It was possible, but unlikely, that she might not be leaving the court a free woman: she was hearing charges with penalties of up to seven years in jail.

With her co-accused Bev Smiles and Bruce Hughes, she had been sitting on the road in front of the gates of the Wilpinjong coal mine at dawn, with a big banner saying “Enough is Enough”. It held up the arrival of trucks for the morning shift.

The action was part of a last-ditch effort by the tiny village of Wollar to save itself from a new open-cut coal mine on its doorstep.

In the Mudgee Court House on June 5, Magistrate David Day spoke at some length before delivering his verdict. We all sat there, quiet as mice, as he ranged over precedents. Does a ship’s cargo “belong” to the ship, or to its various owners? What is the status of a bottle marked “Penfolds” when it is never returned to the shop? 

While it was by turns boring and tense, there was something wonderful going on here. This was a test-case against the new anti-protest laws introduced by the government to foil the growing “Lock the Gate” movement and demonstrations against coal mining.

This was our system of democracy at work. Flawed as it may be, it is in moments like this that we get to test the limits of freedom and responsibility.

In that context, what the magistrate said was powerful and important.

He said there was a “long and proud” tradition of civil disobedience in societies like ours.

Quoting Lord Hoffman, he said that as long as protesters remained non-violent while breaking the law, “the authorities must recognise that demonstrators are acting out of their conscience in pursuit of democracy”.

He dismissed the charges. We all broke our silence, stood up in that tiny courtroom, and applauded.