Giant rainbow road commemorates the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia

Australians can remember the explosively emotional moment when the country overwhelmingly voted for marriage equality in 2017 by wandering down a giant rainbow path in a Sydney park.

Completed in time for the Sydney Mardi Gras, the 90-metre rainbow path stretches through Prince Alfred Park in the inner city Sydney suburb of Surry Hills. Commissioned by the City of Sydney, the path commemorates the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia.

The location, recently renamed Equality Green, was chosen as the place where 30,000 people gathered to hear the results of Australia’s marriage equality postal survey on Nov. 15, 2017.

Australians voted for marriage equality in a non-binding, non-compulsory postal plebiscite, which cost the federal government $122 million. It asked the question: “Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?” and inspired huge pro-marriage equality rallies across the country, and attracted the pledged support of international celebrities like Ellen Degeneres and John Oliver, as well as Big Tech like Twitter, Apple and Google. 

At the same time, opposers ran a brutal, hurtful campaign that caused an immense amount of stress, emotional trauma, and in increase in violence and threats to people in the LGBTQ community.

The survey results saw the “Yes” vote take a thundering win with 7,817,247 responses (61.6 percent) voting for marriage equality — “No” responses totalled 4,873,987 (38.4 percent). It was this result Sydneysiders nervously awaited in Prince Alfred Park, while in Melbourne, people gathered for the announcement outside the State Library of Victoria. When the results were announced, there were tearful, joyous, festival-like celebrations both in these public places and also for many privately at home.

Then, on Dec. 7, Australia’s federal parliament passed legislation amending the Marriage Act 1961 to allow any two people to marry.

The rainbow path was proposed in November 2020 by a local group called the Surry Hills Creative Precinct, and was greenlit by the council after consultation with the community. Finished in time for Mardi Gras, the path was unveiled on Tuesday. 

“This is an idea that came from the community, from the Surry Hills business partnership, from businesses, community members, who wanted to see something joyful celebrating a moment where the community came together and celebrated as one,” says Deputy Lord Mayor Jess Scully in the video above.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore fiercely and publicly backed the “Yes” campaign with the City of Sydney, and was in the park on Nov. 15, 2017 to hear the results. 

“This is a permanent tribute to the moment when more than 30,000 Sydneysiders gathered together to hear the results of the marriage equality postal survey in 2017,” said Moore in a press statement about the path project in November. “The path will represent both the progress we have made towards equality and the long way to go before our LGBTIQ communities are free of discrimination.”

You’ll notice Moore refers to the path as “Sydney’s latest rainbow crossing” in the video above. This global and local symbol of LGBTQ pride and unity joins another permanent rainbow crossing located in Oxford Street, installed five years after the original one was controversially covered with asphalt in the middle of the night by the NSW Government in 2013. They had cried “safety hazard” over a painted, flat road. People responded by drawing their own rainbows in chalk, a viral movement inspired by the DIY Rainbow project started by James Brechney.

The more rainbows the better, we say, especially ones like Sydney’s latest rainbow path that reminds locals who were there of such an immensely important and joyful moment, a true step toward equality for the LGBTQ community, but unfortunately not the last. 

But that day, love won.