Experts say moves to stop the protest come amid an escalating crackdown on activism across the country
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As more than a hundred climate activists waded into the Port of Newcastle on Thursday afternoon with kayaks and rafts, with police boats drifting in the distance, it was unclear what would happen next.
In a supreme court room, about two and half hours’ drive south in Sydney, sat 21-year-old Alexa Stuart who was challenging a maritime exclusion zone the New South Wales government had imposed around the port. The zone restricted anyone entering the water over a four-day period in a bid to stop the protest, which was attempting to stop coal ships from leaving the port.
