‘Time wasters’, ‘clowns’ unrepentant after three weeks in a coal bucket

Tuesday, 26 August 2025

Two activists say physically putting themselves on the line is the only option left after almost two decades of campaigning over climate change.

Rach Andrews and Tāmati Taptiklis spent more than three weeks occupying a coal bucket hanging from an aerial ropeway used to transport coal from the West Coast’s Stockton mine.

Their actions were in opposition to Bathurst Resources’ fast-track application to expand the mine to the Denniston plateau, extending its life for another 25 years and allowing for the mining of 20 million tonnes of coking coal for export.

Bathurst has said it will rehabilitate the land after it is mined and will prepare environmental assessments, as well as provide jobs and a compensation package of up to an up to $65 million to the Department of Conservation.

The pair disrupted coal operations and triggered a $600,000 trucking bill, and were charged with unlawfully converting a vehicle or other conveyance, wilful trespass and endangering life, safety or health by criminal nuisance.

Resources Minister Shane Jones called them “time wasters”, while West Coast MP Maureen Pugh labelled them “clowns” because steel and mined products were needed to make cars, cell phones, climbing gear and clothing.

Andrews said the fast-track legislation was devastating for anyone who believed in the overwhelming body of scientific evidence on climate change.

Her actions stood on the shoulders of those involved in the long history of opposing coal mining on the West Coast, she said, and she had wanted to play her part in trying to save the unique landscape as well as the plants and animals that live on the Denniston Plateau.

She said she had always been involved in social justice, community and working for equality for people with disabilities in her Catholic family.

Andrews has never owned a car, raised three children as a solo mum, studied public policy and worked in a university, all while trying to do her bit for the environment.

“It made me quite unwell. I could just see all this devastation happening and gross inequality, and I just came to see that actually it’s the system that’s working against life on this planet.”

She said working with community projects helped her see that direct action was a way through the system collapse she believed was coming.

“Taking direct action is not for everyone. When I was raising children there is no way I could have thought about doing those things, because my responsibility was to them.

“Now I don’t have a mortgage, I don’t have dependants and I can and am willing to put myself on the line.”

Previous activism has seen Andrews her chain herself to a gate, climb onto a freight train and glue herself to a motorway.

She said she was feeling strong after three weeks in the bucket, where she ate food she would normal eat on a tramp like cereals, protein bars and dehydrated meals she had prepared in line with the dietary restrictions for her autoimmune health issues.

She said she and Taptiklis were good friends and supported each other during rough moments in the bucket.

They spent time doing Wordle, puzzles, reading, contacting family and friends, creating content for social media and making sure their tarpaulin roof was wind and waterproof.

They urinated into a bucket that they tipped over the side, and used a “really big, triple-lined, huge industrial-strength dry bag” for solid waste.

She will be defending charges of climbing into the coal bucket in April for three days at a judge-alone trial, and has not entered a plea to the latest charges.

Released on bail, she must not travel to the West Coast, contact Taptiklis, take part in any protest and remain in her home for 22 hours a day. She lives with seven others in a community house in Wellington.

“I don’t think people who are fighting for justice are the criminals,” she said. “I realise that according to the letter of the law I’m accused of breaking some of those laws and there are consequences for that.”

Taptiklis said he got involved because he believed the Stockton mine expansion was the most environmentally damaging of any of the projects on the fast-track list.

He said Denniston was a stunning landscape that had unique and ancient rock formations, as well as an endemic carnivorous plant that catches flies and only grows there due to the soil chemistry.

“It is just absolutely phenomenal to walk through virgin 40-million-year-old forest and then see suddenly 100m away the forest has been sliced down and there’s a gaping hole and a pit filled with black water,” he said.

Taptiklis, who grew up in Wellington, said he has a degree in ecology and biodiversity from Victoria University but has worked as a crisis counsellor in the mental health sector and as an outdoor instructor.

For the past 18 years he has been involved in trying to inspire and educate people to take steps to look after the climate, including organising climate festivals and a campaign for people to take shorter showers.

“I discovered after a few years that shorter showers is not going to cut it when multinational corporations are ripping the coal out, burning it and putting it in the atmosphere. Petitions might be helpful on some level but ultimately they haven't delivered any change.”

He said people had told him that while the climate was important, climbing into a coal bucket was not the right way to protect it.

Taptiklis said the prospect of a conviction was unimportant when an estimated million people were prematurely dying every year globally because of the impact of climate change.

He said he made the decision many years ago not to have children because there would not be enough resources for them to get through life.

“I’ve grieved every day for the children that I don’t get to have a relationship with. I have 12 nephews and nieces and I want them to have a chance to have a life as comfortable as my generation has had.”