Blockade Australia activists at ports in Newcastle, Brisbane and Melbourne have disrupted coal shipments and road traffic to protest a lack of action on climate change.
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The trio struck early on Monday morning and broadcast their solitary protests via Facebook livestreams, explaining their actions were intended to disrupt normal activities to force change on Australia's climate policies.
A woman climate protester was removed after she suspended herself off a bipod above a rail bridge at the NSW coal port of Newcastle, blocking trains, as co-ordinated protests were also mounted at ports in Melbourne and Brisbane.
NSW Police said they were called to the rail corridor for the Kooragang Coal Terminal at the Newcastle site just after 7am.
Officers told the young woman perched hundreds of metres above them that she was under arrest, and police rescue crews brought her down just before 11am.
A Port of Newcastle spokesman said shipping operations remained unaffected by the action.
In Melbourne a 50-year-old man dangled several hundred metres above the ground for hours at Appleton road on Coode Island, blocking operations at the ports.
Police rescue crews appeared in the background of his Facebook live feed at 10am, with the picture cut soon after the man was brought down.
Melbourne police said officers are on site to ensure there are no breaches of the peace and have said Appleton Dock Road is expected to reopen shortly.
A 23-year-old Blockade Australia protester also caused major disruption at the Port of Brisbane Motorway at Lytton on Monday morning, perched atop a bamboo pole.
Police were also seen in the background of her feed, setting up rescue gear on the empty motorway below her, before confirming mid-morning a woman had been taken into custody.
Zelda Grimshaw from Blockade Australia told AAP the protests were part of a "co-ordinated mobilisation in response to Australia's facilitation of the climate and ecological crisis, and its active blocking of impactful action towards a safe climate".
"We have successfully shut down three of Australia's most destructive economic facilities," she said.
"We're determined to stop Australia exporting climate disaster. We're determined to return our ecosystems to a state of health.
"We hope more and more people join organised climate action in Australia, that we start to see a groundswell of people taking direct action and doing what needs to be done.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said while people had the right to demonstrate, protests in precarious sites put emergency service personnel at risk.
"Emergency service workers, particularly the police, are put in extreme danger as a result of having to go and remove people from dangerous situations.
"It's one of the reasons we supported the previous government's protest laws which are going to remain in place," he told Sydney radio 2GB.
Amendments to the Crimes Act passed by the NSW parliament last year, impose jail terms of up to two years, and fines of $22,000, for protesters who cause damage or disruption to major roads or major public facilities.
Ms Grimshaw said protesters were aware of the potential penalties.
"People are aware of the risks that they take when they take this kind of action, including the risk of oppressive laws within the judicial system."
Australian Associated Press
