By Matthew Knott

Activists get ready to go out on the water for the day. Image: Matthew Knott

Ship movements in Newcastle, home to the world’s biggest coal port, came to a halt yesterday as environmental activists opposed to the expansion of the coal industry staged a harbour blockade.

Coal exports from Newcastle are set to almost double from 93 million tonnes to 174 million tonnes by 2020, equivalent to a 40 per cent increase in Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions*.

Around 400 people from across NSW attended the protest – with half taking to the water in boats, kayaks and homemade rafts – according to Rising Tide , the local environmental group that organised the event.

“No coal ships moved into the harbour today, where there would normally be several,” Steve Phillips, spokesperson for Rising Tide, said. “They cancelled them because of our protest.”

Newcastle Port Corporation denied its services had been disrupted. A spokesperson said that several ships were due to enter and leave the port after the protest had been completed.

Six police boats, including the 32m ocean patrol vessel Nemesis, the largest police boat in the Southern Hemisphere, were on the harbour. No arrests were made.

In a bid to reduce logjams at Newcastle Port, where vessels wait up to 16 days to load, last year the NSW Government made it obligatory for coal terminal operators to provide extra capacity should a coal mining company open or expand a mine.

A new coal loader, the city’s third, began operations last week and a fourth terminal is already in the planning stages.

Newcastle state government MP Jodi McKay said the new export terminal has given a boost to the local economy.

“Up to 800 people have been working…each day thanks to the recent expansion.

“These jobs are great news for families in the Hunter and the flow-on effect they have to the region’s economy is very welcome.”

But green groups say the massive increase in coal exports will fuel dangerous climate change.

“Effectively you double our carbon footprint if you include our exports,” said Naomi Hodgson, a Newcastle environmentalist. “For Australia the most effective thing we can do is stop the expansion of the coal industry here.”

Ms Hodgson said coal mining was also having “devastating” effects on mining communities in the upper Hunter area.

“People are suffering quite severe impacts from increased dust and noise; people are suffering psychological impacts from the noise and health impacts such as asthma.”

Peter Kennedy, who has worked for 32 years as a coal miner in Muswellbrook, in the upper Hunter, travelled to the protest to demand a transition from coal to renewable energy.

“I would be one of the first people knocking on the door of a company making solar panels or thermal energy,” he said.

*Author’s note: Figures based on the US Energy Information Administration´s calculation that 1 tonne of combusted coal produces 2.89 tonnes of carbon dioxide. In 2007, Australia´s total greenhouse gas emissions were 597 tonnes, according to the Department of Climate Change.