A group of 30 people held up construction of a second loader arm at Newcastle's third coal loader site on Kooragang Island on May 10, stopping a crane crew for about 90 minutes.
The protest coincided with what would have been Newcastle climate activist Pete Gray's 31st birthday. Gray sadly lost a two year long battle with cancer on April 30.
The loader expansion would allow the shipping of an extra 25 million tonnes of coal a year from Newcastle, already the world's largest coal port. Emissions from the 25 million tonnes of coal would be roughly equivalent to half of the state of NSW's total domestic emissions from all sources combined.
A spokesperson for People Against the Coal Expansion, Catrina Sturmberg, said: 鈥淲hile politicians are talking emissions reductions, we are walking in to demand real action on climate change.
鈥淲e are calling on Australia鈥檚 governments to show real commitment to curbing global emissions by phasing out coal exports.鈥
Video:聽People Against Coal Expansion Action 10/5/11.聽.