Golden Guitar Winner Arrested At Coal Mine Protest

Luke O’Shea has reportedly been arrested this morning at a coal mine protest, just days after cleaning up at the Golden Guitar awards.

O’Shea won three awards on Saturday in the Male Artist, Song and Heritage Song Of The Year categories for his ballad Three Brothers (The Great War). According to the Northern Daily Leader he has now been arrested after locking himself to a water pump at the Maules Creek mine alongside his 71-year-old father Rick.

Owners Whitehaven Coal use the pump to extract water from the Namoi River for their controversial New England, NSW, mine and O’Shea said interrupted the work because his father had grown up near the river.

“Australian country musicians have a strong tradition of standing up for people in the bush and singing the songs that highlight the strength and mateship found during hardship, be it through war, natural disasters or taking on large multinational mining companies,” he said.

Police were called and O’Shea was arrested at approximately 9.50am this morning after three hours of the protest.

Local media reports that he has been taken to Narrabri Police Station and no charges have been laid yet.

“Knowing that a mining company was sucking water out of the Namoi River near where I grew up was very painful for me,” O’Shea said. “Fresh and abundant water is the lifeblood of country Australia and I couldn't sit by and do nothing while it was being wasted on washing coal.”

In picking up three Golden Guitars O'Shea took his overall tally to six. He's won the Heritage category for three consecutive years now and told theMusic.com.au on the red carpet that he's love for the genre meant he wasn't ready to give up his hold on the category just yet.