A protester who chained himself to a bulldozer during a blockade of a gas hub site in the Kimberley has been fined $200.
Shane Hughes was arrested on June 9 after police removed him from the dozer near the site of the $30 billion liquified natural gas precinct to be built by a Woodside Petroleum-led joint venture.
In the Broome Magistrates Court on Monday, Hughes, a resident of the town, was fined $200 for failing to obey a move-on notice and was ordered to pay $64 in court costs.
But the magistrate ordered that no criminal conviction be recorded.
Protesters have blockaded the road to the James Price Point site 60km north of Broome for nearly a month, preventing Woodside contractors from carrying out environmental and geotechnical studies.
A statement from the group Gas Free Kimberley on Monday said Hughes believed Woodside did not have the necessary approvals to clear vegetation and was therefore trying to clear illegally.
It said police reinforcements flew in from Perth on the weekend and on Monday Broome residents saw officers at the police station "practising head locks" for a blockade bust expected as early as Tuesday.
Police last week issued $100 traffic infringements to nine protesters on the road.
At state parliament in Perth on Thursday, traditional owners, Woodside and the the WA government signed off on a land access agreement for the gas hub project.
Premier Colin Barnett said then that protesters would not be allowed to continue blockading the site and would eventually be moved on.
"It's a free country but this has been a consent agreement and I think they are now standing in the way of the Aboriginal people.
Kimberley Land Council chief negotiator Wayne Bergmann said the protesters were going in the face of a majority decision by traditional owners.
"This is just rebels running amok in the face of what was a very legitimate process," he said.
Woodside and its joint venture partners have still to make a final investment decision on the project.
The gas hub deal with traditional owners includes $1.5 billion in benefits for indigenous communities over 30 years.
