今日吃瓜

Member for Sydney and Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek is supporting a bid to include the original 1978 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade Route on the National Heritage List.

The route has been nominated by The Heritage Council of NSW, who added the route to the state’s heritage list last year, alongside the support of the original 78ers who marched in the first Mardi Gras. The site includes Oxford Street, Flinders Street and Anzac Parade, as well as the old Darlinghurst Police Station where 53 78ers spent the night after being arrested by police, some being beaten by officers in the cells. The station is no longer operational and became home to Australian LGBTQIA+ history museum, QTopia, earlier this year.

鈥淭hese Sydney streets were the beating heart of queer political activism in Australia and the 78ers鈥檚 legacy lives on,” said Plibersek.

鈥淭he potential heritage listing acknowledges the pain, violence and discrimination the 78ers fought against, and the celebration of love and diversity at the heart of Mardi Gras every year.”

Although Mardi Gras is today celebrated at the beginning of March, the original parade took place in the middle of winter on 24 June, 1978, with hundreds of people joining in, hearing the calls of “out of the bars and into the streets” by the parade-goers.

“The parade route is very special to us, as it is to all the generations who have marched up and down it over the years,” said 78er Karl Zlotkowski.

“The stretch from Taylor Square to Whitlam Square is really part of the happy stretch of the first Mardi Gras.

“It was once the parade reached the bottom of the hill at Hyde Park that things started to go pear shaped.”

The event quickly soured, police confiscating the truck that led the parade and quickly turning violent, blocking people from leaving the scene and arresting them. Those who were arrested were publicly named and shamed the next morning in the Sydney Morning Herald, and many lost their jobs, families, and housing. Some even took their own lives.

78ers say they never imagined Mardi Gras route would become historic & heritage listed

Mardi Gras as it exists today is one of Australia’s biggest annual events, with celebrations stretching out over two weeks at the end of summer.

“I never conceived that the parade would even continue, let alone the route be heritage listed,” said Chair of the NSW Heritage Council and original 78er, Frank Howarth.

“I don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 anything like this on the Australian heritage list that has something to do with queer culture, a mix of protest and celebration. It鈥檚 probably one of the few in the world that has national recognition. It鈥檚 a major landmark.鈥�

If the parade route is approved for the National Heritage List, it will join other Australian icons like the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Centennial Park.

The route has been added to the National Heritage Finalised Priority Assessment List (FPAL) and will be assessed by the . There will be extensive community consultation and further research before a decision is made, but we can expect it early next year, hopefully just in time for the 47th Mardi Gras.