17 June 1971: Kelly's Bush green ban

On this day, 17 June 1971, construction workers in New South Wales initiated a "green ban", refusing to build luxury houses over Kelly's Bush, the last open space in a suburb.
Local women had been campaigning to save the park, and eventually they approached construction workers and their union, the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF). The workers agreed to boycott the work, in a move which became known as a "green ban".
Despite a management threat to use scab replacement workers, the builders and residents won, and Kelly's Bush remains an open public reserve today.
A wave of green bans subsequently began which stopped billions of dollars of harmful development over the next four years. Wildlife and historic buildings were protected, as well as working-class and Aboriginal housing, and bans also took place in defence of women's and LGBT+ rights.
We tell the inspiring story of the green bans in our podcast episodes 47-48: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/10/30/e47-48-green-bans/

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