Wild 1985 Pine Gap protest in which four men on bicycles stared down US military plane

Crouched in a ditch with his bike, near the Alice Springs airport, 34-year-old Bob Boughton was about to attempt the craziest political stunt of his life.  

It was 1985. 

"It was very hot and dry," Bob recalled.

Bob and three friends from the Alice Springs Peace Group wanted to stop an enormous US military transport plane from landing in Central Australia. 

They'd heard that the secretive Pine Gap joint defence facility, hidden in a valley on the edge of town, was expanding. 

The plane they wanted to stop was flying in crucial parts for the upgrade. 

They decided to take it on … with bicycles.  

"So we figured that if we could get onto the tarmac, the plane would have to abort its landing," Bob said.

Two-wheeled warriors

As the huge military plane began its descent, the four cyclists grabbed their bikes, and ran through the bush to the tarmac. 

"We jumped on our bikes and started riding," Bob said. 

As the plane flew over the top of them it banked, lifted and made a big turn. 

"We realised we'd done it and we just went berserk," Bob said.   

"We felt like we'd pulled off this extraordinary action."

The chase 

Bob describes what followed as a wild chase scene.  

"Yellow cars from the airport security came flying out onto the tarmac and started chasing us," Bob said. 

"But a car can't catch a bike because the car pulls up next to you and then you take off again."

The aborted flight would land about 15 minutes later.  

Bob and his fellow cyclists were fined for putting their bodies and bikes on the tarmac.

A decade of protest

Bob says he was inspired by the Women's Peace Camp in 1983, in which about 800 women from across Australia camped for two weeks as they called for Pine Gap's closure.

He had been part of a small group of men supporting the camp.  

Using an old truck he carted away human waste in the evenings, as there was no permanent toilets for the women to use. 

"I remember that there was a debate amongst some of the women in the camp as to whether it was OK to let men play this role of carting away the shit," Bob said.

With a smile, he said some of the women thought it was the perfect job for them.

Why Pine Gap? 

A series of huge protests took place at Pine Gap in the 1980s.

Those who travelled to Alice Springs and local protesters like Bob believed Pine Gap was a nuclear target in the Cold War.  

Former Labor defence minister Kim Beazley confirms that this was true at the time. 

"It was a nuclear target back in the 1980s, but nevertheless, it was necessary to host them because they are absolutely critical to the global balance on which peace and stability was based," he said.

Bob was even more concerned about America's influence on progressive politics in Australia through the presence of Pine Gap in Central Australia.

Trespass at Pine Gap gets serious 

Long-term Alice Springs resident and semi-retired lawyer Russell Goldflam was also involved in Pine Gap protests in the 1980s.

Russell says both security and the penalties for protesting at the base have scaled up over the decades. 

"Ever since September the 11th, it's become clear that anybody who challenges the … security apparatus in Australia is going to have all barrels aimed at them," he said.

Russell has since provided legal assistance to several peace activists who have broken the law at Pine Gap. 

"That's why those people, in my view, were charged under the Defence Special Undertakings Act and not the Trespass Act."

The Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952 includes a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment for trespassing at Pine Gap. 

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