Blockading the World's Largest Coal Port
Adventures in Newcastle with Rising Tide
I just got back from an incredible (and important) adventure. Last Wednesday evening, I boarded an overnight bus to Newcastle with a bunch of amazing people from Adelaide. Twenty hours later we arrived at the ‘Protestival’ - bleary eyed and determined to be on the right side of history.
The event was put on by Rising Tide - an organisation with three core demands.
Immediately cancel all new fossil fuel projects.
Tax fossil fuel export profits at 78% to fund community and industrial transition, and pay for climate loss and damage.
End all coal exports from Newcastle – the world’s largest coal port – by 2030.
These demands are not particularly outrageous and would significantly decrease worldwide carbon dioxide emissions. As a rich country, it’s Australia’s responsibility to go above and beyond in minimising the effects of climate change. Our politicians are not acting fast enough, so it’s up to the people to stand up and make change.
Rising Tide did an incredible job at creating a family-friendly festival to amp-up the civil disobedience. I felt completely safe the entire time and found that every person I talked to was utterly delightful. The whole event was run by volunteers and I had a great time volunteering in the chai tent and information tent.
The ‘festival’ part of the ‘protestival’ was fantastic with lots of awesome food, workshops and music. Big names like Peter Garrett, Angie McMahon and John Butler all volunteered their time to play at the festival. I found myself weeping in the Open Mic tent to a gorgeous duo called ‘Two Voices in a Crowd’. They sang about their experience in the Tarkine with the Bob Brown Foundation and their harmonies were so beautiful - listen to them here.
The original plan of Rising Tide was to blockade the Coal Port from Nobby’s Beach for 50 hours in small vessels. Unfortunately, many legal hurdles were encountered and we were unable to take over the waterway for that entire time. In fact, whilst on the bus from Adelaide, we didn’t think we could enter the water at all. Rising Tide took the case to the supreme court and won meaning that we could enter the water after all. There was a great cheer on the bus when we found this out whist driving into Newcastle.
Around all the volunteer shifts, I didn’t get on the water in a kayak until Sunday and hoo boy was it incredible! The atmosphere on the beach was amazing with lots of singing and dancing. Hundreds of people all entered the water at once and after watching the giant coal ship pass by, we swarmed into the channel.
‘Thanks’ said a policemen who sided up to our boat, stole our ores and left us stranded in the middle of deep water (arguably a very dangerous thing to do). We hollered down another couple of activists who leant us their paddle. Unfortunately, we didn’t get very far before another police boat came up to us and stole that ore too! They then ferried us back closer to the shore where we got a ride back to the beach with a friendly kayaker.
Phew! What a time. Almost 200 people got arrested that day, including many of the people who travelled from Adelaide. It was an incredibly inspiring act of people power and I feel so lucky that I was able to be a part of it. Rising Tide have taken the message to Parliament House where they are currently lobbying the government to listen to the core demands.
The adventure didn’t quite end there for us. We ended our time in Newcastle with a big group photo of the 160 or so people who travelled from Adelaide. It felt so special to have that community around me and it was very awesome when we all started singing.
The bus ride home started out alright, but at 4.30am the bus broke down! For a while we continued to sleep in the stuffy bus, but it soon became apparent that the bus drivers couldn’t fix the problem. As the sky began to lighten, we stepped out onto the hay plane to a wonderful odour of dewy dry grass. Weirdly, we got together and learnt the choreography to a TokTok dance (the Apple dance?) It was lots of fun and must have looked hilarious to the trucks driving past! Of course, someone had a guitar and we had another sing and dance. Before it got too hot, an old school bus (very nostalgic) came to pick us up. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful (but not un-pleasant). We arrived back in Adelaide 24 hours after setting out!
All in all, I highly recommended attending Rising Tide. Meaningful memories and long-lasting friendships were made. It’s so important to feel connected in this increasingly isolating world. To help pay the fines for all the amazing people who did in fact get arrested, I’ve decided to donate $5 (almost 100% of my profits) from every ‘Grand Banksia Adventure’ book sold until the end of the year. You can also donate directly to Rising Tide here.
With love and solidarity,
Zinia King