Aussie Country Star Luke O’Shea Charged After Arrest

One of Australia’s top singer-songwriters has been charged by police after being arrested during a coal mine protest yesterday.

Luke O’Shea, who won three Golden Guitars over the weekend, taking his tally of country music’s highest prize to six, allegedly locked himself to a water pump at the Maules Creek mine. Run by Whitehaven Coal, O’Shea, 45, is opposing the controversial mine as it is pumping water from the Namoi River, near where he grew up.

“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.”

After being arrested at the site yesterday New South Wales Police have confirmed that O’Shea – and his 71-year-old father Rick – have been charged with enter and remain on enclosed land. Luke O’Shea was also charge with hide tools to unlawfully influence person.

Both have been granted bail and will appear before Narrabri Local Court Tuesday 24 February.

O’Shea has won the Country Music Awards’ Golden Guitar for Heritage Song Of The Year for three consecutive years. This year he won it for Three Brothers (The Great War).