A protester has been arrested by police after allegedly forcing the evacuation of Woodside Energy’s Perth office building by setting off a “stench bomb”.
Musician Kristen Morrissey walked into the Woodside building on Mount St about at 10am Thursday and allegedly set off a device which spewed “safe, non-toxic ethyl mercaptan” according to a Disrupt Burrup Hub media release.
The aim was to simulate a gas leak – mercaptan is the additive which gives natural gas its odour and is used on mine sites to alert workers to an emergency.
More than 2000 workers were forced from the building, as Ms Morrissey allegedly set off yellow smoke flares outside.
Disrupt Burrup said the action was designed to mimic the evacuation of Woodside’s Pluto LNG plant on Friday night due to an explosion during flaring procedures.
Woodside said there was an “audible release” of gas from a flare tower which could be heard as far away as the Kimberley town of Dampier, 8km from the facility.
Emergency services responded to Thursday’s protest, and Ms Morrissey was taken into custody.
“All workers were safely evacuated from Woodside by Disrupt Burrup Hub this morning,” she said in a statement, “which stands in stark contrast to Woodside’s activities at the Burrup Hub, where they continue to endanger culture, climate and the safety of their own workers”.
“Our action today, using harmless, non-toxic ethyl mercaptan, or stench gas, serves as a potent warning of the dangers of gas to our culture and climate, and even to Woodside’s own workers.
“Today, Woodside took precautionary measures over a harmless hoax – they must exercise the same caution with their expansion plans for the massive Burrup Hub gas project.”
At the time of writing, no charges had been laid.
It’s the latest in a string of protest action taken by the Disrupt Burrup Hub group, which is opposed to Woodside’s $50bn Burrup Hub LNG project because it threatens the Murujuga Aboriginal rock art on the site where the project is being built.
Since January, protesters have targeted the Art Gallery of Western Australia, WA’s Parliament House, a police building in Perth, while the Woodside building has been targeted previously.
NCA NewsWire contacted WA Police for comment.