Hundreds of people rallied beside WA’s doomed Gelorup woodland today calling on the Albanese government for a stay of execution. After the Minister for the Environment, Tanya Plibersek, gave written approval of the demolition of the wildlife-filled woodlands last week, it is expected the Main Roads bulldozers will arrive as early as tomorrow.

The crowd gave speakers, including former Greens leader Bob Brown, a rousing ovation for their appeals to PM Albanese and Ms Plibersek to urgently reverse the decision and protect the rare and endangered species, including the critically endangered Western Ringtail Possum and three species of black cockatoos, now facing those bulldozers.

“I call on Anthony Albanese to do as Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke did in 1983 when he intervened to save the Franklin River,” Brown said. ”Because, as with the proposed Franklin Dam, there are perfectly good alternatives here – this short section of highway can go across already cleared land nearby.”

“Tanya Plibersek gave an impassioned speech at the Press Club just a fortnight ago about Australia’s shocking record of environmental destruction and extinction. Surely her first move as minister can’t be to make that shocking record worse,” Brown said.

The rally MC, Dr Sue Chapman announced that the locals are seeking urgent legal advice. Brown said Minister Plibersek’s approval of the bulldozers moving in should fail insofar as it was riddled with uncertainties and assertions about protecting the critically endangered possums. “It is simply impossible for the Gelorup woodland to be demolished and the endangered species to be protected”.