Fourteen-year-olds Harriet O'Shea Carre and Milou Albrecht, and 12-year-old Callum Neilson Bridgfoot, began their school walk outs in October.

They said they would continue their protests until the federal government stopped the Adani Coal Mine, prevented any new coal or gas projects, and committed to 100 per cent renewable energy sources by 2030.

"I love my life and my biggest fear would be losing the people I love - my family and my friends - and I know that climate change could make that a reality very, very quickly," Ms O'Shea Carre said. 

Read more: Hundreds of central Victorian students walk out of school to call for climate action

"We as Australia are letting people down," Ms Albrecht said. "I think we're letting down the world when we could be leaders.

"We could be leading everyone in this climate action but we're not."

"Obviously we are lacking behind a lot of countries on climate change and that is something that we shouldn't be proud of," Mr Neilson Bridgfoot said.

The group's small strikes in north central Victoria quickly developed into a global movement.

On November 30, 2018, more than 30 separate school walk outs took place across the country.

Up to 10,000 people walked the streets of Melbourne demanding action on climate change.

Another 8000 people in Sydney and a couple of thousand in Brisbane and Hobart also took part.

Over 250 groups around the world also participated in the strike in solidarity with the Australian students. 

On that day, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Question Time "what we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools." Ms O'Shea Carre said comments like that were unhelpful. 

"When a kid cries because they're scared, they don't think oh that's because their parents are telling them to cry," she said. "And that's exactly what we're doing."

"We're yelling out because we're scared, we're terrified, and maybe we don't fully understand the science to the extent an adult would but we understand because we can read."

"We are seeing what the climate scientists, the professionals, are saying and we trust them over these crazy politicians."

The group of Castlemaine students have protested outside the offices of several MPs including Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

They met with Mr Shorten in Canberra a couple of weeks ago.

"He was really respectful," Ms Albrecht said. "We started talking and he listened to our demands."

"We got a reply from him two weeks later and it was not that great. It just told us what Labor was already doing so we'll continue to strike at his office to show his reply was not good enough."

On Friday, another National Strike will take place around the country. Another Castlemaine student who will be taking part in the demonstration is 11-year-old Asher Bodin.

"I feel disgusted by politicians who say climate change is a lie because they've seen the results and they know what's happening," he said. 

One of the 40 planned protests across Australia will take place in Bendigo.

The group of students will march from the Bendigo Goldfields Library Gardens to the offices of local MPs.

Year 12 student Joseph Brownbill will be one of the students to take part in the Bendigo strike.

"I feel like politicians aren’t taking action," he said. "We want Australian society at large to do something about climate change."

Fourteen-year-old Mathilda Stewart, who will be leading the Bendigo strike, said it will be "by young people, for young people".

"Our parents are not the ones driving the global movement or the movement here in Bendigo," she said. "We started this of our own accord."

"Climate change is the biggest problem the world is facing and it's not being addressed quickly enough," Ms Stewart said. "We want politicians to recognise the severity of the issue and take action."

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