On 26 September 2016 Margie, Andy, Tim, Jim and Franz walked onto Pine Gap spy base to participate in a lament of the wars and deaths it has enabled.
They were all charged with entering a prohibited area, contrary to section 9(1) Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952 (Cth). Andy filmed the lament and was also charged with use of a camera in a prohibited area, contrary to section 17(1) Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952 (Cth. Maximum penalty for each offence is imprisonment for 7 years.
Kieran Finnane tells the story of these peace activists in her book. Listen to Andy interviewing Kieran about her book.
Book Launch and archival exhibition on 9th August, 4pm, at House Conspiracy, 42 Mollison Street, West End.
Exhibition: objects referenced in the book and from the archival collection of activist Bryan Law celebrating resistance to the Pine Gap Military Base in Alice Springs.
Peace Crimes (pre-order the book @ University of Queensland Press) tells the story of anti-war resistance and direct action against Pine Gap, a Military Base in Alice Spring, Australia.
In 2016, six Peace Pilgrims, Andy Paine, Margaret Pestorius, Franz Dowling, Tim Webb, Pauli Christie and Jim Dowling organised a direct action and headed to the Pine Gap Military Base to pray and play music. 2016 was the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the military base, and the pilgrims felt compelled to intervene to lament the continued operation of the base and its involvement in drone strikes against people and villages in distant wars. They could no longer tolerate the collusion of their government in military operations which cause suffering and destruction.
Pine Gap 4 
Model of Pine Gap 
Traditional owner 
Pine Gap 
Kim Beasley at Pine Gap
The Peace pilgrims were arrested for trespassing and faced 7 years in prison. They conducted their own court case which involved retelling the story of what they did and why over several days to a jury of 12 ‘peers’ in Alice Springs. The Pilgrims put Australian and US militarism on trial.
Kieran Finnane’s book Peace Crimes tells the story of this court case for the very first time, and traces its lineage in the activist group Pine Gap 4 and many other brave people who resisted the nuclear and warfighting capability in the years before. They all stand for the same cause: #ClosePineGap!
Kieran Finnane – Peace Crimes
Avid Reader Book Launch
Tuesday 25 August 2020
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
ZOOM Online
Register until 25 August 2020 4:00 PM
This event commences online at 6.30pm.
NOTE: In registering for this event you need to include your email address. We email the Zoom event link to you after 5.00pm on the day of the event. If you have not received this information prior to the event please check your SPAM folder.
Kieran Finnane – Peace Crimes
Tuesday 25 August 2020
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
ZOOM Online
Register until 25 August 2020 4:00 PM
This event commences online at 6.30pm.
NOTE: In registering for this event you need to include your email address. We email the Zoom event link to you after 5.00pm on the day of the event. If you have not received this information prior to the event please check your SPAM folder.
A compelling investigative account into one of Australia’s most secret security sites and the people who infiltrated it.
Join Kieran Finnane for the launch of Peace Crimes.
At the closely guarded and secretive military facility, Pine Gap in the Northern Territory, police arrest six nonviolent activists. Their crime: to step through a fence, lamenting and praying for the dead of war.
They call themselves Peace Pilgrims. The Crown calls them a threat to national security and demands jail time. Their political trials, under harsh Cold War legislation, tell a story of obsessive Australian secrecy about the American military presence on our soil and the state’s hardline response to dissent. In Peace Crimes, Alice Springs journalist Kieran Finnane gives a gripping account of what prompts the Pilgrims to risk so much, interweaving local events and their legal aftermath with this century’s disturbing themes of international conflict and high-tech war. She asks, what responsibilities do we have as Australians for the covert military operations of Pine Gap and what are we going to do about them?
Kieran Finnane is a founding journalist of the Alice Springs News, established in 1994, now publishing online. She also contributes arts writing and journalism to national publications, including the Griffith Review, Inside Story, Art Monthly Australasia and Artlink.
see book