Turning the tide: the fight to blockade the world’s largest coal port
Seven thousand people mobilised for the People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port in Newcastle, organised by climate activist group Rising Tide over four days in November. Despite unprecedented efforts by the NSW government to stop the “protestival”, hundreds took to the water. The blockade had three demands: the immediate cancellation of all new fossil fuel projects, an end to all Newcastle coal exports and a 78 percent tax on fossil fuel exports to fund a just transition and pay for climate loss and damage.
Newcastle is the biggest coal export port in the world, shipping around 150 million tonnes annually—equivalent to 15 percent of the world’s coal. Earlier in November, investigative journalist Peter Cronau reported that coal from Newcastle had arrived at Hadera port near Tel Aviv, likely to supply Israel’s largest power station. It’s hard to imagine a better place to blockade in the interests of humanity and the planet.
Since its establishment in 2005, Rising Tide has organised thirteen actions to block the port’s shipping channel. Last year, 3,000 people blocked exports for 32 hours, and 109 people were arrested.
This year, the NSW government significantly dialled up the repression. Police took Rising Tide to the Supreme Court to challenge the group’s application to hold a public assembly, which would have protected activists from prosecution for 30 hours. Justice Desmond Fagan took the side of the police and the coal industry, determining that the planned interruption to the busy port “goes far beyond what the people affected should be expected to tolerate”.
Unsatisfied with this victory, the NSW Labor government went even further in its slavish defence of the coal industry. On 15 November, Rising Tide organisers received a letter from Transport for NSW detailing plans for an unprecedented four-day exclusion zone around Newcastle harbour, banning all unauthorised persons and vessels from the water. Anyone found to be in breach could face an on-the-spot fine of up to $1,100.
Rising Tide encouraged supporters to join them on the water from 3pm, Thursday, 21 November, (two hours before the exclusion zone was due to kick in) for what could be the only opportunity to get onto the water. But at 4pm, while out paddling, we received news that the exclusion zone had been overturned in the Supreme Court. A huge cheer rippled across the water, while supporters on the beach blasted Queen’s “We Are the Champions”. The Minns government had tried to use the Marine Safety Act improperly to criminalise peaceful protest—but failed.
As 21-year-old Rising Tide plaintiff Alexa Stuart told the Guardian, “The NSW government was attempting to criminalise peaceful protest, but the real criminals here are the coal and gas companies who are continuing to put profit above all else and burn my future and the futures of all young people”.
The following morning, I walked to Horseshoe Beach to discover that police had implemented their backup plan. A series of yellow buoys marked out the perimeter of the shipping lane. Unmarked matte black boats, manned by cops in black balaclavas, remained on constant patrol. They were accompanied by cops on jet skis, a twenty-metre-long patrol vessel, several drones, a helicopter and horses on land. From a speaker system on the shoreline, they barked threats of immediate arrest for anyone who dared to cross the buoys.
On Friday, these bullying tactics were largely successful. On Saturday, a few brave individuals were arrested for crossing the buoys. But with most remaining in the state-sanctioned swimming pool, coal ships the size of skyscrapers continued to pass through, flanked by those balaclava-clad cops. Frustration swelled at the camp.
Then on Sunday morning, our side pushed back. Hundreds of kayakers took the channel, forcing a coal boat to turn away and closing the port for four hours. Later in the day, when a ship was scheduled to come in, hundreds again occupied the channel. In an enormous display of force, police cleared the channel by making more than 100 arrests and herding others back behind the buoys. According to a Rising Tide Instagram post, at least 40 were charged under draconian NSW anti-protest laws, which threaten fines of up to $22,000 and up to two years in prison. The actions of police sent a clear message: the state is prepared to protect and serve coal above people at all costs.
Mass direct actions like The People’s Blockade are important. According to the World Meteorological Organisation, 2024 is on track to be the warmest year yet, surpassing 1.5° C above the pre-industrial average. But in the face of climate catastrophe, governments across the world are pressing down harder on the fossil fuel accelerator. Since coming to power, the Albanese government has approved 28 new coal and gas projects. Australia is the second-largest climate polluter in the world when emissions from fossil exports are included, according to a recent report from UNSW Australian Human Rights Institute.
The outlook is no less grim at a global level. The UN’s latest annual climate summit, COP29, has once again offered nothing but a veneer of legitimacy over the failure of global elites to ensure a livable future for the planet. The scale and speed of the climate action we need will require more mass resistance to those who profit enormously from planetary destruction.
