SEVERAL climate protesters have had their criminal convictions overturned in court after climbing onto a coal train at Newcastle.
Newcastle District Court was packed with Rising Tide supporters on Wednesday as more than a dozen members appealed their sentences.
Olivia Freeman from the Environmental Defenders Office asked Judge Peter McGrath to set aside earlier local court decisions and hand her clients good behaviour orders without convictions.
She said the April 16 protest, which involved a train stopped on its way into the Newcastle coal terminal, was done because of "genuinely and strongly-held beliefs in the climate crisis".
"It doesn't excuse the behaviour, but in my submission, contextualises it," she said.
She argued the action was peaceful, and said each of the offenders in court on Wednesday had no criminal history.
"They're all vibrant community members," she said.
Ms Freeman said the Rising Tide members before the court acknowledged that the action on the train corridor put themselves, police and rail workers at risk.
She said the group didn't want to take the sort of action that they did, but felt compelled to do so.
She said they had accepted responsibility for their offending by pleading guilty.
The court heard the Australian Rail Track Corporation and police had given the group move-on directions but that officers then swiftly started making arrests.
The first appeal heard was for 64-year-old Sydney woman Elisabeth Eurydice Aroney.
Solicitor for the Crown Emily Bennett said protesting must be done "lawfully and safely".
She said the group of protesters had packed ladders to climb onto the coal train.
"It wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision," she said.
"I would submit there is no evidence of genuine remorse."
She asked for the sentences to remain as they were.
Judge McGrath said all the offenders in court had pleaded guilty to unlawfully entering lands and interfering with business, and assisting in the obstruction of a rail locomotive or rolling stock.
In handing down his judgment in the Aroney matter, he said the protest arose in the context of the "national and international debate about climate change".
He said Aroney, and the others, had been motivated by "what she believed to be an existential threat to the Earth".
Judge McGrath re-sentenced Aroney to an 18-month good behaviour order with no criminal conviction.
He handed down the same sentence on appeal for 39-year-old Newcastle man Alain Ashman and 32-year-old Mayfield woman Melissa Barrass.
Several other protesters had their appeals heard on Wednesday afternoon.
Judge McGrath read written submissions, including character references for each of them.
Police and Rising Tide members had been liaising about a "camp for climate action" that was to take place at Williamtown, near Newcastle, between April 14 and 17 this year.
About 9am on April 16, 200 people rallied at Kooragang, and while that was happening, a group of about 50 went to the Steel River industrial estate and climbed onto a rail corridor.
A coal train was forced to stop and some protesters used ladders to climb onto a fully-loaded carriage.
Banners saying "survival guide for humanity: no new coal" and "we are the Rising Tide" were displayed, the court heard.
Police responded.
