Organizers said up to 5,000 people attended the protest at Martin Place; police estimated the number was closer to 3,000.
Chants from the crowd included “women united will never be defeated” and “when women’s rights are under attack, what do we do, stand up, fight back.” Some carried banners with messages such as “Girl Power vs. Trump Tower” and “Dump the Trump.”
A separate group of about 30 Trump supporters also held a rally in Sydney. The police physically restrained some of them, blocking them from entering the same area as the anti-Trump protest group.
Protest organizers in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, said about 700 people turned out there for a women’s march. Marches were also held in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Protesters also joined together to march in Nairobi, Kenya — the African nation that was home to former President Barack Obama’s father.
Marchers in Cape Town carried banners with slogans such as “climate change is a women’s issue” and “so over mediocre men running things.”
Europe marches
Big crowds turned out Saturday in dozens of cities across Europe, with marchers including men, women and children.
Protesters who gathered outside one of Rome’s most famous structures, the Pantheon, on Saturday morning carried signs such as “Yes we must” and “Women’s rights are human rights.”
Demonstrators also took to the streets of Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and other cities in Germany.
Katy Rea, who was at the march in Berlin, told CNN: “There are around 1,000 people. Lots of families, children. Very friendly atmosphere. Some police are present, but it’s tame and relaxed.”
Marches were also planned in cities up and down the United Kingdom, from London to Cardiff, Liverpool, Belfast and Edinburgh.
In London, thousands were expected to join a march starting outside the US Embassy and ending with a rally in the city’s historic Trafalgar Square.
Marcher Victoria Dawson told CNN the atmosphere was “positive, inclusive, electric.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who before the US presidential election told CNN that
Trump’s views of Islam were “ignorant” – posted a tweet encouraging Londoners to join the march and “show how much we value the rights every woman should have.”
On Friday night, a crowd of predominantly female protesters
gathered in Brussels, Belgium, to denounce sexism and protest against Trump.
The Women’s March on Washington, which begins at 10 a.m. ET near Capitol Hill, comes on the
HEELS of a
slew of protests there on Inauguration Day.
Thousands of people have also been
busy making cat-eared knit hats to wear at the march, with the aim of creating a “sea of pink” on the National Mall.
Organizers of the so-called
Pussyhat Project said they have received tens of thousands of handmade hats to distribute to marchers, with submissions flooding in from all 50 states and as far away as France and New Zealand.
Credit: CNN’s Rebecca Wright and Alison Daye contributed to this report.