A man who scaled a 60m-high crane at Sydney's Port Botany during one of several stunts by climate change activists last week has been jailed for four months.
Maxim O'Donnell Curmi today pleaded guilty to five charges, including endangering a person on a railway and encouraging the commission of a crime, before Waverley Local Court.
The 26-year-old from Hurstbridge in Victoria will appeal the sentence, said activist group Blockade Australia.
It has claimed responsibility for a series of protests around the Port Botany area held for five consecutive days, which also targeted freight rail lines and roads.
On Friday, Curmi jumped a barbed wire fence and evaded workers before climbing to the top of a large crane used to load and unload shipping containers at the port.
He remained dangling from a rope for five hours, blocking the loading of a docked ship.
Today, Magistrate Ross Hudson accepted Curmi's guilty pleas and sentenced him to four months in jail plus a $1,500 fine.
The sentence will expire on June 24.
Last week, the NSW government introduced harsher penalties of up to two years in jail and a $22,000 fine for protesters as a reaction to the Blockade Australia campaign.
An amendment was added to make it an offence to disrupt any tunnel or bridge across Sydney, and laws could be expanded further to include roads and key facilities.
Attorney-General Mark Speakman said the previous fine of up to $2,200 was not enough to deter activists he described as "economic vandals".
