Blockade Australia protests target three coal ports

They struck early on Monday, broadcasting their solitary protests on Facebook livestreams and explaining their actions were intended to force change on Australia's climate policies.

A 22-year-old woman was removed after she suspended herself off a bipod above a rail bridge at the NSW coal port of Newcastle, blocking trains, as co-ordinated protests were also mounted at ports in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Raffi, who did not provide her last name, said she took the action because she believed people were feeling disenfranchised and disempowered.

"We're breaking that down by building a resistance movement that disrupts pinch-points in this destructive machine," she said in a Blockade Australia statement.

NSW Police said they were called to the rail corridor for the Kooragang Coal Terminal at the Newcastle site just after 7am before police rescue crews brought her down just before 11am.

A Port of Newcastle spokesman said shipping operations were unaffected.

In Melbourne, Brad Homewood dangled several hundred metres above the ground for hours at Appleton Dock Rd on Coode Island, blocking operations at the ports.

The 51-year-old said he took the action because Australia was "extracting coal and exploiting it with a callous disregard for all forms of life".

Police rescue crews appeared in the background of his Facebook live feed at 10am, with the picture cut soon after he was brought down.

The 23-year-old woman charged in Queensland caused major disruption at the Port of Brisbane Motorway at Lytton, when she perched atop a bamboo pole before being removed.

Identified as Jem, she said the functioning of Australia was causing climate collapse.

Queensland Police said the Mount Gravatt East woman was charged with unregulated high-risk activities, trespass, committing public nuisance, as well as several other charges relating to blocking traffic in the area.

She will face court next month. 

Zelda Grimshaw from Blockade Australia said the protests were part of a "co-ordinated mobilisation in response to Australia's facilitation of the climate and ecological crisis, and its active blocking of impactful action towards a safe climate".  

"We're determined to stop Australia exporting climate disaster. We're determined to return our ecosystems to a state of health," she told AAP.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said people had the right to demonstrate but protests in precarious sites put emergency service personnel at risk.

"Emergency service workers, particularly the police, are put in extreme danger as a result of having to go and remove people from dangerous situations."

Amendments to the Crimes Act, passed by the NSW parliament last year, impose jail terms of up to two years and fines of $22,000 for protesters who cause damage or disruption to major roads or major public facilities.