Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
I spent three months on Lakefield station, from mid May to mid August. I was only hired for six weeks but just never left. The work was starting to slow down and I was ready to move on. I didn’t have much of a plan for after leaving the station but I had been keeping an eye on something. I had heard of a possible convoy of truckers that would driving from all across Australia and meeting up in the capital of Canberra to protest the national government and try push for an election of a new Prime Minister. It was called the “Convoy of No Confidence”, referring to the public’s lack of confidence in the Federal Government. Its not a foreign idea in any society. The journey for some vehicles would be 8 days driving across Australia and ending with a two day protest at the capital. The idea was to collect participants and vehicles in each city the convoy would pass through, camping each night in towns along the way. Upon arrival in Canberra the convoy would descend upon Parliament House and circle the building, horns-a-blaring, lights-a-flashing and middle fingers extended 90 degrees at arms length.
The idea of this appealed to me. I had no previous interest in Australian politics but the thought of a throng of angry Australians circling Parliament House in protest interested me. I took a bus to Katherine, about an hour North of Mataranka, and found out where the group was camped and thought I’d try and hitch a ride. I turned up at the camp not knowing anyone, with a backpack, a camera and an accent. I was obviously not from around the area. I found out who was in charge of the thing and introduced myself. I asked if I could ride along and photograph the whole thing and in exchange they could have copies of the photos, I just wanted a seat. Luckily they had an extra, in fact, only one. We covered 2,250 miles across Australia over the next four days, meeting people at every stop, listening to stories, collecting petitions, and for me, sleeping beneath the stars in the Outback.
It wasn't a particularly disorderly protest, it was in-fact quite orderly, though the point was no less made.
For two full days, from the time we left Katherine, we were only three vehicles. A professional truck driver, a beekeeper and his wife and two station owners. It was going to take more than six of us to overthrow the government. But, there were more. At the same time we were traveling south, 7 other convoys were traveling towards Canberra from all directions. The whole way down we heard rumors about how many vehicles were actually going to converge on the capital. It depended on who you asked though. Some said 1,000 maybe up to 5,000. Others said 100 tops. After the third day it seemed like the later would be the most accurate.
The opposition leader Tony Abbott made an appearance one night to answer questions. He would be the top candidate for PM if it was decided there would be an an election. Guess which one he is.
I never heard what the numbers actually were. On the day of the main protest, my group drove around Parliament House at about 6:30 am. I stayed on the lawn of the capital to cover the protests and when the next wave came through, there were trucks circling the Parliament, covered in banners and paint and honking for a solid hour and a half. It was one of the most impressive things I had ever seen. I could only imagine what it would be like to see 2,000 protesters driving around the U.S. Capitol Building, honking their horns, flashing their lights, hanging banners out their windows.
When we stopped to camp each night we were always greeted by folks who were supporting the convoy but could not join. They fed us great meals at night and even better breakfast. People went out of there way to do what they could to help. I could tell that it was a very important thing that was happening, if for no one else than the people in rural areas who wanted to see something like this happen for a long time. It was the best possible way to see Australia.
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