1976 Bunbury Port Bombing: Eco-Activists’ Failed Attack on Woodchip Industry

During the summer of 1976, two members of an informal conservation collective—Michael "Fud" Haabjoern and John Chester—stole a car in Perth and filled it with gelignite taken from a limestone quarry. They drove the vehicle to Bunbury’s port, cut a fence, and placed three bombs beside the woodchip loading machinery, intending to sink the installation and halt exports to Japan. Their scheme unraveled when night guard Trevor Morritt encountered them; the duo restrained him, left him with his own car, and fled before the primary charge detonated at 5:20 a.m., causing about $300,000 in damage (about $2.3 million today).

The blast made national headlines, prompting Premier Charles Court to condemn it as a “gross act of terrorism,” though newspapers framed it as a serious crime rather than terrorism. After a week-long investigation, Morritt identified the perpetrators, leading to their conviction and a seven-year prison term, later adjusted for a longer parole requirement. The bombing highlighted tensions between the timber industry and emerging environmental activism, and historians sometimes cite it as Australia’s first act of ecoterrorism, though the broader conservation movement later distanced itself from the attack.