The Sydney Harbour Bridge was closed at 11.30am with police estimating at least 90,000 marched. Organisers claim up to 300,000 pro-Palestinian supporters walked in the rain across the bridge from 1.30pm after speeches from Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, Indigenous actor Meyne Wyatt and former Socceroo and Australian of the Year Craig Foster.
Those in the protest included the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, former foreign affairs minister Bob Carr, and federal Labor MP Ed Husic. Shouts of “We are all Palestinian” could be heard from the front of the march.
Text messages from NSW police told people to stop walking across the bridge, and police said they would work with protester organisers to get people off the bridge in a staged manner.
The bridge emptied of people after 4pm, with protesters facing long delays on trains.
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters in Melbourne were met by Victoria police in riot gear, trucks and a barricade as police blocked the plan for the protesters to block the Kings Street Bridge.