- The Guardian
- Issue #2196
This year, the Close Pine Gap Convergence will be held from 18-20 July in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). Paul Gregoire interviewed three veterans of past Close Pine Gap protests. This week we present his interview with Aunty Barb Flick.
Aunty Barb, you were involved in the 1987 Close Pine Gap protests that took place on Arrernte land at the site of the US intelligence base over two days in October that year.
Then during the March 2024 IPAN Pine Gap and Gaza webinar, you suggested that it was time for another such convergence on the US spy base. And the 2026 Close Pine Gap convergence is soon to take place over 18 to 20 of July 2026 in Mparntwe-Alice Springs.
So, firstly, having been at the 1987 Close Pine Gap protest action, what led you to consider that it is time for another such convergence?
In 1987, the first concern about Pine Gap was it was a strike target. Many people in Alice Springs were worried and concerned about the base being a strike target. I was living in Alice Springs at the time. So that was the first thing.
The second was to call on all our allies to come and get a big enough group of people together to get media coverage to show the Australian people how the country was involved with the USA and the close ties that they have.
The reason that I said we need to go back to Pine Gap is because that is where a lot of the damage is being done to our comrades in Gaza. The journalists being murdered there, and the fact that the satellite system out of Pine Gap with all its intel can pinpoint exactly where these people are.
Australia’s denial of it, and that its hands are clean, well, they’re bloody not. We are certainly involved in all of this. So, I thought the only way that we can let the Australian public know of how much we are involved with Israel and the USA is that we go back to Pine Gap and we have these discussions.
We talk about these four big satellites that now cover the mid-Pacific, Southeast Asia and Palestine. The British also have four satellites in Yorkshire. So, the US has got the planet fairly well covered.
There has been so much advancement. The AI data centre at Pine Gap is now a much bigger facility, and it is time to go back.
It is time to tell the Australian people of how this country is complicit in the murder of innocent people in Gaza and other places in the Middle East.
The systems at Pine Gap that are now being fed by electricity being paid for by Australian taxpayers and so that is why it is timely to go back.
There has been great change, and Australia is now tied into the nuclear war operations coming out of the USA.
What was it about that time that led to such broad cooperation between differing activist groups to stage a year-long coordinated set of actions? How would you describe the 1987 convergence at the Pine Gap site and what it achieved?
The convergence achieved the media attention we were looking for. As part of the Alice Spring Peace Group, there were members that worked in different sorts of portfolios.
In terms of the Australian government in particular, it was the violation of the sovereignty of the Arrernte people in Central Australia. That has been a big concern of mine. My life’s work has been around land rights. It was a big concern that the Arrernte people had lost access to their lands.
That means losing information for new generations about cultural sites, about lore and about religion. The fact that they were locked out was completely horrendous, and that is the state of Australia at the same time.
There is the denial of Arrernte sovereignty over the lands that Pine Gap is based on, and the fact that Australia thinks it is free to give away our lands to a base that is complicit in the murder of men, women, and children around the world. This is just abhorrent to us.
That was the big thing about the 87 campaign it was really disciplined. We worked on nonviolent direct action. The Alice Springs Peace Group worked in cells of about four people, and we trained especially for that action.
One of the groups within the Alice Springs Peace Group was nominated to go through the fence, which we did, and there were 231 arrests at that time.
I was arrested, and when it came time for me to go to court in Alice Springs, I walked in and was asked where my legal representatives were and then was asked how I would plead.
I said, “Well tell me what I have been charged with?” It was trespass on Commonwealth land. And I said, “Well, I am not guilty. I was on Arrernte land with the permission of the Arrernte people. So, of course, I am not guilty.”
I made a long speech about colonisation and invasion of our country and the murder of our people. At the end, I pointed my finger at the magistrate and said, “One day you will find yourself in an international court for trespassing on our land.”
I was quite proud of myself.
1987 was important because the following year there would be discussions between Australia and the US about whether to extend the agreement on Pine Gap.
In 1988, when the Hawke government agreed to do so, they changed the name, so Pine Gap was from then on known as the “joint” facility, signalling it was both a US and Australian operation.
So, I’m wondering whether back in 1987, Pine Gap was already considered a joint facility or if it was just considered a US base in the middle of the continent?
We talked about US bases around the country, including Pine Gap. So, yes, we referred to them as US bases.
It was a big change when they started talking about joint facilities, which is an absolute joke, because Australia does not get much information from the US about their activities at Pine Gap.
But, at the same time, Australia is now tied into the nuclear war operations through Pine Gap, and Australia signed off on this agreement with the US, and prior to that agreement, it was made certain that Australia has no veto over decisions made by the US.
So, if the US decides to engage in nuclear war using Pine Gap, the Australian government has no right to say that it doesn’t think that it is a good idea. They have no veto over any of those decisions.
Can you talk about the international solidarity aspect to the organising against western bases in the Pacific in the 1980s?
The independent nuclear organisations in the 80s across the whole Pacific, including Australia, were very strong.
My interest was with Kanaky or New Caledonia as the French colonials call it. I had a relationship with Alphonse Dianou, who was fighting for the independence of Ouvéa, which is one of the three Loyalty Islands of Kanaky.
Alphonse was murdered by the French in 1988, fighting for independence for the small island of Ouvéa that had a gendarmes’ facility on the island.
I needed to go to see his family after he was murdered. I applied for a visa to fly to Kanaky. This was denied by the French embassy in Australia.
My application was then supported by some parliamentarians, and it was sent to Paris, where finally they agreed that I could have a visa.
I travelled to Kanaky, and when I arrived in Nouméa, I had my suitcases searched at the airport.
I stayed in the village for a few days, and I was taken to the cave where all the young men were killed, and it just reminded me of the massacres in Australia.
Just outside of the town where I spent a lot of my childhood, living with my grandmother, which is our culture, there were an estimated 400 people near Brewarrina murdered at a place called Hospital Creek.
When people talk about massacres, it has become such a dead word. But what it means is dawn raids, people coming in, our people waking up, babies crying, and the noise of horses coming and the sounds of shots being fired and the slashing of bodies.
It reminded me of what happened to us. The invasion of our country has a terrible history. Even to this day, we are supposed to believe that Port Arthur and Bondi Beach were the biggest massacres in Australia. But that is not true.
Sydney Criminal Lawyers (edited for space) J
