Skip to content

Campaigning Wiki

4 min read

lang: en

Summary

The Stop Adani campaign was a directed network campaign aiming to halt the construction of the Carmichael thermal coal mine in the Galilee Basin, Queensland, Australia, from 2012 to 2022. The campaign involved over 125 local sub-groups and thousands of events, targeting the Adani Group, its financiers, insurers, contractors, and government backers. While the mine ultimately received full government approval and progressed, the campaign achieved significant wins by pressuring 77% of targeted finance companies and many contractors to rule out working with Adani, delaying the project by nine years.

Background

The Adani Carmichael coal mine was proposed in 2010 by the Adani Group, an Indian conglomerate with a history of financial scandals and environmental offences. The project received support from both the Queensland State and Australian Commonwealth Governments, with initial approval in 2014 and final approvals in 2019, generating substantial public discontent and leading to one of the largest environmental campaigns in Australian history.

What happened

The Stop Adani campaign emerged around 2012 as a directed network campaign, with a central group (Stop Adani Alliance and Tipping Point) coordinating over 125 local sub-groups across Australia [source: commons-library]. The campaign used a wide range of tactics, including information sharing (e.g., 527 film screenings), rallies (520 events), human signs spelling ‘Stop Adani’, disruptive actions such as occupations and sit-ins, and a boycott of Tradelink during a ‘Week of Action’ [source: commons-library]. Court cases were also pursued by groups like Whitsunday Residents Against Dumping and the Australian Conservation Foundation [source: commons-library]. The campaign targeted 145 different entities, including banks, insurers, contractors, and governments, with peaks of activism shifting as some targets capitulated [source: commons-library]. By October 2022, Market Forces reported that 77% of targeted finance companies (46 out of 60) and 25% of construction/engineering firms (12 out of 48) had formally ruled out working for Adani, and activists secured a Queensland government veto on taxpayer funding for mining infrastructure [source: commons-library]. Despite these wins, the mine received full government approval and continued to find alternative providers, though the campaign delayed construction by nine years [source: commons-library].

Key people & organizations

  • Stop Adani Alliance
  • Tipping Point
  • Whitsunday Residents Against Dumping
  • Mackay Conservation Group
  • Australian Conservation Foundation
  • Market Forces
  • Galilee Blockade
  • Extinction Rebellion
  • Frontline Action on Coal
  • 350.org
  • Australian Youth Climate Coalition
  • GetUp!
  • Bob Brown Foundation
  • School Strike for Climate
  • SEED Mob
  • Adani Group
  • NAIF
  • Wagners
  • Siemens

Tactics used

The campaign combined persistent information sharing and public narrative with disruptive civil resistance tactics such as blockades and sit-ins, targeting secondary corporate and government pillars of support to make the mine financially and logistically unviable. Short-term, high-intensity activism against specific secondary targets proved particularly effective in securing commitments to refuse Adani work. [source: commons-library]

Outcome

Verdict: partial.

The campaign achieved partial success: it did not stop the mine, which progressed with full government approval, but it secured 63 wins against secondary targets, delayed construction by nine years, and built a powerful movement that influenced broader climate mobilizations in Australia. The close connections between political power holders and the Adani Group, along with the ability of business interests to influence government policy, limited the campaign’s ability to achieve its primary goal. [source: commons-library]

Lessons

  • Directing actions at secondary targets (e.g., financiers, insurers, contractors) can be highly effective in delaying large projects and removing corporate pillars of support.
  • Short-term, high-intensity activism against specific secondary targets may be more likely to result in success than sustained low-level pressure.
  • A clearly defined physical location for the target enables the development of a blockade camp, providing a focal point for directing human and financial resources from across the country.
  • When formal democratic channels are perceived as dominated by economic elites, activists may need to supplement traditional tactics with disruptive civil resistance to create pressure.

Sources

Disclaimer: Included as a teaching example of campaign craft, not as endorsement.

Sources & verification

  • commons-library — grounding: primary — license: link-only
  • Rewritten: 2026-06-25 via worker_casestudies_v2.py

Graph View

Backlinks