My Australian History Journey: Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

Monday, October 5, 2026

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras – From the 1978 March to Today

Every year at the end of summer, Oxford Street fills up with glitter, sequins, banners and a few hundred thousand people. It is easy to forget that the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras began on a freezing winter night in 1978, with a borrowed truck, a few hundred hopeful people, and a police response that ended in bashings, arrests and names printed in the morning paper. I have walked this part of Darlinghurst for years while writing about Oxford Street and the old gaol and courthouse at Taylor Square, and it struck me that one of the most important stories of these streets is not from the convict days at all. It is from living memory. So here is how Mardi Gras started, how it grew, and where it stands after the 2026 festival.

Sydney Before Mardi Gras

In 1978, sex between men was still a crime in New South Wales, carrying a penalty of up to 14 years in gaol. You could be sacked for being gay and there was no law to stop it. Police in the inner city were well known for targeting gay men, and the Summary Offences Act gave them wide powers to move people on and arrest them for all sorts of behaviour, including same-sex couples showing affection in public.

There had been gay rights activism in Sydney since the early 1970s. CAMP (the Campaign Against Moral Persecution) held what is usually described as Australia's first gay and lesbian rights demonstration in 1971, and Gay Pride Week in 1973 ended with a march from the Town Hall to Martin Place. But as the historian Garry Wotherspoon puts it in the Dictionary of Sydney, there had been no single dramatic event to bring everything to a head. That came on the night of Saturday 24 June 1978.

Saturday 24 June 1978: The First Mardi Gras

A day of protest and a night of celebration

The day was organised by the newly formed Gay Solidarity Group as Sydney's part in International Gay Solidarity Day, marking the ninth anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York. Activists in San Francisco had written asking for support, and Ken Davis, one of the organisers, has described how the plans came together through letters, phone calls, posters and word of mouth. There was a protest march in the morning from the Town Hall to Martin Place, which Davis says drew about 500 people, a public meeting in the afternoon, and then something new at night.

According to the ABC's detailed 2023 account, it was Ron Austin of CAMP who suggested a night-time street party, partly because it would be harder for anyone to be photographed and outed in the dark and in costume. Margaret McMann, responding to his idea, called it a "Mardi Gras". Lance Gowland arranged a police permit for a procession down Oxford Street to Hyde Park, and he drove the lead vehicle, a small yellow flatbed truck with a sound system on the back.

Darlinghurst Courthouse at Taylor Square. On the night of 24 June 1978 the first Mardi Gras crowd gathered here before heading down Oxford Street. Photo: Bidgee, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Around 10pm, on a cold night, people gathered at Taylor Square. Some were in fancy dress, more were simply rugged up. Accounts of the numbers vary. The Australian reported about 1,000 people at the start; Ken Davis and the Mardi Gras organisation's own timeline put the crowd at around 1,500 as it moved along; and one marcher told the ABC it had grown to about 2,000 by the time it reached Kings Cross. As the truck rolled down Oxford Street people came out of the bars and clubs to join in, answering the chant "Out of the bars and into the streets!"

The police move in

Things turned as the procession neared the city end of Oxford Street. Police hurried the truck along, and at the Hyde Park end the truck was taken and the music stopped. Exactly what happened to Lance Gowland depends on who you read: the Mardi Gras timeline and Ken Davis say he was arrested, while the ABC's reconstruction says police threatened him and a witness saw them trying to drag him from his seat. Either way, the march was not allowed to finish in Hyde Park as planned.

Rather than go home, the crowd turned up College Street and William Street towards Kings Cross, the chant now "Stop police attacks on gays, women and blacks!" One marcher, Peter Murphy, told the ABC he counted 39 police vans arriving before he gave up counting.

Looking up William Street to the Coca-Cola sign at Kings Cross. In 1978 the marchers came up this hill and turned into Darlinghurst Road. Photo: 200ok, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

At the Cross the marchers were directed into Darlinghurst Road. With police blocking the far end near the El Alamein Fountain and the side streets closed off, the crowd was hemmed into a short stretch of road between the Coca-Cola sign and the fountain. That is where the worst violence happened. People were grabbed, thrown against vans and pushed into paddy wagons. Mark Gillespie, a young teacher who was there, later wrote that police near the fountain seemed to target women and the smaller and more vulnerable marchers. Some officers had removed their identification numbers.

The El Alamein Fountain at the Kings Cross end of Darlinghurst Road, where the 1978 marchers found their way blocked by police. Photo: Angus Fraser, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fifty-three people were arrested and taken to Darlinghurst Police Station on the corner of Forbes and Bourke Streets, right back near Taylor Square where the night had started. Inside, some of them were beaten. Peter Murphy has described being taken away from the others and beaten so badly he thought he would die. Outside, a crowd gathered, chanting for the prisoners' release and passing the hat for bail money.

The former Darlinghurst Police Station on Forbes Street, where those arrested in 1978 were held. Today it is home to Qtopia Sydney. Photo: Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Aftermath: Courts, Newspapers and "Drop the Charges"

On Monday 26 June the 53 appeared at the Central Court of Petty Sessions in Liverpool Street. The Dictionary of Sydney records that although the magistrate ordered the court open to the public, a large contingent of police blocked the doors, there were scuffles, and seven more people were arrested. Television cameras caught it all.

The next day, Tuesday 27 June 1978, the Sydney Morning Herald published the names, addresses and occupations of the 53 people arrested. At a time when you could lose your job for being gay, that was devastating. Some were outed to their families and workmates; some lost jobs or housing.

The protests kept going. A march in July ended with more arrests, and on 27 August another 104 people were arrested. The Herald printed those names as well. The Mardi Gras organisation counts 178 arrests across the whole period. A "Drop the Charges" campaign followed, and it worked. In the first case to be heard, film footage contradicted the police evidence and the case was dismissed; after that, most of the remaining charges were dropped.

The fallout reached Macquarie Street. In 1979 the Wran government repealed the Summary Offences Act. In 1982 the Anti-Discrimination Act was amended to cover homosexuality, and in May 1984 Neville Wran's private member's bill decriminalised sex between men in New South Wales. Readers who have seen my post on sodomy laws in the early colony will know just how long those laws had been on the books.

1979 to 1981: From Winter Protest to Summer Parade

The organisers held it again in June 1979, under the theme "Power in the Darkness". This time it was a week of events, including a fair in Hyde Park, film screenings and the first fundraising dance party at Balmain Town Hall. They were ready for trouble, with an emergency bail fund set aside, but although about 3,000 people turned out and there was a big police presence, nobody was arrested.

In 1980 the parade gained marshals and a new route, finishing at Paddington Town Hall, where the first post-parade party was held. Wikipedia puts the crowd at the party at about 700. It was bitterly cold again, and after that third parade the decision was made to move the whole thing to summer and loosen its tie to the Stonewall anniversary.

The first summer parade, in 1981, ran under the name Sydney Gay Mardi Gras. It nearly did not happen on time: torrential rain washed out the planned date of 21 February, and it was moved to 21 March. The Mardi Gras timeline says it is the only time weather has forced the parade to be postponed. About 5,000 people watched. The arguments of those years, about whether Mardi Gras was a protest, a party or both, have never really gone away.

The 1980s: Growing Up Fast

Floats, parties and the Showground

Mardi Gras grew quickly. In 1982 the first post-parade party was held at the Showground at Moore Park, and the first Sleaze Ball fundraiser was held at Paddington Town Hall. That same year a Narrandera man, Roger McKay, marched alone carrying the Aboriginal flag, the first time it appeared in the parade. By 1983 the artist Peter Tully had set up the Mardi Gras Workshop, and the floats were getting bigger and cheekier.

The Dictionary of Sydney describes the 1983 parade as having 52 floats and 15,000 people marching on a warm February night, "probably the largest parade not associated with war" to pass through Sydney's streets, yet none of Sydney's mainstream papers or TV stations covered it as news. Wikipedia gives different figures for that year (44 floats and 20,000 onlookers), which goes to show how rough the early counts were. In 1984 footage of the parade turned up in Cold Chisel's video for "Saturday Night".

The Royal Hall of Industries at Moore Park. With the Hordern Pavilion next door, it was home to the Mardi Gras party for decades. Photo: Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The parties became famous. The Royal Hall of Industries and the Hordern Pavilion at the old Showground became the party's home, and the money from the parties paid for the parade and the festival. According to the Mardi Gras timeline, the 1989 party drew a record 15,000 and that year's Sleaze Ball was the first Mardi Gras party to sell out.

The AIDS years

Mardi Gras's own history notes that Australia's first AIDS case was diagnosed in Sydney in 1982, and by the time decriminalisation came in 1984 the epidemic was already hitting the community hard. In 1985, amid hysterical media coverage, there were calls to cancel Mardi Gras altogether, and Fred Nile suggested it be replaced with compulsory public lectures about AIDS. The organisers went ahead with the theme "Fighting for Our Lives", the same motto under which community groups had agreed that February to form the AIDS Council of NSW (now ACON). ACON's first float, in 1986, urged gay men to "Get Bold About Safer Sex".

By 1991, more than 1,500 Australians had died of AIDS-related illnesses, and marchers carried placards reading "We Can't Wait" and "AIDS Drugs Now!" In 1992 the parade stopped at 10pm for a minute's silence for those who had died. Many of the 78ers themselves were lost in those years.

Dykes on Bikes and a new name

1988 brought two changes that stuck. The Dykes on Bikes rode in the parade for the first time, and they have led it off ever since. That year Aboriginal dancer Malcolm Cole also created the first First Nations float, dressing as Captain Cook in a longboat pulled by white men in the Bicentenary year. And the organisation changed its name to include the word "Lesbian". The Mardi Gras timeline says this was decided at a Special General Meeting in December 1988; Wikipedia calls it an Extraordinary General Meeting. Either way, by the 1989 season it was the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Dykes on Bikes opening the 2006 parade on Oxford Street. They first rode in 1988 and have led the parade ever since. Photo: Jez Arnold, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The 1990s: On Television and at Its Peak

Crowd estimates in the 1990s get very large, and I would treat them with care, since most come from the organisers. The Mardi Gras timeline gives 200,000 in 1989, half a million in 1993, 650,000 in 1996 and 700,000 in 1998. Wikipedia's longer-term view is that since the mid-1990s the parade has drawn around 200,000 to 250,000 people along the route.

In 1994 the ABC televised the parade for the first time, on the Sunday night after the parade. A petition signed by 90 federal MPs failed to get it shifted, and the broadcast won its timeslot. By 1997 coverage had moved to Channel Ten.

1998 was the 20th anniversary, and it was an emotional one. Around 220 of the original 1978 marchers were invited to lead the parade, and the group that came to be known as the 78ers has led it ever since. It was also the year NSW Police first marched, near the 78ers, under a banner reading "We're here because we care". Both the Mardi Gras timeline and the police's own Pride in Police network date that first police entry to 1998. The 1998 party was the biggest ever, with 27,000 tickets sold, and Fair Day moved that year to its long-time home in Victoria Park.

A word about Fair Day. Sources differ on when it started. Wikipedia says a business association fair joined the Mardi Gras program in 1985 and Mardi Gras took it over in 1989. The Mardi Gras timeline describes the "first Mardi Gras Fair Day" in 1990 at Jubilee Park in Glebe, attracting about 1,000 people. Both agree it outgrew Glebe, and it now draws tens of thousands to Victoria Park.

Crowds at Mardi Gras Fair Day in Victoria Park, Sydney, 2012

Fair Day in Victoria Park, Camperdown, in 2012. It is the big free daytime gathering of the festival. Photo: Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2002: Mardi Gras Goes Broke, and Comes Back

Not many people remember now how close Mardi Gras came to disappearing. As the ABC's History Listen team explained in 2018, the 2001 party was the first in ten years not to sell out. Then came the September 11 attacks and the slump in international travel, rising insurance costs, and higher venue costs after the government sold the Royal Hall of Industries and the Hordern Pavilion. The 2002 parade and party went ahead, but the party sales fell again.

The size of the loss is reported differently. The Mardi Gras timeline puts it at about $500,000 and the ABC says the organisation was more than $500,000 in debt, while Wikipedia and SBS give a loss of $400,000. In August 2002 the company went into voluntary administration.

The community rescued it. ACON, the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, Pride and Queer Screen put together a rescue plan and formed a new organisation, New Mardi Gras, co-chaired by Stevie Clayton and Michael Woodhouse. Volunteers ran things from scratch, shaking donation buckets on stage at the Imperial in Erskineville. The 25th anniversary festival in 2003 went ahead, and the timeline says it made a profit of almost $350,000. The organisation later went back to the name Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

2003 to 2015: Steady Ground

From 2008 the NSW Government began funding Mardi Gras and added it to the state's major events calendar. The 30th anniversary parade that year was described as the largest yet, with about 9,500 participants and 134 floats. In 2010 the parade and party were held on separate Saturdays for the first time, and the last Sleaze Ball was held that year.

In 2011 the organisers tried to change the festival's public name to just "Sydney Mardi Gras" to be more inclusive, but many members argued strongly for keeping "Gay and Lesbian", and the full name was restored. In 2013 the Australian Defence Force marched in uniform for the first time.

2013 was also the year of the rainbow crossing. For the 35th anniversary the City of Sydney painted a temporary rainbow crossing across Oxford Street at Taylor Square. It was removed in April 2013 under a condition set by the roads authority, and the removal sparked a "DIY rainbow" protest, with people chalking rainbows on footpaths all over the country.

The temporary rainbow crossing across Oxford Street at Taylor Square, photographed in March 2013, a few weeks before it was removed. Photo: User:Bidgee, CC BY-SA 3.0 AU, via Wikimedia Commons

2016: The Apologies

The 78ers had waited a long time. In April 2015 the City of Sydney passed a motion calling for a formal apology, and in February 2016 three apologies came within about a week of each other.

On Wednesday 24 February 2016 the Sydney Morning Herald's editor-in-chief, Darren Goodsir, issued a statement: "We acknowledge and apologise for the hurt and suffering that reporting caused. It would never happen today." Some 78ers felt that statement fell short, and in June 2016 Goodsir met a group of them and apologised in person.

The next day, Thursday 25 February 2016, the Liberal member for Coogee, Bruce Notley-Smith, moved a motion of apology in the NSW Legislative Assembly. "For the mistreatment you suffered that evening, I apologise and I say sorry," he said. The motion put on record an apology to the participants of the first Mardi Gras for the harm caused when police broke up the demonstration and the Herald published their names, and for past discrimination against LGBTIQ people. The SMH reported it passed unanimously in both houses, and around 70 of the original marchers and their supporters in the gallery gave a standing ovation.

On 4 March 2016, the day before that year's parade, Superintendent Tony Crandell of Surry Hills apologised on behalf of the NSW Police Force, saying he had Commissioner Andrew Scipione's full support. A number of 78ers said it should have come from the Commissioner himself. That happened in 2018, the 40th anniversary year, when Commissioner Mick Fuller gave a formal apology to the 78ers.

2016 to 2020: Momentum

The 2016 parade was one of the biggest, with more than 170 floats and 12,500 participants according to the organisers. The marriage equality campaign ran through the floats in these years, and after the 2017 postal survey and the change to the Marriage Act, the 40th anniversary in 2018 had a lot to celebrate. More than 200 original marchers led that parade.

In February 2019 the City of Sydney installed a new curved rainbow crossing at the corner of Bourke and Campbell Streets beside Taylor Square, at first on a six-month trial. Mardi Gras described it as the first crossing in the world to have both the shape and colours of a rainbow. The 2020 parade went ahead just before the COVID-19 pandemic reached Australia, and the ABC later noted it was the last public mass gathering before the lockdowns began.

The curved rainbow pedestrian crossing at Taylor Square

The curved rainbow crossing at Bourke and Campbell Streets, Taylor Square, photographed in March 2020. Photo: MDRX, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2021 and 2022: The Parade Moves to the SCG

For the first time ever, the parade left Oxford Street. On 6 March 2021, under COVID rules, it was held as a ticketed event inside the Sydney Cricket Ground, with the theme "Rise". The ABC reported 36,000 people in the seats, and the Mardi Gras put the number of marchers at around 5,000. The Dykes on Bikes still led off, though with 68 bikes instead of the usual 150 to 200. Not everyone was happy about the move, and a few hundred people marched down Oxford Street that day under a health exemption, to keep the street protest alive. The 2022 parade was held at the SCG again.

The 78ers at Mardi Gras 2021, the year COVID took the parade off Oxford Street. The original marchers have led the parade since 1998. Photo: Bruce Baker from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2023: WorldPride Comes to Sydney

In October 2019, InterPride chose Sydney to host WorldPride 2023, the first time it had been held in the southern hemisphere. The combined festival ran from 17 February to 5 March 2023, marking the 45th Mardi Gras.

Just before it began, the NSW Government added the Mardi Gras parade route to the State Heritage Register, including parts of Oxford Street, Flinders Street, Anzac Parade and Darlinghurst Road, and the former Darlinghurst Police Station. The parade came home to Oxford Street on 25 February 2023, and Anthony Albanese became the first sitting Prime Minister to march in it. On 5 March, the Harbour Bridge was closed to traffic and about 50,000 people walked across it in the WorldPride march. I never thought I would see that.

The Sydney Opera House lit up in pride colours for WorldPride 2023

The Opera House sails lit up for WorldPride in February 2023. Photo: Tristien, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2024 to 2026: Hard Questions and a Heritage Listing

In February 2024, Qtopia Sydney opened as a permanent centre for queer history and culture in the old Darlinghurst Police Station at 301 Forbes Street, the very building where the 1978 marchers were held. The 2024 parade, on 2 March, took place under a shadow. The alleged murders of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies by a serving police officer led the Mardi Gras board to ask police not to march; after talks with Commissioner Karen Webb, officers marched out of uniform. The parade, under the theme "Our Future", opened with a minute's silence at Taylor Square, and the ABC reported about 12,000 marchers and some 200 floats. In 2025 the theme was "Free to Be".

The 2026 festival ran from 13 February to 1 March under the theme "Ecstatica", with Fair Day at Victoria Park on 15 February. It was a tough year for the organisation. On 3 February, chief executive Jesse Matheson announced that the official post-parade party, which had once drawn Kylie, Cher and Dua Lipa, would not go ahead because of significant financial losses, though he said the organisation was committed to bringing it back. The parade itself went ahead on Saturday 28 February 2026. The ABC reported more than 150 floats and 9,000 marchers, a noticeably smaller crowd than the year before and a heavy police presence after the Bondi terror attack in December. The 78ers marched with a banner from 1978: "Stop Police Attacks on Gays, Women and Blacks".

Two days earlier, on 26 February 2026, the federal government added the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade Route to the National Heritage List, covering both the original 1978 route and today's route. For a stretch of road where people were arrested and bashed for walking down it, that is quite a turnaround.

Timeline at a Glance

24 June 1978 – First Mardi Gras; 53 arrested at Kings Cross and held at Darlinghurst Police Station.
27 June 1978 – Sydney Morning Herald publishes names, addresses and occupations of those arrested.
27 August 1978 – Another 104 arrested at a protest; 178 arrests in all, by the Mardi Gras count.
1979 – Second Mardi Gras, about 3,000 people, no arrests; Summary Offences Act repealed.
1980 – First post-parade party, Paddington Town Hall; decision to move to summer.
1981 – First summer parade (postponed by rain to 21 March) as the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras.
1982 – Anti-Discrimination Act amended; first Showground party and first Sleaze Ball.
May 1984 – Male homosexuality decriminalised in NSW.
1985 – "Fighting for Our Lives" parade in the face of AIDS hysteria.
1988 – First Dykes on Bikes and first First Nations float; name changed to include "Lesbian".
1994 – First television broadcast, on the ABC.
1998 – 20th anniversary; 78ers lead the parade; NSW Police march for the first time.
2002 – Organisation goes into voluntary administration; New Mardi Gras formed.
2013 – Temporary rainbow crossing at Taylor Square.
February–March 2016 – Apologies from the SMH, NSW Parliament and NSW Police.
2018 – Police Commissioner Mick Fuller's formal apology.
2019 – Curved rainbow crossing at Bourke and Campbell Streets.
2021–2022 – Parade held at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
2023 – State heritage listing; WorldPride; 50,000 walk the Harbour Bridge.
2024 – Qtopia opens in the old Darlinghurst Police Station.
2026 – Party cancelled; route added to the National Heritage List; 48th parade on 28 February.

Visiting: Seeing It Today

You can walk the whole 1978 story in an hour or so. Start at Taylor Square, outside the Darlinghurst Courthouse, where the crowd gathered. A short walk up Forbes Street brings you to the old Darlinghurst Police Station, now Qtopia Sydney, which also uses the old substation and the underground toilet block at the northern end of Taylor Square. Have a look at the rainbow crossing at Bourke and Campbell Streets on the way.

Then follow the 1978 route down Oxford Street towards Hyde Park, up College Street and William Street to the Coca-Cola sign, and along Darlinghurst Road to the El Alamein Fountain. For today's parade route, carry on from Taylor Square down Flinders Street towards Moore Park.

On a plaque: First Mardi Gras Inc., the 78ers' own group, reported in March 2023 that the City of Sydney had put up a temporary plaque about the first Mardi Gras on a pole on the Kinselas side of Taylor Square, with a permanent one planned. I have not been able to confirm the permanent one, so keep an eye out when you are there.

If you want to dig further, the Pride History Group has recorded oral histories with people who were there, and the Australian Queer Archives, the City of Sydney Archives and the State Library of NSW hold posters, photographs and papers. Fair Day in Victoria Park, held each February, is free, and the 78ers usually have a tent there.

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