"no bush!!" - did anybody go???

1000 women go nude in protest
February 08, 2003

UP to 1,000 naked women gathered on a hillside in northern NSW today to send an anti-war message to the Australian government.

A local police spokesman said the female adults and children converged on a private property in the hills behind Byron Bay to stage the protest.

Hundreds of women bared all in an aerial photo shoot, their naked bodies formed a heart around the words "No War".

The women said they wanted to send Prime Minister John Howard a message to recall Australian troops from the Middle East.

"The protest was not visible to any other public area, we were there to ensure the women were not bothered by outsiders," he told AAP.

Organiser Grace Knight reportedly said she was uncomfortable with the idea of nakedness but it was the best way to demonstrate how strongly women felt about the threat of war.

The protest was one of a number of similar nude protests take around the world, in a climate of increasing anti-war sentiment.

Yesterday, about 30 women scurried into the heart of Central Park in New York City, disrobing amid steady snowfall to display their deep misgivings about war.

In shivering temperatures, the American women used their naked bodies to spell out the words, No Bush.