The dramatic mid-l970s scene captured here of a demonstration against the top secret Pine Gap base , near Alice Springs , is from the extensive files of Darwin agronomist Robert Wesley-Smith, foundation member of the Northern Territory Council For Civil Liberties .
In information provided with the photo , he pointed out Territory and Commonwealth police officers on the left in the rear keeping watch, the radomes in the background .
He said that when the balloons , with the attached sign and a clanking tail of beer cans that could be picked up on radar, were released earlier than he had wanted , the swirling mass blew towards a policeman , who ducked instead of taking it into custody .
Wesley-Smith cheekily suggested that the gendarme may have been a silent supporter of the demo.
Last month ,the author of Peace Crimes : Pine Gap, National Security and Dissent , Alice Springs journalist Kieran Finnane , was interviewed by Phillip Adams on the ABC's Late Night Live .
The episode in which the so called Peace Pilgrims who invaded the base in 2016 , playing musical instruments , to highlight its major part in nuclear warfare planning and drone attacks , was discussed . Outside the Supreme Court,the Christian Peace Pilgrims, appeared barefooted, saying it kept them in touch with the poor and the Earth .
Charged with entering a Prohibited Area , they appeared before Mr Justice Reeves, prosecution calling for a custodial sentence, the maximum seven years ; they were fined .
In the above l970s demonstration , in which Wesley-Smith was a key player, Philip Nitschke, later dubbed Doctor Death and the Elon Musk of Assisted Suicide, because of his euthanasia advocacy, also participated.
When the NT government passed a euthanasia law , Canberra annulled it . After having myriad restrictions imposed on him as a doctor and denying him the right to speak about euthanasia, he set fire to his medical registration certificate in Darwin, went off to Amsterdam .
