Speakers' Corner form was banned following a serious riot between Catholics and Orangemen. However, following the formalisation of free speech in Speakers' Corner in London it was decided in 1878 that The Domain would be the place for free speech in Sydney. In 'Diary of a Voyage to Australia, New Zealand and other lands' (published 1896), Robert Roberts notes that "On the west side [of a particular location] is a feature peculiar to Sydney in all the world - a preaching park. There are of course, parks in other cities where open-air spouting is practiced on Sundays, such as Hyde Park, in
Speakers' Corner, Singapore for J.B. Jeyaretnam, the late leader of the opposition Reform Party, at Speakers' Corner on 5 January 2010. At the event, several opposition politicians shared with the public their experiences with Jeyaretnam. In September 2010, "Today" newspaper reported that statistics from the National Parks Board indicated that the number of groups registering to stage events at Speakers' Corner had fallen from 39 between September 2008 and August 2009, to nine between September 2009 and August 2010. The number of individuals registering dropped from 102 to 57 during the same periods. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who was Prime Minister when