Direct Action! 1985–93

Abstract

The importation, innovation, and performance of disruptive forms of contention are taken up in this chapter. This chapter opens by surveying militant direct action by animal activists in Britain and the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s, experiences that began to influence Australian activism. The performance of militant, disruptive methods took various forms across Australia, but perhaps some of the most significant and enduring displays emerged on the wetlands of Victoria and in the city of Hobart, Tasmania. Direct action and deliberate animal rescue emerged as relatively effective tools. Proto-undercover investigations emerged and were an important precursor to the episodes that unfolded in the 1990s.