Area denial tactics at Kirribilli

On April 10, 2004 approximately 250 people from various states in Australia rallied in support of refugees in Bradfield Park, Kirribilli, New South Wales.

Organised by the Refugee Action Coalition, the protest marked the third year that refugee-rights supporters have converged over the Easter weekend calling for an end to the politics of fear, with a focus on the treatment of refugees.

Before the protest began, police set up a temporary operational headquarters with mobile fencing, three generators, massive floodlights, two marquees and five portaloos.

The state government deployed close to 200 crowd-control officers, water and mounted police, the dog squad and helicopters. There were three police paddy wagons, six caged vans, a police truck, three police buses, a rescue van, nine police cars, a fire truck and an ambulance on the scene.

Protest organiser Ian Rintoul told the April 11 Melbourne Age that this was designed to “make residents here and the general public think there is some reason to be afraid of us when all we are doing here today is exercising our right to free speech in a peaceful fashion”.