Police told the chief magistrate in Brisbane that their estimate of 10,000 people could not safely march over the Story Bridge on Sunday, the 24th of August 2025. In refusing organizers Justice for Palestine Magan-djin her authorisation to march over the bridge, Magistrate Brassington accepted their “expert knowledge of major events and planning.”
Queensland’s Acting Assistant Commissioner Rhys Widlman said police were confident of their estimate for the Brisbane .”
He said Queen’s Gardens — where the march began — can hold a maximum of 7,000 people, “for a fact.”
NUMBERS AT THE RALLY 24 August 2025
The parameters are :
- The people who marched passed under the overpass in Melbourne street in 52 Minutes
- A number of people left the rally and did not take part in the march to Musgrave park **
- The march proceeded from Queens Gardens to Musgrave park , a distance of 1.7 Kms.
- This establishes their average speed at 2 kms per hour over the whole march . However, there were delays and bottlenecks along the way which were not in place at the overpass. For this reason , I estimate the speed of the marchers under the overpass should be adjusted to at least 2.5 KM per hour
- The number of marchers in ranks across the road at that overpass varied between 18 and 29. A conservative average is 22. Estimate that the ranks were 1.5 metres apart.
- The calculation becomes : If marchers in ranks of 22 walking 1.5 metres between ranks take 52 minutes to pass a point walking at 2.5 kms/ hour , how many marchers were there?
** There were many people with young children and a good number of older people. It was a warm day. The rally filled George street to Queen street, Elizabeth street down to nearly Albert street, George street to Charlotte street , William street towards Reddacliff place. People on the fringes of the rally could not see and would have had difficulty hearing. The rally speeches took a long time. For these reasons , it would be reasonable to assume that between 15 and 20% of the people who attended the rally did not take part in the march. This means that the numbers of people at the rally was between 36,500 and 38,000.
Assistant Commissioner Rhys Widlman said police were confident of their estimate: The fact that the park was full and the fact that some of the crowd spilled out into the surrounding roadways … is a very good indication for us that we know it’s 10,000,” he added.
So why are police so adamant that the numbers were so much smaller than those actually present?
Was it because that is the number they told the magistrate? Or was it because the chief magistrate put them up on a pedestal and saying she had to accept the advice of experts as to why there would be a crowd crush if people marched over the Story Bridge?
I also wonder whether the low police estimate is advantageous for NOI’s* for future rallies organised by Justice for Palestine Magan-djin 🇵🇸?
Ian Curr, Editor WBT
7 September 2025
* An NOI is a notice of intention required under the Peaceful Assembly Act 1992 for rally and march 2B authorised.
