Group pushing to raise the dam wall illegally flypost signs across the Hawkesbury

Windsor locals were fuming this morning after a group aiming for publicity on raising Warragamba Dam wall attached numerous posters overnight to road signs in a flagrant breach of road and safety rules.

Just one of the many illegally placed signs in Windsor this morning

Emma Jane Garrow, who is well known in the community and an ex-Hawkesbury councillor, says she has counted at least 50 signs around the Windsor area “and only one of them is there legally”.

The signs – many of which are attached to road signs – have been reported to Hawkesbury Council, who are the body responsible for removing illegally placed signs, but Ms Garrow says they simply don’t have the resources to remove them.

“I’m all for people promoting a cause, no matter what it is,” says Ms Garrow, “but the issue here is the complete disregard for the legalities.

“The people behind this, they know the system and know Council do not have the resources [to take them down].

“It’s illegal and this is my community. They have gone out and bombed Windsor with their signs. It’s vandalism to the community and a blatant disregard for the law.”

On Tuesday evening just after 10pm, two men were caught on a police registered video – it’s been used by Police multiple times to help apprehend those breaking the law – parking their ute on Windsor bridge before illegally attaching dam wall signs to road signs.

And it’s not just Windsor, the signs have also been illegally attached to North Richmond Bridge, the speed sign at Pugh’s Lagoon on Bells Line of Road, and numerous other spots.

Those behind the Build the Dam Wall social media campaign were initially a secretive bunch who didn’t answer any of our phone calls or emails, with just one name listed on their social media page, that of Bonnie Condon, also known as Bonnie Martin, with an address in Grono Farm Rd, Ebenezer. Ms Condon is co-owner of River Ridge Equestrian Park.

But the main people behind the campaign – as confirmed to the Post this morning by Ms Martin/Condon – are the Miles family who live at Hunters Hill.

After telling us this – and of course we told Ms Martin who we were and why we were asking questions – Ms Martin called back and said several individuals and groups were behind the campaign, not just the Miles family, who have a weekend equestrian property at Pitt Town that has twice been flooded in 2021 and 2022.

She would not name any of the other people or groups behind the campaign but said they would soon have a specific media spokesperson.

More signs placed illegally in Windsor

Ms Martin said those behind the campaign asked if she would have her name on the campaign – rather than them – because she actually lives in the Hawkesbury.

The Miles family are closely connected with the Liberal Party through Zac Miles who is the Liberal Mayor of Hunters Hill, referred to in a Sydney Morning Herald piece in 2020 as “an ally of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s right hand man, Alex Hawke”.

Mr Hawke is a Liberal powerbroker who has been instrumental in choosing several Liberal candidates for this upcoming Federal election.

Mayor Miles is also a friend of the Macquarie Liberal candidate, Sarah Richards.

Zac Miles’s brother, Maverick Miles, put up a Facebook post across multiple Hawkesbury community groups on May 6 urging people to follow the Build the Dam Wall page. The wording is a bit strange, because of course the dam wall is already built – what this group is about is raising the height of the dam wall.

Hunters Hill Mayor Zac Miles with Liberal candidate Sarah Richards back in May last year at Windsor Polo Club

Raising Warragamba Dam wall is a State issue, not a Federal matter, though local Liberals have been vocal about their desire to see the dam wall raised. There are concerns that a raised wall will open the floodgates to widespread property development in the Hawkesbury valley and surrounding Local Government Areas.

At the Meet the Candidates community forum last night, of the 6 candidates who took part, only one, the Liberal’s Sarah Richards, said she supported raising Warragamba Dam wall.

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