Hanging banners from Telstrayama

I dare to say there is no conservation reason for more protection of forests in Tasmania. There is sufficient in parks that any ecosystems are not under threat.

Bramina said :

thatsnotme said :

p1 said :

I am curious if this was in any way sanctioned by the Tower, or some sort of Ninja operation. Cause if it is Ninja, it would have been cooler if they could have put it up at night without anyone catching them.

Guessing Ninja – but I reckon it was a heap easier for them to just chuck some backpacks on with their gear inside, and catch the lift up, than it would have been to do a night time climb up the side of the tower to hang the banner!

How did they get past the guards?

Good point – anyone with a backpack in Europe or the USA wouldn’t have got to the turnstiles. Imagine if they were suicide bombers and they timed their mission to take out a couple of busloads of visiting school children on the observation deck. Expect an immediate review of security there.

BuzzwordBingo said :

BuzzwordBingo said :

Hope they weren’t expecting anyone to read that from anywhere but Black Mountain

Having said all that though, this point is very valid. Perhaps I’m giving these guys more credit than they deserve…or maybe that was the biggest banner they could smuggle up there!

Or maybe, they didn’t expect anyone but the media to ever see it – in which case, mission accomplished.

The media saw it, who then played it on the evening news. I imagine this is what they were aiming for.

Most buildings in the city are ‘secure’ buildings these days needing a swipe card to get anywhere with in them… As your post points out Telstra Tower was probably an easy target in terms of gaining access to somewhere they could abseil from.

The only place in/close to the city I can think of that would have easy roof access is Fenner Hall. Stand next to the side door pretending you’re a student who has lost their swipe card(let’s face it, it’s probably a common occurence), I can’t imagine it being long until someone comes out/goes in and you get inside the building. Last time I was there you could go onto the roof, and I don’t believe you needed any special access.

And if I remember correctly there was a post here not to long ago with a picture of kids on the Canberra Centre roof? or a car park roof?

Not that I condone such actions….. But hey, lets keep playing “which buildings in the city have easy roof access?”

Bramina said :

thatsnotme said :

p1 said :

I am curious if this was in any way sanctioned by the Tower, or some sort of Ninja operation. Cause if it is Ninja, it would have been cooler if they could have put it up at night without anyone catching them.

Guessing Ninja – but I reckon it was a heap easier for them to just chuck some backpacks on with their gear inside, and catch the lift up, than it would have been to do a night time climb up the side of the tower to hang the banner!

How did they get past the guards?

By acting like any other tourist?

I can’t say I’ve ever abseiled down the side of a major structure to hang a protest banner, but if I were to do such a thing, I’d walk in with my harness already on, under a jacket (wouldn’t need to be anything substantial, just enough to hide the fact I’m ready for action). My friends and I would be wearing a day pack style back pack, which would be holding our banner and ropes. We’d pay our admission fee, and ride the lift up like every other tourist. I’d make sure we were carrying cameras, just to round out the display.

Once up the top, we’d do like most other tourists, and head outside for a better view. On a Wednesday afternoon, there’s not likely to be a whole lot of other people around, and security aren’t likely to head outside to keep an eye on us if we’ve managed to act like a normal group of tourists.

Once outside, with everything prepared beforehand, it’s really only going to take a couple of minutes to set the ropes up (I assume these people know what they’re doing), head over the railing – and from that point on, security can’t do a damn thing to stop the message being unveiled. I’m guessing that the protestors would want their banner to be in place long enough for people to see it – so they mustn’t have cared if security knew it was there once it was in place, they were never going to keep it secret for long after it was unfurled.

BuzzwordBingo said :

Hope they weren’t expecting anyone to read that from anywhere but Black Mountain

Having said all that though, this point is very valid. Perhaps I’m giving these guys more credit than they deserve…or maybe that was the biggest banner they could smuggle up there!

Or maybe, they didn’t expect anyone but the media to ever see it – in which case, mission accomplished.

They should have put the banner on the revolving part!

I note that the press release says “are suspended”.

Are they still there?

If not, did they get arrested?

Holden Caulfield said :

It’s a reptoid conspiracy.

Telstra?

thatsnotme said :

p1 said :

I am curious if this was in any way sanctioned by the Tower, or some sort of Ninja operation. Cause if it is Ninja, it would have been cooler if they could have put it up at night without anyone catching them.

Guessing Ninja – but I reckon it was a heap easier for them to just chuck some backpacks on with their gear inside, and catch the lift up, than it would have been to do a night time climb up the side of the tower to hang the banner!

How did they get past the guards?

There haven’t been many Telstrayama photos lately.

I was hoping for “marry me Jess” but that’s nice too…