You may never have heard of Dave Burgess and Will Saunders, but you will almost certainly have seen their handiwork.
Twenty-one years ago the pair boldly defaced the Sydney Opera House in an act of defiance against the impending war in Iraq.
Now, the pair reveal how they pulled off the historic protest with a couple of tins of paint and how they view their actions all these years later.
If you wandered through the streets of Australia's major cities at the beginning of 2003 you would have likely encountered anti-war signs and impassioned peace rallies.
It was less than two years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Centre buildings.
The "War on Terror" ensued.
The political rhetoric in the West, led by the United States, pushed for the disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Under the leadership of former prime minister John Howard, Australia committed to supporting the US by joining a coalition of military forces to invade Iraq.
While many Australians were supportive of Howard's decision, large sections of the country were furious, and they voted with their feet.
Across the country, crowds in the hundreds of thousands took part in consecutive days of anti-war demonstrations.
"It was this awful, awful feeling of being disempowered," Will said.
"[It felt like] people more powerful than you were doing things over which you had no control that would be a catastrophe."
On February 14, coordinated peace rallies were held worldwide.
"Half a million people marched across Australia," Dave said.
"It was mums and dads. It was people … who'd never protested before."
Dave and Will were among the many thousands who took to the streets in the demonstrations.
This was a time before the smartphone and social media, when showing up and stepping out was the most effective way of having your voice heard.
The protests were the biggest Australia had seen since the Vietnam War and, at the time, organisers said it showed Australians were clearly opposed to engaging in the conflict in Iraq.
Famous Australians used their celebrity to influence change, and zealous protesters got creative with signs and costumes to attract media and political attention.
And then, on the morning of March 18, Sydneysiders woke to two bold red words blazoned at the top of one of the country's most famous icons.
The message in vivid paint on the main sail of the Sydney Opera House was succinct.
The powerful anti-war statement was beamed to countries around the world.
But, at a height of 67 metres and plastered across one of the city's most prominent tourist attractions, its execution was by no means simple.
The brains behind the protest
Sitting in a Sydney pub, two determined mates preconceived the peaceful protest.
Conservationist Dave, 33, and Will, a 42-year-old English astronomer, aimed to let the world know that Australians were not on board with Howard's decision.
The pair had initially planned to graffiti a wall in an inner Sydney suburb.
But they decided it wouldn't get enough cut-through.
Dave shared his story of how the protest evolved in the new ABC series, Tony Armstrong's Extra-Ordinary Things.
"It began with Will's anger. [He] was seething [and] you could sense the rest of the country was too," Dave said.
"Will suddenly said, 'I want to do something. I've got this tin of paint. Let's paint a wall in Newtown.'
"And I sort rolled my eyes and said, 'Another wall in Newtown for graffiti.'"
So, they started to think bigger and bolder.
But they needed a much larger blank canvas.
Dave half-jokingly suggested the top sail of the Opera House, but they weren't sure if it was worth the consequences.
"I did this double take because he's right; it's the obvious place, but am I really brave enough to do it?" Will said.
After several further conversations, a decision was made.
"[Will] finally decided he might be prepared to get deported for the act. And we were on," Dave said.
"Neither of us wanted to bottle out for fear of letting down the other person," Will said.
And so began their planning to execute the now-historic protest.
Making it happen
It started with a reconnaissance trip around the Opera House concourse to see if climbing to the top was achievable.
"I could see that there was a route quite feasible to get up," Will said.
They bought extendable paint rollers with handles that were 5 metres long, and Will rehearsed his painting technique after learning from a previous protest.
"We'd done a bridge over a freeway, somewhere in North Sydney and we found we were writing "RAW ON" instead of "NO WAR" war," he laughs.
"I mean, it's not easy writing upside down [and] backwards."
After rain aborted their first attempt the previous day, Sydney awoke to brilliant blue skies and Dave and Will's mission was on.
They began disguised as backpackers.
They strategically placed Australian flags to conceal the long handles of their paint rollers, which were sticking out of their backpacks.
Then, just before 9:00am, Dave and Will began free-climbing up the outside of the Opera House while lugging two tins of thick red pavement paint, their paint rollers and a paint tray — all now considered historic memorabilia.
They used cracks between the tiles as finger and toeholds to reach the base of the main sail.
It wasn't a feat for the faint-hearted.
"The five- to 10-metre mark was the hairiest point and enough of a fall to do you damage," Dave said.
"But once we were beyond [that], I knew we were going all the way."
Anticipating hasty police intervention, Dave and Will blocked an access point and left a note to assure the arresting officers that they were peaceful protesters.
The pair then climbed up the sail's maintenance gutter, holding on to the handrails all the way to the top.
But they had no time to admire the 360-degree views of Sydney's glistening harbour.
Loading..."It was my job once up there to pour the paint in [the tray] and talk to the police on the phone while Will got on with very neatly writing 'NO WAR,'" Dave said.
They had only 20 minutes to finish their handiwork before the police caught up to them.
When officers reached them at the top, knowing they were about to be arrested, Dave made an unexpected request.
"After they'd stopped us, I said to the cops, 'Look, we're never gonna be up here again in our lives. Can we all take a minute to have a look?'" he said.
"And they all nodded.
"Then it was on with business."
Loading...The fallout
After Dave and Will were arrested, they were charged with malicious damage and remained unapologetic.
"All we've done is paint a building. We haven't gone to war and bombed a whole nation," Dave told reporters after a court appearance.
However, their choice to use pavement paint proved an expensive one.
The paint wasn't water-based, which created an arduous task for Opera House cleaners.
"The paint was completely removed from the western sail using a combination of paint-dissolving chemicals, high-pressure hoses and perseverance," a spokesperson for the Sydney Opera House told the ABC.
"It was a painstaking task but resulted in the tiles being left paint-free."
Dave and Will were ordered to pay the $151,000 cleaning bill.
Which is about $250,000 in today's money.
The Sydney Opera House chief executive at the time, Norm Gillespie, described their actions as "an act of reckless vandalism".
"While we appreciate the right of every Australian to make [a] peaceful protest, we think this is a totally unacceptable way of doing it," he said.
"To deface such a wonderful tourist [and] international icon as this is really quite disgraceful."
After several court appearances, Will wasn't deported, but both he and Dave were convicted and sentenced to nine months of weekend detention, which they served in Sydney's Silverwater Prison.
Judge Anthony Blackmore described their actions as a serious crime and said a deterrent was needed to prevent damage to other iconic buildings.
"Whether it was caused by an irresponsible drunken man or one making a serious political point, it makes little difference," he said.
Over the three years that followed, Dave and Will saved enough money to pay their hefty fine in a very Australian way.
Unable to profit from their crime, they accepted donations for imitation Opera House protest snow globes.
In red pen, they wrote tiny "NO WAR" graffiti on the main sail.
"It was funny, and everybody wanted one. Even the people at the Opera House. Even the police," Will said.
"I would go to prison, come back on a Sunday afternoon and sit there in my yard [painting them].
"It was just like at school if you've been bad and you have to write on the blackboard 100 times, you know, 'I must not paint on Opera Houses.'"
Upon reflection
Two days after Dave and Will's protest, Australia's involvement in the Iraq War proceeded and coalition forces invaded.
In less than a month, Baghdad was captured and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was overthrown.
Iraq was subsequently occupied for eight years by coalition forces and it steadily descended into ongoing sectarian violence and civil war.
Reports vary significantly on the number of Iraqi deaths the conflict has caused.
One joint study from the US, Canada and Iraq has estimated that 500,000 people died in Iraq between 2003 and 2011 as a result of the invasion.
The War on Terror soon escalated in Afghanistan, with the lives of 47 members of the Australian military lost.
And now, two decades on, a different war is being waged in the Middle East and the Opera House is still being used as a protest focal point.
A Sydney Opera House spokesperson told the ABC Australians "have a passion and sense of ownership" toward the building, but did not comment specifically about the significance of the famous Iraq War protest.
"The Opera House is a globally recognised symbol of Australia, which has played a role in many significant events over the past 50 years," the spokesperson said.
"Our ongoing responsibility is to protect the building and its cultural heritage."
Now living in France, when Will reflects on his protest with Dave, he has no regrets.
"For me, it's all just ancient history. It's all just nice and sometimes funny stories. I live in another country, I have a completely different life," he said.
"But for the poor Iraqis, it just goes on and on and on — this horror that was inflicted on them, living in this inescapable nightmare.
"What luxury I have as a Westerner, just to be able to do my protest and to move on."
As he has followed the conflict presently occurring in Gaza, Will said the feelings of disempowerment that he felt in 2003 have resurfaced.
"[I'm] looking for something to do [to make a difference] without getting there this time," he said.
"I feel that perhaps there will be a political solution that comes out of it.
"Perhaps there has to be darkness before the dawn. But we'll see."
Editors note, 31/05/2024: An earlier version of this article stated that the "NO WAR" protest on the Sydney Opera House was painted over. The article has been changed to clarify this was not the case.
Credits:
- Reporter and digital producer: Fiona Purcell
- Photography: Freemantle Media, AAP, AFP, Getty Images
- Video: ABC News,
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