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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Madeline Link

Climate protester banned from Newcastle as blockades cause chaos

UPDATE

A CLIMATE activist who was arrested after she allegedly scaled a stacker reclaimer at the Port of Newcastle will remain in custody until next week.

Anne Elizabeth Vickers, 67, was already on bail for a number of unrelated charges when she allegedly brought operations at Kooragang to a halt on Friday morning.

Hours later at Newcastle Local Court, Vickers did not apply for bail and it was formally refused by magistrate John Chicken.

The protester, acting on behalf of Blockade Australia, is charged with entering enclosed non-agricultural lands causing serious safety risk and entering or remaining on a major facility causing serious disruption.

Vickers will remain in custody until her matter returns to court on June 26.

Meanwhile in Singleton Local Court, 64-year-old Sukalpa Goldflam was granted bail on strict conditions after she allegedly jumped on top of a stopped train and locked herself onto it in the company of a 16-year-old on Thursday.

While on bail, Goldflam must report to Bega Police Station once a day and has been banned from entering Newcastle or coming within 100km of the city except to attend court.

She is not to engage in any criminal activity, including trespassing on port or rail infrastructure, is banned from entering any rail corridor or being within 1km of any port.

Goldflam is charged with causing obstruction to a railway locomotive or rolling stock and entering enclosed non-agricultural lands causing serious safety risk.

Her matter will return to Singleton Local Court on July 27.

The actions are one of a string of blockades across the Hunter this week.

EARLIER

The protester, acting on behalf of Blockade Australia, had been locked to the equipment since about 6am.

"Unless you've recently swapped your head for a pumpkin, you'll know that humanity and the ecosystems we live with are in deep s**t," the activist, known as Vickers, said in a statement released by Blockade Australia.

"Australia, which I see as the entirety of our intertwined economic and political system, is unwilling to control its addiction to extracting fossil fuels and flogging them to the rest of the world. Australia is massively driving the climate crisis that we're all having to face right now and into the foreseeable future if we don't act now."

It comes after two people - a 16-year-old girl and a 64-year-old woman - were charged on Thursday for allegedly climbing onto a train carriage near Singleton railway station.

Protester known as Vickers at the port on Friday morning. Picture supplied

They were both charged with causing an obstruction to a railway locomotive or rolling stock and trespassing on non-agricultural lands at serious risk.

Several people have been arrested for disrupting the port and coal operations throughout the Hunter since Monday.

Earlier this week, Newcastle magistrate John Chicken told an 18-year-old Canberra woman who was charged for allegedly gluing herself to equipment at Kooragang that protesters put themselves and others at risk - particularly when taking action near machinery "capable of ripping a human apart".

"[Protesters] need to understand they do not operate in a vacuum," he said in court.

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