Rising Tide Australia Closes Down World’s Largest Coal Port

Published by Sparki, March 22nd, 2009 global warming 7 Comments

Blockades organized by Rising Tide Australia have closed down the Port of Newcastle for the day. The Port of Newcastle, 100km north of Sydney on Australia’s east coast is the world’s largest coal port, transferring coal mined in the Hunter valley for export.

coal-port-blockade

Over 500 protesters launched kayaks, canoes and small boats to blockade the harbor. Newcastle Port Corporation cancelled all ships coming into the harbor for the day due to safety concerns.

Rising Tide spokeswoman Carly Phillips says restricting coal ship movements is a huge victory.

“We would like to show a strong message to the Government that everyday Australians are sick of politely asking for change,” she said.

“We’d like to see a just transition away from the coal industry towards a renewable energy future.”

7 Responses to “Rising Tide Australia Closes Down World’s Largest Coal Port”

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1 Katherine Mar 22nd, 2009 at 8:58 pm

Sad, but the first thing I thought was, “I wish I was somewhere warm enough to float in the ocean.”

But, well done Rising Tide! Very exciting! Now let’s just get all the coal PLANTS and the coal MINES shut down too!
2 Deirdre Mar 22nd, 2009 at 11:46 pm

oh dang, thats cool
3 Alex Mar 23rd, 2009 at 11:25 am

Well done everyone – great to see direct action that literally stops the flow of dirty energy – keep it up!
4 Morgan Mar 23rd, 2009 at 7:46 pm

Sweeet!!! How many days in succession would we need to do this to actually disrupt their business?
5 matt Mar 23rd, 2009 at 9:53 pm

While we can’t promise you any opportunities for watersports, you can take direct action against coal next month here in the states! Come to Charlotte, NC April 20 for a march and civil disobedience at Duke Energy’s headquarters to demand that they cancel the Cliffside coal plant.

http://www.stopcliffside.org
6 Rob&Lisa Mar 24th, 2009 at 11:12 pm

Congrats rising tide another spanner in their dirty energy works.Now maybe just maybe someone can blockade the trains from leaving the mines i cant unless i want to go to jail…
7 Jim Apr 5th, 2009 at 1:54 pm

The Newcastle Port will open a new coal terminal in March 2010 and this will lead to a big increase in coal exported. Several new mines are due to open in the Hunter Valley and some existing mines have plans to increase capacity.
Japanese, South Korean, Chinese, American and European companies have increasing stakes in these coalmines.
There appears to be a big gap between the phasing out of coal and the appearance of greener energies in sufficient quantities.
Nuclear development is moving quite slowly with the States of NSW and Western Australia refusing to allow mining of uranium.

About

Scott Parkin is a Senior Organizer with Rainforest Action Network and organizes with Rising Tide North America. He has worked on a variety of campaigns around climate change, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mountaintop removal, labor issues and anti-corporate globalization. Originally from Texas, he now lives in San Francisco.