Sydney’s silent night on the tragic eve of Mardi Gras
On the eve of Sydney’s Mardi Gras, a sombre hush falls over streets annually enlivened by glittering displays for the silent vigil of murdered couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
Hundreds of people are gathered in a small park in Sydney’s inner-city concrete jungle, marking the silent vigil of murdered couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
Signatures flood the condolences book upon entry, sat in front of the park’s central gazebo. Tissue boxes are placed either side of it.
Bouquets of flowers - predominantly white roses - are laid in the surrounding grass, with pride flags and candles illuminating the display. Speeches are replaced with a television screening a montage of the couple’s life: smiling pictures, loving moments, videos of adventures carried out together.
As the sun sets over Darlinghurst’s Green Park, tears begin to flow over the candid snapshots of two lives cut short by an alleged jilted killer.
Just days after their remains were recovered from the Southern Tablelands and a week after NSW Senior Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon handed himself in to Waverley police station, circles of friends gather with the general public around a portrait of the couple.
The familiar image, splashed across headlines and broadcasts to illustrate the brutality of their shocking death - is reimagined in pastel hues, commemorating two colourful, bright lives.
Long after the montage ends, the crowd remains silent. It plays again, and a line of mourners prepare to lay more flowers - Qantas employees dressed in their flight attendant uniforms wait beside strangers and friends to pen a message for the pair.
Independent MP Alex Greenwich, one of the organisers of the vigil, tells The Australian the evening marks a moment for “friends, colleagues, strangers throughout Sydney to celebrate the lives of Luke and Jesse.”
“This is a significant reminder of the importance of our community looking after each other and that’s something we do at Mardi Gras and that’s something we’re doing tonight,” he adds.
With mere hours until the parade takes over Oxford St, the politician acknowledges a sombre tone will be felt throughout the festivities.
“We can celebrate still, but we have to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make sure that Sydney, NSW and Australia is as safe as possible for the LGBT community,” he says.
“I think it’s so important the relationship between the community and the police repairs itself, but that we are honest about violence that impacts our community and violence within our community.”
Only a few hundred metres away, protests calling for the abolition of the police and the sacking of the country’s largest LGBTQ+ board are brimming to a boiling point by the bleachers set up for spectators across Taylor Square.
Activist group Pride in Protest will hold a separate ‘snap rally’, not affiliated with the vigil, shortly after it concludes.
Brandishing the slogan “No Cops, No Bigots”, the radical group is calling for the sacking of the Mardi Gras board after revoking the decision to ban police from the event for the first time since 1998.
NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb confirmed the force would be marching in plain clothes in a statement on Wednesday, noting the decision was made “in consideration of the sensitivities”.
In a statement posted to social media earlier this week, Pride in Protest said the board’s decision betrayed the community, accusing Mardi Gras organisers of “cracking under police pressure”.
On the eve of Mardi Gras, a city normally euphoric and celebratory, divided only by colourful floats commemorating inclusivity and progress on Oxford St, is split – in mourning and in anger.
Tasmanian couple Rodney and Tracey Dolting booked tickets the moment they saw the vigil was organised.
“It’s impacted our lives - it’s in the papers, it’s on the news every single night. It’s touched us deeply, and while we didn’t know the couple, it shows you can’t take anything for granted,” Rodney tells The Australian.
The pair, who attended their first Mardi Gras four years ago and had attended every subsequent celebration since, admitted they weren’t going to make the trip this year.
“But when we saw what had happened, we knew we had to come and give our support,” Rodney says.
“We booked Thursday and flew out first thing Friday morning to be here - our first Mardi Gras was a real eye opener, being able to people watch and just observing the amount of fun and love that exists in the community - it’s so important.”
The crowd is quiet, their muffled cries heard against a background of classic dance songs - said to be among the pair’s favourites - playing from the speakers.
In a statement issued hours before the vigil, friends of the couple called Mr Davies “incredibly kind”, adding the Qantas employee was a man who had the “world at his feet and wasn’t wasting a minute”
“His energy was infectious, he would lift you up from your lowest points and even in his absence, his positivity continues to lift us up.”
They labelled Mr Baird “the life of every party,”, a person with whom “it didn’t matter if you knew for five minutes or five years – he touched everyone’s lives the moment you met him.
Down the road, where the parade will conclude and transform back into suburbia tomorrow, flowers continue to pile up in front of the couple’s Paddington home.
Since their disappearance two weeks ago, the area and the city has been stupefied by the unfathomable violence.
The display is filled with tokens of the pair’s lives: toy Qantas planes, memories of Baird’s television appearances.
A card with a simple painting of a pink heart remains stuck to the entrance of the cosy terrace they met their chilling fate.
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