On February 9th there was an opportunity to photograph a rally in Sydney - something I thought would be a good lesson and to help 'test' my skills.

It turns out bringing a camera and being polite gives you quite a lot of access - the police even allowing me in-between their lines, with the occasional "I'm media" needed to quell any suspicions.

What was a peaceful protest, quickly escalated when the rally was deemed over. As a result of the major event designation, protesters had nowhere to go. Initially there was good cooperation from the crowd, but then an officer pushed his bike into a woman and clearly hurt her. When she got angry, another officer pushed her into the crowd and other bystanders, who fell over, started yelling. A number of other officers joined the fray - grabbing and forcefully throwing protesters onto the ground.

This scene repeated itself for almost an hour.

With pepper spray starting to affect my breathing, I witnessed a police officer punching a man in the head, while he was laying on the ground with his arms behind him.

Upon yelling at the police officer to stop, I was threatened with arrest and given a 'move on' order.