A hunger striker at Parliament House was doused with water when sprinklers were turned on on Thursday in freezing conditions.
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On Friday Alexander Miziner was on his ninth day of not eating food or drinking water, in an attempt to have his fiancee's visa application reviewed.
He is conducting his hunger strike on the grass of Federation Mall, between the new and old parliament houses, an area designated for protests.
Mr Miziner is quite obviously protesting, sitting at a desk behind a large sign.
He said that at about 2pm on Thursday the sprinklers were turned on and he was doused.
He was alone because his friend, Alan Dupreux, had briefly left the area. Mr Miziner, who can only manage a shuffle, could not get up from his chair to escape the water.
The apparent temperature at the time was below freezing and a howling wind was whipping through the area.
After the sprinklers had been turned on, a maintenance worker approached Mr Miziner.
"He said, 'We will need you to move because we need to test the sprinkler system' and I said, 'I think you just did'," Mr Miziner said.
"I was in shock. I don't believe it was a coincidence."
The National Capital Authority has responsibility for the maintenance of Federation Mall and confirmed the sprinklers were turned on for about 30 seconds "in an unfortunate incident".
An NCA spokeswoman said the mall was an "authorised assembly area" and protests there were approved by the presiding officers at Parliament House.
She said the NCA was only advised of protests in the area if they were large or required temporary structures.
The spokeswoman said protesters were otherwise advised to register their event with the NCA so it could adjust maintenance programs such as irrigation and mowing.
She said there was one event registered on Thursday, only for an outside broadcast van, so NCA contractors went ahead with planned work on the irrigation system.
"The protester was asked to temporarily move aside by the contractor for one minute to another area not affected by the testing of the irrigation system, but refused," the spokeswoman said.
"As a result, the testing had to proceed with the sprinkler turning on for approximately 30 seconds before contractors were able to manually turn it off. The protester's refusal to move resulted in the unfortunate incident."
Mr Miziner, 55, maintained he was only told to move after the sprinklers had been turned on.
He estimated he had lost about 10 kilograms in the past nine days. He would announce via his YouTube updates when he had started to drink water again. He wanted to continue his hunger strike for as long as possible.
