have any more questions, please contact us at samuelhill4@gmail.com.
2 comments:
Hello there,
good to see your blog site up and running good work. Hope you are all in good spirits. I think it's great what you are doing,thankyou for putting yourselves out there. It's unlikely i'll be at your trial as
there is an open action planned for pine gap around Anzac day 2008. This puts it very close to your court date. But I'll be keeping up with what you're doing and will send one of my childish prayers your way i've heard they're the best ones. All my love Adele
hey adele...
yeah, it's a bummer the trial is so close to that weekend, will put all of us out of reach I think...but we'll very much be thinking of and praying for you all too.
simon m
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