On this day, 17 June 1971, construction workers in New South Wales initiated a “green ban”, refusing to build luxury houses over Kelly’s Bush, the last open space in a suburb. Local women had been campaigning to save the park.
Despite a management threat to use scabs, the builders and residents won, and Kelly’s Bush remains an open public reserve today.
A wave of green bans subsequently began which stopped billions of dollars of harmful development over the next four years.
This is a short history of these events: https://libcom.org/history/articles/kellys-bush-green-ban
We are working on a podcast episode about the green bans. Find us and subscribe today on your favourite podcast that by searching “working class history” to ensure you don’t miss it. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1453027558215723/?type=3