'The Domain was an exciting place during the long Vietnam War … University students reinforced the steady crowd for nearly two decades. May Day marches would end in the Domain. Speaker after speaker would rally the people to oppose the system that led to a useless war where young lives were wasted.'

- Steve Maxwell, Soapbox oratory, 1994

Evangelist Ada Green (detail), Sydney Domain, 1964, Raymond de Berquelle

For almost a century Speakers Corner in Sydney’s Domain provided a forum for individuals to exercise freedom of speech. Impassioned speakers declared points of view on politics, sexuality or religion, while punters young and old came to be entertained, informed or to join in the debate.

Two Sydney photographers, Raymond de Berquelle and Trevern Dawes, independently documented Sydney’s popular soapbox forum in its heyday during the Vietnam War. It was a period of great social change with women’s liberation and new sexual freedoms. University students flocked to the Domain to hear sermons on everything from free love to conscription.

One of the most popular speakers of the era was John Webster, who regularly attracted large crowds. He discussed everything from the formation of Israel to the Catholic Church, free love, and the individual’s ‘inalienable right to be kinky’. Originally from England, Webster had been schooled at London’s Speakers Corner before arriving in Australia in the 1950s. He aimed to be shocking and provocative in order to get people thinking. Standing on his stepladder, he declared himself one of Sydney’s landmarks, along with the Harbour Bridge and Botanic Gardens.

Another regular was Sister Ada Green who preached in the Domain every Sunday afternoon for 33 years. Not part of any organised church, she simply aimed to ‘save souls for Jesus’. She would start off singing hymns and beating her timbrel alone until a crowd gathered, before joining a small group of other Christians for spirited songs and preaching.

The Wizard, formerly Ian Channell, danced, blew bubbles and preached ‘fun revolution’ in the Domain during the late 1960s. A lecturer at the University of New South Wales at the time, he declared that his generation were too committed to ‘the system’ and set out to spread magic and mayhem on the world. Today he lives in New Zealand and spreads his word via the internet and his wizard website.

The tradition of soapbox oratory was inherited from London’s Hyde Park. In Sydney, Speakers Corner began in 1878, with heated debates taking place between Catholics and Protestants. It was a safety valve for the city’s problems at a time of low wages and overcrowded urban conditions.

The highest attendances at Speakers Corner occurred in times of trouble or societal change: in the lead up to Federation in 1900, over the issue of conscription during WWI, the Cold War of the 1950s, and more recently in the 1960s and early 1970s when Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War was a burning issue.   

Inara Walden
Curator

First published in Insites, Autumn 2006

Speakers Corner was on at Museum of Sydney 4 March 2006 - 27 August 2006