Activists can’t see wood for the trees

ANTI-ADANI protesters have had to be moved on by Townsville Police after they blockaded the local branch of a vegetation management company for a second day.

More than a dozen Stop Adani protesters blockaded the Garbutt office of Victoriabased Eastern Tree Services yesterday.

The protesters have demanded Eastern Tree Services rule out “all future contracts with Adani”.

But the chief executive of ETS, Paul Tymensen, said the company did not have any contracts with Adani Australia, nor it would be capable of carrying out large-scale tree clearing.

“We don’t do mass land clearing, that is not the nature of our work,” he said.

“If I was going to clear for the railway line or the mine, it’s simply not the work we do, we don’t have the machinery for that.

“We have not had any discussion with Adani about any contractual work for them.”

Mr Tymensen said the protest was an inconvenience that cost the company money, but was not “the end of the world”.

Particularly challenging for him however has been the publication of his and a colleagues mobile numbers on the Facebook page of Stop Adani aligned Frontline Action for Coal.

Mr Tymensen had received 40 text messages and calls in just a few hours.

“One of our managers numbers are up there, and he had open heart surgery last Friday, a valve replacement,” he said.

“I think it’s quite poor ethically.”

Eastern Tree Services’ only link to Adani is a job they’ve accepted to clear 2km of an existing firebreak near the fence line of Abbot Point Port.

The company’s regular work includes clearing trees for power companies putting up power poles.