Guest contributor Diane Minnis looks back at news file footage of the seminal lesbian and gay rights protests that followed the first Mardi Gras in Sydney, 1978.

Ten News file footage of a gay rights demonstration that saw 300 people march from the fourth National Homosexual Conference at Paddington Town Hall to Taylor Square and Hyde Park in Sydney, 27 Aug

Please note: this clip contains descriptions of violence and some scenes of violent arrest. The last three minutes of this clip are silent.

Ten News file footage of a Gay Rights demonstration and and anti-abortion demonstration that took place at Hyde Park on 27 August 1978.

File footage of a Gay Rights protest from 15 July 1978 that went through Sydney CBD, William Street, Kings Cross, outside Darlinghurst Police Centre to Hyde Park.

During the 1988

An Aboriginal protest march took place on Australia’s bicentenary 26 January 1988.

Fed up with being excluded from drinking in public bars just because they were women, in March 1965 Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bogner chained themselves to the bar of the Regatta Hotel, Brisbane in

Zelda D'Aprano (1928–2018) spent much of her life as a working-class crusader for women's rights.