Ms O'Brien is a lawyer who works for the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR), an activist shareholder organisation, and now lives in Sydney.

"We hold shares in big companies in Australia and have conversations with large overseas corporations that have a negative impact in Australia, and encourage them to adopt more responsible practices," she said.

"When you hold shares in a company, you have rights under corporation law to influence their behaviour, and a right to speak at their AGM (annual general meeting) and put together proposals."

Ms O'Brien grew up in Kiama, and her husband, Rune, is from Norway. The prospect of Equinor drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight brought her personal and professional lives together.

"We think the risks to Australia's southern coastline are massive," she said.

"Equinor is constantly say things like 'this is going to provide jobs' - it's a small number of jobs, and there is no benefit to the people of the east coast at all, but all of the risk."

"I'm so glad to see the Kiama community has joined the fight. Our lives are so fantastic on the south coast, and we have to do whatever we can to defend it."

Ms Rune has arrived in Norway, and said the support for the Australian campaign there was immense - Norwegians will paddle out into the Oslo harbour in protest on Sunday, May 12.

"I'm expecting the water to be very very chilly, I'm not sure if my wet suit is going to cut it," she said.

"I think there is a growing understanding in Norway that exploring and drilling for coal and gas is an unsustainable activity and an unsustainable economic model.

"It's reaching across countries now, it's uniting people who care about the environment in Norway with people in Australia.

"We are at a moment in history where we're seeing this kind of exploration activity become unacceptable."

She will also present at the Equinor AGM on May 15 in Stavanger.

"The aim is to give Equinor and their shareholders a sense of how strong the resistance in Australia is, and the serious reputation and economic risks for Equinor and the people of Norway as shareholders," she said.

"I don't think they know how strong the opposition is, and how hard people are prepared to fight to protect what they love."