Michael,

I appreciated your previous post for its more grounded tone and the effort to find areas of agreement - but with this latest one, we’re back to poetic myth-making. Which is fine, if you’re writing folk ballads. But if you’re claiming historical record or political insight, then I’d suggest a little more caution with the metaphors.

We’re now equating a crowd at Flagstaff Gardens to the Spartans at Thermopylae and the Anzacs and the Eureka Stockade, while quoting protest songs about “bullets flying” and “we’ve already won.” I understand symbolism, truly. But symbolism shouldn’t become a substitute for accuracy.

You say 150,000 marched. That number is unverified and heavily disputed. Even the highest credible estimates put it well below that. To compare it to an AFL Grand Final or the Vietnam Moratorium without hard data is simply rhetorical inflation.

As for Sutton’s recent comments, yes, he acknowledged that some measures may not have been necessary. That’s not the same as declaring the pandemic response a mistake or vindicating early protests. Every public health strategy is revised in hindsight, that’s not proof that the protestors “had it right all along.” If you believe a few retrospective regrets = total vindication, then I fear you’re only listening for the notes that flatter your tune.

And finally, no, I don’t “dislike” your article. I disagreed with it. Strongly. But there’s a difference between disagreement and dislike. One is intellectual. The other is emotional. I’m doing my best to stick to the former. I’d ask the same in return.

Paul1405,
Thanks for reminding us about the significance of Jack Lang’s dismissal. Huge numbers gathered in support of Lang. How can we know the accurate numbers?

I’ve seen photos of the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Could that have been the biggest gathering of people ever for one event in Australia’s history? That was just a short time before the dismissal of the NSW Premier, two events linked in history, and the grand numbers that turned up for the Bridge opening would have been also due to the popularity of Jack Lang.

Previously, I’ve always wondered whether the Billy Graham Crusades in the late 1950s drew by the largest crowds in Australia’s history. I have one good friend in his 80s now who was present and dearly remembers those events at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. As there was no actual sport on the day, the people could spill out onto the playing surface, and so the estimated crowd in attendance was able to surpass the normal stadium capacity, to that of over 120,000, larger than the official attendance record for a football match, the 1970 VFL Grand Final.

John Daysh,
Thanks for being willing to critique what I’ve written, and your desire to see history written accurately and placed in proper perspective.

In my article, I quoted Topher Field as speaking in front of 150,000 people at Flagstaff Gardens in Melbourne, saying that. ‘Future generations are watching us. They are reading about this moment in a history book.’ Therefore I owe it to Topher Field, and to the future generations to be accurate in what I say.

One similar comparison between the Melbourne protesters on September 5, 2020, and Leonidas’ contingent in 480 BC is that there were 300 of them. This number was arrived at by independent verification.

As stated, I was not comparing the two events for the levels of violence, or that Leonidas’ men were a battle contingent facing overwhelming numbers, who knew that their fate would likely end in death. I was comparing them for their defiance, and bravery to stand up to a bully, in support of their independence and self-determination, and for their capacity to inspire greater numbers to follow behind them in support of their cause.

In my article, I did link a YouTube video which attempts to photograph large sections of the crowd as evidence. I remember one ABC article that quoted ‘at least 100,000’. Anything much over 100,000 would make it bigger than today’s AFL Grand Final.

These protests at Flagstaff Gardens in November 2021 were also linked to the Canberra protests of early 2022, inspired by the Canadian truckers who gathered in their capital, Ottawa, to protest compulsory ‘vaccines’, with similar protests in the New Zealand capital, Wellington. The tens of thousands in Canberra were admitted, even by the ABC, to be the largest protests in Canberra’s history, though the mainstream media were playing down these protests at the time, as none of the protesters were likely voting Labor or Liberal in the forthcoming 2022 Federal election.

The numbers were big, but as Paul1405 suggests, for comparison with the Lang dismissal or Vietnam War Moratoriums, we could perhaps consider the size of the population for proportionality.

John Daysh,
The events of the Lang Dismissal, or Whitlam’s dismissal in 1975, or Vietnam War protests, were all controversial. And the same with the events of the COVID era. Topher Field, as quoted in my article, believes these events will be read about by future generations.

But at least for the moment, there are differing views on the matter. Though I believe it’s reasonable to qualify the protesters on September 5 as those standing up for human rights, and standing against tyranny. The forced impositions and destructive nature of compulsory lockdowns and mandates against the will of so many ordinary people ere what made it so.

If the government were just giving health advice or recommendations, it would have been different. But our politicians and CHOs lost their heads in drunken power. So, just five years later, for Brett Sutton to turn around last week and say, ‘Maybe we will agree as a society that we never want to do that (lockdown) again,’ or say as he did, “There are other ways to manage stuff,’ is now inexcusable.

Anyone numerate with a modest IQ could have known this from early 2020. Their whole mismanagement was an epic, avoidable disaster, worthy of historical accountability.

Michael Viljoen

Hi Michael,

In the days when the population was much smaller, and transportation more difficult, its surprising what large numbers gathered for events, like those described. Sporting events would draw very large crowds. The Old Man was at both the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Centennial Park show of support for Lang. It was reported that 400,000 attended the Papal Mass led by Pope Benedict XVI at Randwick Racecourse for World Youth Day in 2008. This event was the largest gathering in Australia's history at the time, with hundreds of thousands more watching the event on large screens in nearby Centennial Park.

I stand corrected on Lang and 250,000 in 1932.

Just to add;

The Kumbh Mela, a Hindu religious festival in India, is the largest human gathering on Earth, with millions, and even hundreds of millions, of pilgrims participating over its 48-day duration, with the 2013 event in Prayagraj (Allahabad) drawing an estimated 30 million people