Last Monday Sydney and Melbourne had protests against the visit by President Isaac Herzog of Israel. There were two different outcomes; Melbourne’s lively protest crowd in front of Flinders St Station dispersed peacefully. In Sydney the opposite: a violent melee, near riot, with NSW police using pepper spray, pushing and punching.

The reason was attributed to a variety of factors, principally a difference in the Premier's approach. Whilst that may be true, I think the major factor in the divergent outcomes was the difference in the places where the protest were held.

Melbourne has several urban spaces readily made for such gatherings: the square outside State Parliament with speakers on steps; Flinders St with the station entrance as a timely backdrop; the enclosed plaza of nearby Federation Square (despite its undulating surface); and the broad way of Swanston St, with the library’s stately presence.

By contrast Sydney has few comparable spaces. An angry palisade fence and a border gate defend the State Parliament forecourt, where protest is restricted to a single file of placards; most streets are narrow angled, and noisier; Martin Place is full of interruptions; and the Opera House forecourt is now off-limits.

Circular Quay, which Winston Barnett called a wet plaza, currently suffers from the noisy railway line and overhead motorway, but could be ideal with the railway underground, and motorway gone, as discussed here.

Minns tried to force the protest into Hyde Park. Either complete ignorance of how urban spaces work; or more likely a clever move, knowing that you can't easily demonstrate in the middle of a park dominated by a huge round fountain. No elevated platform, no enclosure for sound and hopeless for TV imagery. And no tradition as a place of protest.

The organisers knew better about urban spaces for gathering people. The square between Town Hall and St. Andrews Cathedral, although cramped and cluttered, is Sydney’s best protest place now.

Enclosed by Sydney yellow block sandstone, with signifiers of State and Church on either side, good acoustics from entry patio steps, it looks great in Insta and on the news. And mass public transport on the doorstep.

For years, Lord Mayor Clover Moore has wanted to create a larger public square centred on Town Hall, by extending the space across the new George Street light rail lines and demolishing the Woolworths opposite.

Which begs the question of the need for a bigger space, opening on to more streets, helping the crucial issue of crowd dispersal. This was the major difference between protest places in the two cities on Monday night.

Jacinta Allan, with a more sophisticated understanding of crowds, and the benefit of multiple wider streets for crowd dispersal, told police to help, not hinder. Minns’ instructions to the Riot Squad seemed to be deliberately antagonistic: Don’t let anyone out of the square, even to catch a train or light rail.

We know Minns makes poor calls with a “punch first, defend later” approach. The Bondi bridge saga discussed here is testament. But the government responses that followed was truly top Trump. 'Kettle the cattle', and the violence follows like clockwork. “Don't believe your eyes. "The protesters were at fault. I back the police". Do they have immunity just like ICE?. Hopefully that won’t wash here.

Two suggestions for better protest places. You can gather on the Opera House forecourt, speakers on steps and high ground for cameras behind. Protesters can walk to State Parliament, the focus of so much grief, on Macquarie St (less traffic) or through the Gardens, crossing only one road. Better optics, far easier and safer to manage.

Then there’s Broadway. In the 1960s and 70s, the Vietnam moratorium marches left Sydney University, gathered in Victoria Park and marched down the 6 lane road of Broadway into the city, or Belmore Park at Central. That broad area is a great space for protest as this image of a more celebratory demo from 10 years ago demonstrates.

Until Sydney learns from Melbourne, and develops decent public squares, say at Circular Quay or Town Hall, or opens the Sydney Opera House forecourt, we need to better manage what we have for protests.

Cross-Sections are Friday musings from Tone Wheeler, formerly of Tone on Tuesday. Amateurs draw plans, professionals draw sections; never at cross purposes.

Tone Wheeler

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