AN ANTI-FRACKING activist cycling to Darwin in budgie smugglers was welcomed into Mount Isa by Dingo Dan Leyden’s billboard.
Christopher Horton, a beekeeper by trade, cycled from Rockhampton in the smugglers to protest against coal seam gas. He uses the hashtag ‘#boganwithaslogan.’
The billboard was a perfect photo opportunity for Mr Horton’s activism.
The brand Budgy Smuggler installed the billboard east of the city last year to acknowledge the hometown of the inaugural winner of Australia’s Most Ordinary Rig, Mr Leyden. The brand encouraged people to take a photograph with the billboard in their budgies.
“I’m highlighting CSG and the fact we don’t need it,” Mr Horton said in front of the billboard on Monday afternoon. “Coal mining too I suppose but mainly fracking.
“It’s very low profit for very negligible outcomes.
“If enough people say we don’t want it we would not have it,” he said.
Last year the Victorian government banned fracking and the Northern Territory introduced a moratorium. Mr Horton was aware of the moratorium which was the reason for his destination.
He aims to arrive in Darwin by early March. Then he might consider protesting in Sydney.
His reason for using the budgie smugglers was; “budgies are the thing at the moment.”
Mr Horton stopped at the billboard while hitching a lift with Mount Isa local Darren Burgess, who said his views about fracking were neutral.
Mr Burgess and Mr Horton were stuck near Kynuna while waiting for the Landsborough Highway to open following a truck rollover on Thursday and ended up journeying together.
Mr Horton was also asleep in his hammock next to the Landsborough Highway during the storm on Saturday night. He was sleeping 70 centimetres from the ground when he woke to the water reaching his backside.
Fortunately he was able to get to the road, which was on higher ground. “I packed everything and went up the road until the sun went up,” Mr Horton said.