Several climate protesters have been arrested after they tried to paddle through a police water checkpoint at the world's biggest coal port and disrupted coal ships.
Three people were charged on Saturday with with failing to comply with the direction and police and given provisional bail, event organiser Rising Tide said. They were ordered to stay at least 5 kilometres away from the Port of Newcastle.
Two were released without charge, organisers said, and the status of four was unknown.
NSW Police on late Saturday afternoon said three people — two men aged 27 and 60, and a 26-year-old woman — had been arrested and taken to Newcastle police station where they were assisting police with inquiries. They did not say anyone had been charged.
"The police operation is ongoing and more information will be provided when it becomes available," NSW Police said in a statement.
Eight climate protesters have been arrested after they tried to paddle through a police water checkpoint at the world's biggest coal port and disrupted coal ships. Source: AAP / Michael Gorton
'Governments are failing young people'
Anti-coal demonstrators and supporters made their way into the water at the Port of Newcastle as part of a mass flotilla and protest on Horseshoe Beach on Saturday.
Climate protesters remained on the water overnight and into Saturday after paddling out in kayaks on Friday as part of the planned three-day blockade in the coal-rich NSW Hunter region.
Rising Tide organiser, Zack Schofield, told SBS News on Friday protesters believed governments were "failing young people by continuing to approve new coal and gas projects", and need to do more in helping those working in the fossil fuel industry to transition to renewables.
"We are calling for an end to new coal and gas project approvals and a 78 per cent export profits tax on fossil fuels to help ... some communities ... enter those industries of the future," he said.
Rising Tide organiser Zack Schofield. The group wants to end new coal and gas approvals and a 78 per cent tax on coal and gas exports to help fund the clean energy transition. Source: SBS News
"You cannot stop us," he said.
The state government had imposed an exclusion zone in a bid to prevent protesters from disrupting the Port of Newcastle.
But that was overturned after a hearing at the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday.
Another protester, Lindsay Soutar, was there with her children.
"These are the kids who are going to inherit the planet that we're all living in," Soutar said.
"We know that climate change is driving more extreme weather, extreme heat, and we know know the key driver of that is burning fossil fuels."
"We're here to send a message to the government that it's time to end the use of fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy.
The federal government's goal is to have 82 per cent renewables in the electricity mix by 2030.
Lindsay Soutar was at the demonstration with her children and said protesters were there to send a message to the government to end the use of fossil fuels. Source: SBS News
Former environment minister criticises 'overreach'
Court challenges that eventually allowed the event to proceed previously heard some protesters might seek to be arrested to attract publicity.
A similar event in 2023 resulted in 109 arrests when protesters remained in the water beyond the advised period, attracting global attention.
Anjali Beames, a Rising Tide climate activist, was among them, and returned to take part in this weekend's protest.
"I was here last year for the same cause; I'm back again this year because coal exports have continued to occur," Beames told SBS News on Friday.
Climate activist Anjali Beames also took part in last year's protest. Source: SBS News
"Governments haven't done enough to act so we as citizens have to stand up and sometimes that means going against what the government wants us to do."
Midnight Oil frontman and former environment minister Peter Garrett along with musicians including John Butler and Angie McMahon took to the stage on Saturday to perform on Saturday as part of an associated festival.
Garrett criticised the "overreach" from authorities, including the NSW government, for attempting to stop the peaceful protest event.
"Is the threat to the wellbeing and the peace of the Hunter region to be found in a group of citizens exercising peacefully their democratic rights or is it to be found in continuing to export a material which is going to blow the world up in a furnace?" Garrett told the crowd.
There is a large police presence at the event with officers escorting coal ships through the harbour and policing the water.
NSW Police said they had adopted a "zero-tolerance approach to actions which threaten public safety and the safe passage of vessels".
With reporting by the Australian Associated Press.
