It’s clear from a quick glance that this blockade means business: dozens of tents, a rolling roster of volunteers for all hours of the day, a huge spread of fresh fruit and tinned everything. The campers are angry locals and community activists fighting to keep Sydney Park off the hit list of the widely hated WestConnex project.

WestConnex is the latest freebie from the New South Wales Liberal government to big business. Developer giants such as Transurban and Leighton have taken $16.8bn from the state to build 33km of road through Sydney’s western and inner western suburbs. Heavy tolls on working class commuters will cover the costs, and hundreds of houses are being compulsorily acquired well below their market value.

Sydney Park is one of the largest in the inner city area. All in all, 14,000 square metres of land and hundreds of trees will be cleared to widen the neighbouring streets. On 23 September, residents along Euston Road grew suspicious that construction was about to begin.

Janet, a Newtown local with the WestConnex Action Group, told Red Flag, “People live nearby and realised what was going on: they were starting to put in the road barriers and getting ready to cut down the trees and getting ready to widen Euston Road”. From its current daily traffic of 5,600 cars, the WestConnex project would bring another 55,000 vehicles every day.

The community groups have developed rapid reflexes when news like this comes in. Andrew Chuter, co-convenor of No WestConnex: Public Transport, said: “We found out on Friday lunchtime that they were going to start; by Monday morning we had all the TV cameras”.

“There would’ve been a few hundred people here turning up to say, ‘We’re not going to let this happen’, and people started setting up the tents straight away”, said Janet.

Police came in at 3am on the first night to drag people out and help construction continue. “The cops supported the contractors to remove us and put up fences”, said Andrew. “It became trespass to be in there so we just set up right next to it.”

The company was held up for two weeks by its failure to submit an arborist’s report for the trees it plans to fell, a legal loophole cleverly picked up by the blockaders (but not the state government). Attempts to remove protesters have escalated, with 50 people dragged off the site by NSW police on 7 October.

The demands of the blockade are simple: stop WestConnex; stop the St Peters Interchange; no removal of any trees; no demolition of houses. “We’re not shooting for mitigation here, we’re aiming for a complete stoppage”, said Andrew. “It’s a rotten project; it has no place in a modern city."