#County of Moreton: Airport VS Squatters

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wild bobcat Mar 22, 2024, 4:05 PM

Previous post: https://discord.com/channels/263634513861541888/1220507224653168722

The Moreton International Airport had been washed away by the tsunami and over the years became overgrown and disused. With that, large amounts of squatters lived on the land, building shacks and running their own community off the grid. The day eventually came when the airport wanted to rebuild and the people were given 48 hours notice to clear. This sparked controversy and protests.

Next post: https://discord.com/channels/263634513861541888/1220787188124614706

Since the tsunami the land had become home to several hundred people who lost their homes during the disaster. These were mostly people from the nearby Coombe Harbour District, which was highly populated at the time of the tsunami and also suffered one of the worst. Poverty lead to issues with crime, drug abuse and health problems. Gangs abused those living in the area and it became troublesome.

Moreton County along with Tower City, Coombe and the Moreton International Airport wanted to rebuild the airport. The land was the right size for the airport with clear paths for take off and landing over the bay, while also providing quick and easy access to the surrounding urban area without having to travel some distance.

Additionally, the Moreton Field International Airport had become too busy with flights and passenger numbers causing congestion at the small airport which was also used by the military and only had one runway.

wild bobcat Mar 22, 2024, 4:38 PM

On the day of clearance, a crowd of squatters, human rights activists and eco-warriors gathered to stop re-development. Many of these people were made homeless by the tsunami and were living there. Utility, clearance and construction vehicles waited before entering, with police asking the squatters to leave. The Red Cross were there offering accommodation, food, drink and re-housing services to those on the land (as they had been doing since the tsunami).

After several hours of warnings to leave the police began to remove protestors from the land one-by-one at a time and load them onto prison busses for processing.

Most protesters moved on with a handful of arrests made.

After the crowd was cleared, workers moved in on the site to begin clearing rubble. Police were on hand around the work area to remove any protesters that came back. While the clear up began in one section of the airport, many were still squatting further in. A policing plan was being developed to remove the squatters further out into the airfield.

wild bobcat Mar 22, 2024, 5:33 PM

The clearance operation was going well until an officer was struck by gunfire. Read more: #1220787188124614706