Newcastle Council Bans Rising Tide Events on Its Land
Newcastle council has banned the climate group Rising Tide from holding any events on its land, a decision that lord mayor Gavin Morris secured with his casting vote on Tuesday night. The council made the move after consulting New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, who had warned it would be complicit in any "illegal activities that occur at these protests." Newcastle is home to the world's largest coal port.
The ban also stops the council from licensing any Rising Tide events. In a formal motion he put to the council, known as a mayoral minute, Morris said the group had "broken the trust and faith of the Newcastle community" by defying police directions during earlier protests.
Rising Tide holds an annual six-day protest in which thousands of people use kayaks and rafts to blockade coal ships in the port. The event includes camping on council land and a music festival; past lineups have featured Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett. The group demands the immediate cancellation of all new fossil fuel projects, an end to coal exports from Newcastle by 2030, and a 78% tax on fossil fuel profits to fund community and industrial transitions.
In a letter to the council, Minns wrote that the Rising Tide protest was only possible through the council's licensing of events at a local park. He wrote that protests should take place safely and without disrupting shipping at the Port of Newcastle. He also said the group had a history indicating an intent to disrupt the shipping channel without regard for the law, and that formally endorsing the protest would put lives at risk and make the work of NSW Police impossible. Yasmin Catley, the NSW minister for the Hunter and police, was consulted on the council motion.
The dispute has a long history. Before the 2024 protest, the Minns government imposed a four-day maritime exclusion zone around the port, which made entering the water a crime. The NSW Supreme Court later ruled that zone invalid, finding the government had acted improperly, in a challenge brought by Rising Tide.
Police charged 173 protesters over the 2024 action, but in August they withdrew charges against 125 of them. At the 2025 event, police arrested and charged 129 protesters who entered the water, an action that stopped three coal ships from entering the port.
Rising Tide was before the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday after police rejected its permit application for a smaller paddle-out event planned for Saturday. That event comes ahead of the group's next annual protest, scheduled for February.
