Heath Bailey-Hepburn is 11 years old and she's tired of adults telling her she's not old enough to understand the complexities of climate change.
The Year 5 Newcastle East Public School student was among hundreds who walked out of classes on Friday afternoon to stage the first School Strike 4 Climate action in Newcastle since the coronavirus pandemic descended in March last year.
The fourth strike to be staged in Civic Park, since thousands of students first gathered in 2019, was hampered by rain but students still turned out in droves to send a clear message to their elected leaders that their demands had not changed, and they weren't going anywhere.
"In 2019, almost a quarter of our school came to the climate strike and we're here again today," Heath said to cheers from a crowd.
"I am here today because our politicians are destroying our future. I may only be 11 but I have already seen our skies turn red from bushfires last summer. I have already seen my favourite river turn bone dry. And there is much worse to come if we don't stop burning fossil fuels."
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Front of mind for speakers was the federal government's commitment this week to build a $600 million gas-fired power plant at Kurri Kurri, billed as an essential transitional energy source to bridge the gap between renewables and coal-fired power. But protesters seized on reports that the proposed plant would run only around 2 per cent of the time, rely on diesel fuel only for at least six months until a permanent connection to the Sydney-Newcastle gas pipeline is complete, and employ only 10 workers once construction was complete.
"I think it is really important that Newcastle has elevated this (action) onto the national stage," Strike organiser and Wallsend High School student Kalleb Pritchard said.
"We have the largest coal export port in the world, and we supply so much of NSW's electricity through coal-fired power plants. But all of those power plants are becoming obsolete.
"The government is all about base-load power ... but the industry is changing and they are leaving the workers behind. Gas is not an essential transitional energy - especially the Kurri gas plant. It's 2 per cent of the time that it is going to be running and only employs 10 people. It's not a job-creating thing for our community - it's not doing anything for our community.
"Unless we create a proper and just transition with communities, it's going to be like BHP shutting again in Newcastle. There are going to be thousands of people out of work."
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As students formed up to march from Civic Park to Pacific Park via King Street, Pritchard said the students' message was clear: "Fund our future, not gas".
"I'm a kid, still," he said. "I'm not a scientist in this field. I'm not a person who has the skill and expertise to explain that ... We're just schoolkids and we just want a future.
"We want a planet that has safe oceans, and national parks that are alive and able to provide for our future."
