POLICE have thrown the book at a man who scaled a 25m coal seam gas rig and spent almost 16 hours suspended from it at Narrabri on Tuesday.

Warrick Jordan spent close to five hours being processed by police at the Narrabri station after his peaceful protest against exploration in the Pilliga Forest, where the rig was working at the time.

Thirty-year-old Mr Jordan, an environmental campaigner for the Wilderness Society, was charged with five separate offences including entering enclosed lands with the intention of committing an indictable offence, risking the safety of others by climbing a building, entering enclosed lands without permission, remaining on enclosed lands and malicious damage. He was granted conditional bail on Tuesday night and scheduled to appear in Narrabri Local Court on August 23.

Narrabri police inspector John Ridley said Mr Jordan’s arrest should act as a warning to other people planning on protesting that police would take action if they chose to break the law, and they would be charged accordingly.

Mr Jordan told The Leader he was a “bit shocked” by the number of charges police had laid.

“Originally I was told there would be one charge and there ended up being five,” he said.

“Considering that it was a relatively peaceful protest, I thought that was a bit much.”

Northern Inland Council spokeswoman, Carmel Flint, who attended the protest, described Mr Jordan’s protest as a turning point in the fight against coal seam gas.

She also said the charges faced by Mr Jordan would be vigorously defended.

“The protest was entirely peaceful, it occurred in a public forest, and there was no damage of any sort as a result of it,” Ms Flint said.

“The only damage that is occurring in the Pilliga Forest is being done by Eastern Star Gas. They are destroying bushland and habitat for threatened species, and they plan to turn one of our most precious forests into a giant gas field.”

Ms Flint went on to describe the gas field in the forest as being a project that was on the “thin edge of the wedge”.

“This project will entrench the coal seam gas industry in north-western NSW and spread out across bushlands and farmlands alike, representing a serious threat to the Great Artesian Basin. We will continue to work together with landholders and concerned citizens alike to fight the threat which this represents to our natural assets, our communities and our way of life,” she said.