Ten demonstrators were disputing a proposal to let the Allen Taylor and Co. mill at Pindimar Rd boost its output from 91,000 to 150,000 tonnes a year.

A man and a woman with the Forest Activist Network tied themselves to a conveyer belt with plastic binds, and the group’s Nils Wiebkin said a police rescue van was called in.

“We sat out the front and waited for the police rescue van to come along with the big grinders,” he said.

“Then the paddy wagon went by with, we assume, the arrestees inside.”

Calls to Tea Gardens Police Station were diverted to Raymond Terrace, where a duty officer said his superiors had imposed a media ban.

“There’s been a decision from the controlling officers that we won’t be doing a media release or making public comment, for operational reasons,” the officer said.

Mr Wiebkin said a colleague had found out at the police station that the pair was arrested, along with “a guy doing media for us”.

“I’d imagine it would be for trespassing,” he said.

“I can’t imagine it would be for anything else.”

The group launched a simultaneous demonstration at Eden Woodchip Mill, where two women locked themselves onto a conveyer belt. The protests were also about downgraded protection for forests covered by Regional Forest Agreements, Mr Wiebkin said.

“It just seems a bit ridiculous. There’s not a lot of money for taxpayers or the community [from the proposed increased output] and on the flipside there’ll be only one new job created.”

The group was told about the Pindimar Rd proposal by the Great Lakes Environment Association’s Jacqui Keats.

It’s not the first protest at the mill. In 1990, current Great Lakes councillor Linda Gill was involved in a demonstration over the operation being given permission to woodchip native trees.

Comment was being sought from Allen and Co. owners Boral Timber.