A CONVOY filled with supporters from the Victorian Trades Hall Council travelled to the Djab Wurrung Heritage Protection embassy on Saturday in a show of support to activists.
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The embassy is located on the southern side of the Western Highway in Buangor, where activists opposed to the proposed Major Road Projects Victoria Western Highway duplication project have been camped for over a year.
On August 2 Major Road Projects Victoria issued a notice to the activists to say that they had 14 days to vacate the land before the road authority would begin works and take legal action to remove them.
Over 100 people and 60 vehicles arrived Saturday and stayed overnight at the camp.
Before leaving Melbourne, participants heard from Traditional Owners Aunty Sandra Onus and Zellanach Djab Mara, among others.
The trip follows a motion Trades Hall Executive passed in March 2019 to support the activists.
The motion read: "The Victorian Trades Hall Council stands with the Djap (sic) Wurrung community in their campaign to stop the removal and destruction of important sacred trees threatened by VicRoads' (Major Road Projects Victoria) planned Western Highway extension. We acknowledge their staunch and ongoing resistance to this attack on their identity and culture.
"We call on VicRoads and the government to work with their community to urgently resolve this issue and stand ready to take solidarity action if this fails to occur. Carried unanimously."
A spokeswoman from Trades Hall confirmed it is calling on VicRoads, with the state government, to have further talks with all Traditional Owners about the future of the Western Highway and of the sacred trees.
She said Trades Hall did not believe that arresting protesters will help build a road that's safer for the local community, or achieve an outcome that will protect the sacred trees and respect the wishes of all Traditional Owners involved in the dispute.
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