TWO Coffs Harbour women took the lead in disrupting construction work on Adani’s Carmichael rail corridor in central Queensland last week.

Zianna Fuad locked herself onto a platform above the plant’s concrete conveyor belts from 4am until 1pm, while Susan Doyle, along with Teeka Latif from the Byron Bay area, immobilised the company’s flash-butt welder.

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A group of twenty supporters also blocked traffic moving up and down the rail corridor.

The police finally used an angle grinder to remove the protesters, who were then driven to a watch house an hour away and held for two hours.

The company’s concrete trucks were sent home, resulting in the plant shutting down for the day.

The group, which included fifteen Coffs Coast activists, is motivated by their view that the mine’s climate effects will contribute to more frequent and extreme natural disasters such as those we are already experiencing.

They have also expressed serious concerns about the safety practices of Adani’s contractors after a work vehicle drove into one woman and machinery was turned on while Ms Fuad was locked-on near it.

Ms Fuad said that she had to take direct action because, “A year ago I watched the forest I live in go up in flames, and now the Coffs Coast is being hit by disastrous floods.

“I saw ‘permanently wet’ forests burn for the first time ever,” she said.

Ms Fuad told News Of The Area, “It’s devastating that we have to put our bodies on the line when government policies should have already stopped this mine.

“It’s unthinkable that a new coal mine is being considered when we’re already seeing the effects of climate change on the Coffs Coast,” she continued.

“Climate science tells us that we should be transitioning away from fossil fuels and it doesn’t make economic or environmental sense to be opening up mega mines,” she said.

By Andrew VIVIAN