They joined students in Armidale, Tamworth and 60 other across  Australia, and in 90 countries around the globe

The strikes were against school rules, but several students and parents turned up at the 2:30 event anyway with yet more coming after school ended at 3:00.

Callista Sheridan and Bethany Coulter helped organise the strike in Glen Innes, a march around Grey Street which took off after 3:00 and culminated in the pedestrian crossing in the centre of the street, across from the town hall.

"When we think we've got the message across, when enough people have stopped and stared and gone by, when we think we're satisfied with what we've done then it'll be finished," Bethany Coulter said on Thursday.

She said they weren't necessarily asking for specific policy outcomes, though the national campaign is broadly calling for governments to put a stop to the proposed Adani coal mine in Queensland, to not grant approvals for new more coal or gas plants, and to switch to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

In Glen Innes they aimed to "spread awareness".

Mayor Carol Sparks supported the strike, citing the example of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Adern.

"Just tell their communities that we are in crisis; climate change is here," she said as one of a series of speeches

"So I absolutely commend you kids for coming out today - you are very brave - to stand up against the odds and the deniars.

"How can there be deniars when our creeks and our rivers are dying and we have no rain? How can they deny that we are in crisis? And I'm just totally proud of you."

Callista Sheridan argued that the warmest 20 years on record had happened since 1995; her entire lifetime.

"People still seem to deny or pretend that unnatural climate change is taking place.

"Small towns such as Walgett are cutting off water supply as a result of extreme drought. I know farmers that are struggling to live as a result of this drought.

"And yet some people, some influential people in politics, still manage to deny that something is wrong.

"I've gone on strike to remind you that something is wrong.

"I'm terrified of my future, of my children's future and of my grandchildren's future and I know we need to do something before it's too late."

Premier Gladys Berejiklian is a critic of the strikes, arguing today that "children are there to go to school, and I absolutely support their rights to have views about the world, and I absolutely support them expressing themselves - but not during school."

Ms Coulter turned it around on her, arguing they were only skipping school because of what she saw as the bad behavior of government.

"We shouldn't wag school - but they shouldn't mine coal, shouldn't frack, shouldn't do all these things. What we're doing is no less political that what the government is doing.

"Although we're a small town and we're not on a huge city scale a difference is a difference."

A handful of passerby expressed a different view, with one telling either the students or accompanying adults they should be "ashamed of themselves".