They came in full force in the pouring rain, armed with umbrellas and ponchos and waterproof prams. One man even carried a surfboard. This is Sydney, after all.
At least 100,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday as part of a growing global call for a ceasefire in Gaza. It was double the estimated turnout, described by New South Wales police as the largest protest to descend on the city in memory.
The massive column of rain-soaked marchers snaked their way across the entire 1.2km length of the bridge. Police temporarily ordered a halt over fears of a crowd crush because of the “huge number of people taking part”.
On Saturday, after the NSW supreme court had ruled in favour of the march proceeding, the Palestine Action Group had crystal ball gazed and said Sunday’s bridge crossing would be an “immense march for humanity”.
The group has held a march every Sunday since 7 October 2023. But this was the first time it had taken its rally to Sydney’s world-famous landmark, last closed for public assembly in 2023 for World Pride. To regulars of those weekly gatherings, Sunday felt like a tidal wave.
Ali, marching with his wife and young daughter, described it as “history in the making”.
“This is a big moment,” Ali said, as his eight-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, sat on his shoulders calling out “Free Palestine”, her cheeks painted in black, red, white and green. “The people shut down the Harbour Bridge – the people did it.”
But eventually, as scores of mobile phones buzzed on the bridge, the people were turned back.
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Police orders were delivered to the masses via periodic text messages as helicopters circled overhead. The first read: “The march needs to stop due to public safety.” Later, protesters were told to stop walking north and return back to the central business district.
The marchers took it all in their stride: everyone was already drenched.
As the crowd began to turn around (organisers estimated 300,000 walked on Sunday), a child stood on a pillar, leading a chant: “In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians.”
The boy was among hundreds of infants and children in attendance. Many brandished homemade signs and banged empty pots and pans. The clanging of metal was meant to signify the ongoing starvation in Gaza.
Maila, a year five student, said she would describe Sunday’s crowd to her own children one day. “I’m speaking out for the Palestinian kids like me, and for all of Palestine because of the war that’s been going on right now,” she said, her hair adorned with a keffiyeh.
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Despite the torrential rain and significant transport delays, spirits remained high. Volunteers in fluorescent hi-vis vests directed protesters away from puddles that had amassed on the concrete.
Each time a train whistled past, marchers on the bridge, which links the north and south sides of the city, erupted into cheers and whistles, singing “Free, free Palestine” to passengers going past.
Tourists summiting the bridge’s 1,332 steps waved down from its steel arched peak, witnesses to an unfolding moment in history that the state’s premier, Chris Minns, had tried to stop.
The NSW police acting deputy commissioner Peter McKenna described the protest as the largest he’d seen in his time in the force in Sydney. “Gee whiz, I wouldn’t like to try and do this every Sunday,” he said. “We’re very lucky today that the crowd was well behaved.”
At the front of the march,several high-profile Australians, including Julian Assange, held a sign that read “March for Humanity Save Gaza”. Five NSW Labor MPs were alongside Assange, defying their premier.
Two of Minns’ ministers were there too: Penny Sharpe and Jihad Dib. The federal Labor MP Ed Husic – dumped from the Albanese cabinet in May – was in the crowd.
Husic reiterated calls for the Albanese government to sanction Israel and recognise Palestinian statehood.
“People power has come out, I think, largely because they just cannot abide the treatment that has been seen of little kids,” he said.
Abib, in the crowd, agreed. She marched across the bridge carrying a Palestinian flag alongside her daughter. She said it was “humanity” that had brought marchers out in what was truly atrocious weather.
“I think a lot of people are starting to wake up,” she said. “We’re going on two years [of war]. People that were quiet in the beginning have started to speak.”
Abib, whose husband is Palestinian, was struck by the diversity of people. Middle-aged women carried a banner crocheted by volunteers. Elderly couples completed the 4km journey on walking sticks. A group of British men held a sign reading “Gay Jews 4 Gaza”.
As the day began to wind down, Josh Lees, one the main organisers of a march that will be long remembered, told Guardian Australia: “It’s even bigger than my wildest dreams.
“It’s a mass march for humanity to stop a genocide, our politicians have to now listen to the will of the people and sanction Israel.”
