Port Botany protests enter day five, three activists to face court

Climate protests at Port Botany have entered a fifth day, with another Blockade Australia activist arrested. Meanwhile, three others have been charged and held overnight.

Three protestors accused of wreaking havoc with a series of dangerous stunts at Port Botany have been charged and held in custody overnight.

After four days of protesting, activists from climate group Blockade Australia targeted the port three times on Friday, allegedly hanging themselves off a bridge, climbing atop a train and suspending themselves off a crane.

Serial protestor Emma Dorge, 25, was arrested by police rescue, who removed her from the bridge in a precarious operation.

She was charged with was charged with endanger safety of person on railway, remain on enclosed land not prescribed premises without lawful excuse, refuse/fail to comply with direction and encourage the carrying on operation for commission of crime and spent the night on remand in custody.

Protester Emma Dorge was arrested on Friday. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Sharon Hodge, 62, allegedly climbed on top of a train carriage at Marrickville before she too was removed by police rescue. She was charged with enter enclosed land not prescribed premises without lawful excuse, endanger safety of person on railway and cause obstruction to railway locomotive or rolling stock.

Around 2pm, protestors from Blockade Australia returned to Port Botany, where 26-year-old Maxim Curmi allegedly suspended himself from a dizzyingly high crane.

It took police five hours to remove him from the crane, before he was taken to Maroubra Police Station and charged with endanger person on railway, remain in a water-side restricted zone when not authorised, refuse to comply with direction, encourage the carrying on operation for commission of crime, and risk safety of another by climbing building / structure.

Grandmother Sharon is accused of obstructing freight rail.

All three are due to face court at Parramatta today.

Another protestor was arrested this morning after suspending himself over a freight rail line at Botany Road, Banksmeadow.

Police were called to the area about 6.40am, and managed to arrest the man within 20 minutes. This marks five days of ongoing, unauthorised protests which have shut down the port’s operations.

A protester going by 'Wenzel' suspended himself from a rail bridge on the fifth day of protests at Port Botany.

He was removed not long after police arrived.

Two citybound lanes of Botany Road remain closed as the police operation concludes.

The arrests come after NSW Police established a new strike force to tackle the environmental protest group which has brought freight operations at Port Botany grinding to a halt for four days in a row.

Deputy Premier Paul Toole this week announced the formation of Strike Force Guard to stop the protests at the port, saying more police resources would be tipped into protecting the major freight gateway.

Port Botany activist sent back to Queensland

Climate activists have continued their day of disruption with a third protester charging through the port of Botany.

Wild vision has emerged as the Blockade Australia protester livestreamed himself jumping over barbed wire fence, running through the port before climbing to the top of a crane.

A Blockade Australia social media video proclaiming: “Max, 26, has scaled 40 metres up a crane and suspended himself high above the freight terminal.” Picture: Facebook

Footage shot by the protester from atop the crane. Picture: Facebook

Footage shot by the protester from atop the crane. Picture: Facebook

The man was able to make his way to the top with only the beeping of car horns and yelling from afar heard in the background.

Police attended the scene about 3.40pm to remove the protester, who was suspended from machinery.

They said road and rail operations were not affected.

Meanwhile a Blockade Australia activist Alex Pearse, 33, who hung from a pole almost 10m above Port Botany’s railway lines – forcing the important freight line to grind to a halt on Thursday – has been released on bail and ordered to return to Queensland on Friday night.

Alex Pearse was arrested on Thursday after protesting by hanging over freight lines and has been ordered back to his home state of Queensland.

Blockade Australia has vowed “the resistance will spread”, with the group saying they will continue the disruption until they see change.

Earlier, another Blockade Australia protester was arrested for a second demonstration just hours after an activist was removed from train tracks at Port Botany.

A woman identifying herself as Sharon climbed on top of a freight train loaded with containers in Marrickville about 10.45am to allegedly disrupt the railway network leading to Port Botany.

“Sharon is taking action at the place where the systemic corruption started and from which a perverse attitude of domination spread,” Blockade Australia wrote online.

A grandmother identifying herself as ‘Sharon’ climbed onto a cargo train at Marrickville.

“The action necessary to abate this crisis will never come from a system set up to exploit people and land, it is necessary to disrupt the functioning of business as usual to take power away from those who prioritise profit over life.”

Police arrested the woman about 10 minutes later with the help of Police Rescue.

She has been taken to Mascot Police Station where charges are expected to be laid.

Police said a group of protesters had attended the scene but the woman was the only one there when they arrived.

The woman said in a live video she was “very nervous” as onlookers had begun to shout at her once she began her protest.

“I’m so nervous I’m just here on my own and they’re getting aggressive,” she said, close to tears.

She livestreamed her protest for around 15 minutes before being removed by police.

Police are investigating the incident and it is unclear how the freight network will be impacted.

Furious freight workers in hi-vis yelled at the woman as she stood filming.

“You are insane, f***ing insane,” one was seen telling her.

“Do you know how dangerous what you did there is.”

The woman responded with: “I’ve got grandkids … the world’s insane.”

The end of the video showed Police Rescue officers propping a ladder against the train before clambering up and taking the woman into custody.

A police rescue officer grabbed the woman’s phone and briefly faced the camera before ending the live video.

It comes hours after 25-year-old activist Emma Dorge was arrested this morning after allegedly suspending herself over train tracks in Port Botany.

Serial protester Emma Dorge arrested at Port Botany

A female climate protester has been arrested after allegedly blocking Port Botany’s freight railway amid a fourth day of protest action.

Emma Dorge, 25, allegedly blocked the port’s cargo train line about 7am when she hoisted herself into the air using ropes and a pole, hovering between the train tracks and the canal at Qantas Dr, Tempe.

Police rescue, local officers and water police arrived at the scene to work out how to bring Dorge back to earth.

Just after 9:45am, police brought Dorge back down to the ground and arrested her.

Twenty-five-year-old Emma Dorge has been brought back down to earth by police and arrested. Picture: Jeremy Piper

She will be taken to a police station shortly and is expected to be charged in the hours to come.

Police are now dismantling the equipment she used to lift herself above the tracks.

The Blockade Australia member earlier defended the week’s worth of protests at the port in a fiery TV interview, claiming the blockages and chaos were the “appropriate response”.

“This exploitative, disruptive system that is killing us all … I think this is a really appropriate response to a destructive system,” Dorge told Sunrise.

The Blockade Australia activist is one of several arrested this week. Picture: Jeremy Piper

When asked by host Natalie Barr if she would be willing to experience the same disruption faced by motorists, business owners and freight workers, Dorge said: “It is not fun, and I’m not enjoying it, but (the protest) is because without this disruption, we are not being listened to.”

When again quizzed on why she had the right to disturb the community, Dorge blamed the “wealthy elite”.

“We have the right because it is all of our future is at stake. It is everybody’s resources, not just the resources of the wealthy elite who are hoarding them,” she said.

A war of words then erupted between hosts Barr and David Koch with the young protester, who was accused of being “arrogant” and sending Australia “into a recession”.

“Are you a good swimmer, you only have water below you,” Koch quipped of Dorge’s position above the canal, before she responded: “I know how to swim.”

As the hosts continued to criticise her, Dorge continued: “I am doing this for the children of the world who have no hope and no future.”

Twenty-five-year-old Blockade Australia protester Emma Dorge has suspended herself from a bipod structure.

Koch then concluded the segment with a blistering statement.

“Alright Emma, we got you on because we wanted to hear from a pest and what they looked and sounded like,” he said.

“People think they have the right to disrupt your life because they have a bee in their bonnet … it is ridiculous.”

Day four protester identified as serial pest

The woman at the centre of the latest protest at Port Botany has been identified as a serial protester, with a history of stunts in the name of action on climate change.

Twenty-five-year-old Emma Dorge strung herself up over the freight train line and canal at the port near Qantas Dr, Tempe about 7am this morning, blocking all access for trains in and out of the port.

In 2018, Dorge chained herself to a train line near Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, that stopped a coal train and saw police attempt to hit her with a restitution bill of $558,000.

Dorge has been previously associated with other groups including Extinction Rebellion. Picture: Liam Kidston.

Police pursued the huge figure at the time on behalf of the New Hope Group whose mine was where the coal was being exported from.

Despite being chained to a cement filled drum at the time both her and another man participated in interviews with the media live from the scene and streamed the entire incident on Facebook.

A former Redcliffe Hospital midwife, Ms Dorge was able to livestream inside the Brisbane police station watchouse in 2019 after cops forgot to confiscate her phone when she was arrested for another stunt.

She has participated in protests for Frontline Action on Coal and Extinction Rebellion before hanging herself from a pole on behalf of Blockade Australia this morning.

When an attempt was made to contact Ms Dorge this morning a friend picked up her phone and directed The Daily Telegraph to Blockade Australia’s media spokeswoman.

Blockade Australia have been protesting in Port Botany since Tuesday. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Blockade Australia protesters returned to Port Botany this morning for a fourth day despite harsh new penalties for disrupting the community.

“Sydney supports the flow of goods and labour, making Australia’s destructive operations possible,” Blockade Australia wrote.

“This is the fourth consecutive day Blockade Australia has shut down Port Botany.”

It comes despite an increased police presence at the port, with Strike Force Guard set up yesterday to tackle further protest action.

Acting Premier and Police Minister Paul Toole announced greater penalties for activists who disrupted roads and tunnels across NSW, with protesters facing a $22,000 fine or two years in jail.

The NSW Government also announced it would bring legislation to the floor to include crucial rail and industrial infrastructure.

Originally published as Port Botany protests enter day five, three activists to face court