And now the attention is turning to the politicians.
In Melbourne, they’re ringing Bill Shorten’s office. In Newcastle, they are marching to the offices of local MPs.
Students in Melbourne are now dialling in to Bill Shorten’s office “we are people of all ages striking today...we’re asking Bill to step up”. #climatestrike
“On the good days, everyone could go down to the river and fish, and make memories,” one of the students says. “Our people have been doing this for a very long time – 65,000 years ... with climate change, water supply will get worse.”
Melbourne and Sydney are both hearing speeches from Indigenous and Pacific nations students.
In Melbourne, Logan, Elijah and Pearl are representing the Pacific Climate Warriors.
“Will you help us raise our voices and elevate the people in the Pacific,” they chant. “We’re not drowning we are fighting ... Our people will keep fighting for the right to stand up.
Some breaking news, there has been a reported shooting at a mosque in Christchurch. As a precaution, striking children have been evacuated from Cathedral Square. We will be starting a separate liveblog shortly with further details of the shooting.
#Breaking: Major incident unfolding in Christchurch with reports of a gunman opening fire at a mosque near Hagley Park. Three understood to be seriously injured. Local schools in lockdown and children on #ClimateStrike protest cleared from Cathedral Square https://t.co/Xu2u0roAUb
“Australia is even more vulnerable to climate impacts then Sweden,” Milou says. “So we knew we needed climate action as well.”
Harriet says she is tired of people telling her to think about her blessings, because the things she loves are all of the species in the natural world.
“When I think about my blessings it just makes me want to cry,” she says. “Losing those things is the scariest and most heartbreaking thing I could possibly think of.
“We will fight this climate emergency and we will win.”
Sydney’s Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, is speaking now.
“I support your strike as an elected representative,” she says. “I support your strike as a former teacher.
“Your generation is the least responsible for accelerating global warming. But your generation and successive generations will be the ones who have to deal with the impacts of global warming.
“You are concerned, you are fearful and you are angry. You watch on your screens all the dead fish in our river system, the drought in NSW, the flood in Queensland, the horrific fires in Tasmania.”
It’s always hard to convey scale in a liveblog like this, with only static photos, cramped angles and the footage of a phone camera to relay what’s on the ground.
But thousands of students in Australia’s largest cities are out, closing the streets, mobbing the parliaments, chanting for a stop to new coal plants and for something to be done.
In the drizzle in Sydney they have packed the forecourt of the city’s town hall. In Melbourne, it’s like sardines. There were thousands last year, and the numbers have grown.
There are a — and I can’t stress this enough — lot of students here at the Sydney #ClimateStrike and they are making heaps of noise as the rally gets underway. pic.twitter.com/CRy569cX0t
In Sydney, Warringah student Vivienne told the crowd she was “terrified” of climate change.
“We have a message for politicians: if you care about us and the billions of young people living on this planet, you need to work with us.”
In Canberra, the nation’s capital, they chanted, “the youth are rising, no more compromising”.
Ruben, a year 7 student from Lyneham High School says they are learning more & more about what Aboriginal people have done to take care of our planet while also seeing what little care the politicians have for it #ClimateStrikepic.twitter.com/uvBoFAEtBa
“This sign means that politicians do stupid things and act like kids and we have to be the adults...and that they do molly,” these 14yos tell me pic.twitter.com/0uTGJCSWeE
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