Hundreds take to water for Newcastle coal port protest despite attempt by NSW police to stop them

A climate group has overcome efforts by police and the New South Wales government to stop a protest at the world’s largest coal port, with hundreds of people taking to the water to unfurl a sign that said “coal exports = climate chaos”.

About 600 Rising Tide protesters paddled on kayaks and water crafts into the Port of Newcastle on Saturday to demand funding for coal workers to transition to new jobs and a safe and livable climate. Hundreds more protested onshore, after an 11th hour victory in the supreme court enabled the Paddle for the Planet event to proceed.

No arrests were made during Saturday’s action.

Rising Tide’s spokesperson, Joe Hallenstein, said the protest aimed to “call out” the lack of climate action by Anthony Albanese and the state’s premier, Chris Minns.

“As hypocritical Albo parades around Cop31 urging world leaders to take stronger climate action, back home he and his Labor counterpart premier Chris Minns are approving new coal and gas projects and attempting to silence us.”

It followed an uncertain week, after the Newcastle city council – in consultation with Minns and the police minister, Yasmin Catley – banned Rising Tide and any affiliated groups from using council-owned land to undertake any protests.

Minns wrote to the council ahead of the motion for the ban on Tuesday night, saying it was “not possible for the council to distance itself from the illegal activities that occur at these protests”. Meanwhile Catley labelled Rising Tide “bad faith actors” after they defied police directions during 2024 and 2025 protests, resulting in mass arrests.

The protest did not use council-owned land, so was not subject to the ban. The group applied to police for what’s known as a form 1, a permit-style system that protest organisers have the option of submitting to prevent participants from being charged under the summary offences act.

The group submitted the form 1 to police two months in advance, despite only being required to give seven days notice. The police took six weeks to notify organisers that they would not agree to the form 1, leading to a supreme court hearing this week to settle the dispute.

On Friday, justice Edward Muston sided with the protesters. He acknowledged the safety risks, but said Rising Tide had mitigated those risks.

“I have accepted that the possibility of participants engaging in actions which lie outside the parameters of the proposed public assembly cannot be excluded,” Muston said. “However, I was not satisfied that the making of orders of the type sought by the commissioner [of police] would reduce in any material way the likelihood of such actions occurring.”

“Ultimately, I found that in balancing the considerations, the public interest in the facilitation of political expression through assembly outweighs the legitimate concerns which have been expressed by the [police] commissioner.”

The group will hold it’s annual six-day festival in Newcastle, one of the biggest climate protests in Australia, in February. It remains to be seen how the ban on the use of council land will impact its activities.

The event draws attention to its demands for the cancellation of all new fossil fuel projects, an end to coal exports from Newcastle by 2030, and taxing fossil fuel profits at 78% to fund community and industrial transitions.

During the 2024 protest, the Minns government attempted to stop the event from going ahead by establishing a maritime exclusion zone around the port. But just as the protest was kicking off, the supreme court found the government had acted improperly and ruled the exclusion zone invalid.

During the event 173 protesters were charged, but charges against 125 of those people were withdrawn in August.

At the 2025 blockade, police arrested and charged 129 protesters who entered the water, preventing three coal ships from entering the port. They remain before the courts.