A woman, 54, has been arrested and charged after locking herself to a rail line at Sandgate on Monday morning and putting a halt to coal trains leaving Newcastle Port for more than three hours.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Climate change protester Annette Schneider, a farmer from Monaro in southern NSW, set up camp on the rail line near Mangrove Street about 7am, locking herself to the line with an elbow lock and lying on a mattress inside a small tent.
Front Line Action on Coal spokeswoman Alex Walker said Mrs Schneider was acting in support of farmers in the Hunter Valley and Maules Creek who are struggling against the expansion of the mining industry.
There was a group of other climate change activists near the rail line, but Mrs Schneider is the only one who ‘‘locked on’’ and the only one arrested.
Police said they arrived to find a woman allegedly tied to the tracks. She was asked to leave the tracks but allegedly declined, police said.
Rescue crews managed to release the woman about 10am. She was not injured and was taken to Waratah police station where she was charged with cause obstruction to railway locomotive and remaining on running lines.
Ms Walker said while the demonstration closed the rail line coming from the world’s largest coal export port for more than three hours, the group were more focused on making a statement about climate change and Australia’s lack of action.
‘‘The government is not getting the message,’’ Ms Walker said.
“There are no more excuses for Australia and the coal industry.
‘‘We’ve got advice from scientists that says 90 per cent of Australian coal must remain in the ground if the world is to avoid global warming above two degrees.
“There has been no action taken by the Australian coal industry, the NSW or Australian governments to address this problem – quite the reverse, the volume of coal we export jumped 11 per cent last year.’’
An Australian Rail Track Corporation spokesperson declined to comment on whether the protest had caused any delays although a spokesperson for Glencore said their services had been unaffected by the incident.
Mrs Schneider has been granted conditional bail to appear at Newcastle Local Court on April 16.