Court date arrives for Illawarra granddad arrested in coal port blockade

But in a courthouse in Newcastle, his name is on a list of dozens of climate protesters who were arrested and charged after blockading the Port of Newcastle late last year.

"We have Signal groups, I'm getting constant messages from the different things that are going on," Mr Hunt said.

The calmly spoken former systems engineer had earlier entered guilty pleas to one charge of operate vessel to interfere with others use of waters, and expects a fine in the hundreds of dollars.

But while he accepts the punishment handed out to him by the police and the courts, he argues there is a much larger crime going unpunished.

In a letter the the court explaining his actions, Mr Hunt writes that the ongoing rise in global temperatures, with 2023 yesterday being declared the hottest year on record, was the "greater sin" but not one that would be contemplated in court 3.2 in the Newcastle Courthouse.

"They're shooting the messenger, they've got to be shooting the enemy," he said.

"The enemy is climate change, the enemy is more coal, oil and gas."

Mr Hunt and fellow kayaker Simon Leslie sailed their Hobie outrigger from Port Kembla to Newcastle, with a sail emblazoned with their mission: No More Fossil Fuel.

While the exhausting voyage was beset with challenging weather, Mr Hunt returned to the Illawarra energised to continue the fight for action on climate change and an end to the consumption of fossil fuels.

Mr Hunt has made a New Year's resolution to take action each week this year for this cause, and has spent the first two weeks of 2024 writing letters to the editor, with success, having been published in the Mercury, the Australian Financial Review and The Australian, so far.

He says that Illawarra residents should get used to seeing his kayak on Lake Illawarra this year, with his sail proudly displaying his ambitions.