Australian Surf Business Magazine, May 24th
The campaign to stop Equinor from drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight is a unique – and uniquely successful – piece of activism. As well as the enormous breadth of the Great Australian Bight Alliance – across surfers, fishermen, sailors, conservationists and everyday citizens – the campaign had depth: working its way into media, local governments, boardrooms and even the courts. It is likely that the methods deployed by the Alliance will be studied and replicated in years to come. So why was it so effective? ASB spoke exclusively to two of the campaign’s prime-movers, Wilderness Society South Australia head Peter Owen, and Port Fairy surfer Ben Druitt who leads a Victorian chapter of the Fight For The Bight Alliance.
The groundswell of support behind the campaign to protect The Great Australian Bight has been recognised not once, but twice, at the Australian Surfing Awards incorporating the Hall of Fame. These Awards have been convened by Surfing Australia since 1985 to preserve and honour the high achievers amongst the Australian surfing community and culminate with the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame Inductee. In 2019, Patagonia received the ASB Greater Good Award for their ‘Big Oil Don’t Surf’ campaign which bought international focus to the issue. This year Peter Owen accepted the award on behalf of The Fight For The Bight Alliance, the organisation whose relentless efforts to bring national attention to the issue, resulted in Equinor withdrawing their plans to drill in the Bight. The campaign galvanised surfers and non-surfers alike but was most memorable for a series of paddle out protests led by surfers across the nation and in the heartland of Equinor in Norway.
The Fight for the Bight was a grassroots campaign against the exploitation of oil reserves in the Bight by multiple proponents, which narrowed into a struggle against one company, Norway’s government-backed giant Equinor. At stake was the opening of new industrial precinct in the Australian wilderness, significant further emissions, and the risk of a catastrophic failure of the well.
Full article at ASB Magazine