They were there to mark the death and destruction caused by fossil fuel economies.

Carrying signs such as ‘Warren Entsch’s Walking Dead’ and ‘Tony Abbott Bit Me’, the zombie horde drew the link between horror fiction and the fact of climate denialism within the LNP government.

The Zombie Shuffle is in solidarity with a zombie event being held at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Melbourne.

The MASIL Project (Mapuche-Aboriginal Struggles for Indigenous Land) has initiated the Melbourne event to highlight the damaging effects of transnational corporate mining on First Nations peoples.

The Mapuche are a First Nations people from Chile.

They have partnered with Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance for this event.

Zelda Grimshaw explained, “People often joke about ‘the zombie apocalypse’ but we know it is only half a joke.

Droughts, fires, plagues, floods, epidemics, rising seas, terrible storms and other climate impacts really are the stuff of apocalypse, and we know that this is what is coming unless we end fossil fuel use.

“In Melbourne the global heads of mining companies are meeting to work out how best to profit from the extinction of our species.

First Nations peoples in Australia as elsewhere are on the front lines of mining and climate impacts.

Here in Queensland, the negotiation rights of indigenous landholders have been trampled by the State and Federal governments in order to facilitate the Adani mega mine.

So we are shuffling in solidarity today.

“We are a reef electorate.

The Great Barrier Reef is suffering as a result of Australia’s coal-fired power stations, fracking, and coal exports.

Our federal representative, Mr Entsch, has yet to take any meaningful action at all to protect our people, our towns and our reef from continued fossil fuel use.

This needs to change, and quickly.”

Stop Adani Cairns was refused an audience with Mr Entsch to discuss the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change, which warns that a temperature rise of above 1.5 degrees will have catastrophic consequences for humanity.

Stop Adani Cairns is demanding that Mr Entsch read the report and follow the recommendations to phase out coal and gas immediately from the Australian economy.