In late November he and local Rick Laird chained themselves to an excavator at the Gunnedah Basin site in New South Wales for more than 10 hours.

“We were a group of eight Canberrans, including public servants and a philosophy lecturer, and a local Maules Creek farmer who have grave concerns about the future of Australia and the legacy we will leave for generations to come,” Pocock later wrote of his protest.

Pocock pleaded guilty to the charge of hindering workmen at the Gunnedah Local Court yesterday while the other charges of entering enclosed land without lawful excuse and hindering the working of mining equipment were dropped.

According to the ABC, Magistrate Peter Miszalski considered Pocock’s good character, early guilty plea and the non-violent nature of the protest in making a section 10 dismissal of the charge.

Miszalski also said protest activity was likely to continue at Maules Creek.

Pocock, who made his Brumbies playing comeback last month after returning from a second knee reconstruction, was issued with a formal warning from the Australian Rugby Union following his arrest last year.

Section 10s can be applied to first time offenders and if there is a “trivial nature of the offence”.

Whitehaven, which has previously complained about ‘fly-in fly-out’ protesters at Maules Creek, declined to comment on the court decision.

Despite activist campaigns throughout its construction so far, the $767 million Maules Creek project is considered three months ahead of schedule and $25 million under budget so far.

Whitehaven is most recently targeting full first stage capacity of 6.5 million tonnes per annum run of mine in mid-March.