Scuffles broke out at anti‑immigration rallies held in multiple Australian cities, with Melbourne and Adelaide seeing the most heated confrontations. In Melbourne’s CBD, police used pepper spray to disperse tensions after anti‑immigration demonstrators clashed with participants from a nearby pro‑Palestine rally.
Hundreds of officers, including mounted police, formed barricades on Swanston Street near Flinders Street Station to keep the groups apart. Despite the blockade, both sides moved through other streets, converging again on Bourke Street where police intervened to separate them. At one point, a glass bottle was thrown, shattering near the pro‑Palestine group.
In Adelaide, a rally was abruptly halted when a man identifying himself as a member of the National Socialist Network took the stage to call for an end to immigration. Organisers attempted to stop him, but a brief altercation followed before police stepped in. Authorities estimate around 15,000 people attended the rally and counter‑rally in the city, describing the overall crowd behaviour as “generally well‑behaved.”
The “March for Australia” events took place in all capital cities and several regional centres, with counter‑protests organised in many locations. While some attendees insisted the rallies were not about race and focused solely on reducing migration, a banner reading “white unity at every opportunity” was seen at the Sydney gathering, underscoring the divisive nature of the demonstrations.
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