About us. Rising Tide Australia is a grassroots Newcastle group taking action against the causes of anthropogenic climate change and for equitable, just, effective, and sustainable solutions to the crisis. We are committed to the principals of Non-violent Direct Action. We are part of the global Rising Tide climate justice movement. We live in the biggest coal port in the cosmos.
Here are a few more photos and some words from one of the blockade particpants.
The protest was a fantastic show of community determination to take action against Australia's biggest contribution to climate change, despite resistance from government and industry. As well as being a powerful and symbolic action, the protest succeeded in disrupting coal exports from Newcastle Harbour.
Rising Tide estimate that about 400 people came to Horseshoe Beach for the protest, and that about 250 entered the shipping channel to blockade the world's biggest coal port.
The blockade ran from 4 hours, from 11am to 3pm. Newcastle Port Corporation originally had nine coal ship movements scheduled for the 24 hours of Saturday 3rd November, but only moved six. From 6am to 6pm that day, 3 coal ship movements took place, all of them under police escort. The coal carrier Oinoussian Lady came almost to a halt as it was leaving Newcastle Harbour at about 2:30pm, as 250 people in kayaks, canoes, and inner-tubes attempted to block it's passage.
As Ben Pearson from Greenpeace told the crowd gathered at the beach on Saturday, it is an historic moment when coal ships now need a police escort through Newcastle Harbour. Clearly, the social licence to export coal is being withdrawn.
During the blockade, a woman was directly hit, while in her kayak, by a police jet-ski at high speed. The woman had to be take to John Hunter Hospital for treatment. Many protesters on the water complained that the police strategy appeared to be to knock people from their vessels while the coal ship made its way through. If this is the case, they can hardly claim that they were acting in the interests of public safety.
Saturday's blockade will certainly not be the last community direct action event against coal exports from Newcastle. In April this year, the NSW Government gave the green light for a doubling of Newcastle coal exports, including the proposed new Coal Export Terminal on Kooragang Island. Not long after that, the much-oppose Anvil Hill open-cut coal min was approved. Over 270 people have taken an online pledge to take Peaceful Direct Action to prevent the new coal terminal from proceeding, and hundreds of people in NSW are determined to stop the Anvil Hill mine.
Over the coming months there will be many direct action protests against the export coal industry that dominates the landscape of Newcastle and the Hunter region. People are no longer prepared to sit by and watch as Australia's biggest contribution to global warming undergoes a massive expansion. If our so-called leaders are not prepared to act against climate change, then we will take action ourselves.
Thankyou to everyone who took part in Saturday's 
Saturday's blockade will certainly not be the last community direct action event against coal exports from Newcastle. In April this year, the NSW Government gave the green light for a doubling of Newcastle coal exports, including the proposed new Coal Export Terminal on Kooragang Island. Not long after that, the much-oppose Anvil Hill open-cut coal min was approved. Over 270 people have taken an