Melbourne anti-lockdown rally: Thousands flood CBD as 218 arrested and six police hospitalised

12

View
comments

Police have used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on demonstrators in Melbourne and arrested more than 200 people after an anti-lockdown rally descended into a riot.

More than 4,000 people turned up to the ‘freedom rally’ in the Australian city on Saturday morning and escalated during the afternoon despite Premier Dan Andrews saying the state is on the verge of a Covid catastrophe. 

By late afternoon six officers has been hospitalised – including two with suspected broken noses, one with a broken thumb and the others with concussions – and 218 protesters arrested. 

Police issued 236 fines for breaching coronavirus directions, and have three people in custody for assaulting police. Smaller protests have also erupted in Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns. 

‘While there were some peaceful protestors in attendance, the majority of those who attended came with violence in mind,’ Victoria Police said in response to claims pepper ball rounds and OC foam canisters were fired at demonstrators.

‘The behaviour seen by police was so hostile and aggressive that they were left with no choice but to use all tactics available to them.’

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, scores of disbelieving Australians turned on anti-lockdown protestors who flooded capital cities on Saturday to voice their desire for ‘freedom.’  

Melbourne based doctor Dr Christian Karcher tweeted ‘it is sickening to see this when 2km away patients on ventilators fighting for their lives. Absolutely disgusted.’

Another said she ‘couldn’t believe what was unfolding’ in Melbourne, before labelling the score of protestors ‘selfish and moronic.’ 

A third frustrated Melbourne resident suggested ‘jailing all the protestors’ and to also deny them health care. 

The largest of the three ‘freedom’ rallies in Melbourne congregated on the corner of two central city streets on Saturday morning and demonstrators reportedly combined to form the protest within ’10 seconds of meeting’ with around 700 police on the scene.

The Melbourne protests continued for several hours and at times the emboldened protesters appeared to outnumber officers, breaking through police barricades. 

Residents in attendance were heard chanting ‘sack Dan Andrews’ while holding signs reading ‘vaccines kill’ and ‘open schools and parks now’. 

Men and women marched through the usually quiet locked down streets screaming and waving Eureka flags, a symbol commonly used by white supremacists.

As the Melbourne protests escalated the demonstrators shouted ‘Shame on you, shame on the lot of you’ at police and set off at least six flares.

Officers were forced to fire pellets and use pepper spray on protesters as scenes turned ugly, with multiple arrests carried out.

The disgraceful scenes come after Victoria recorded 61 new Covid cases on Saturday – the highest daily figure since the mammoth 112-day lockdown last year. 

One resident in a CBD tower tipped water on the marchers below and a handful of construction workers yelled that the protesters were ‘idiots’.

As protests kicked off in several cities, the most surprising was in Cairns, where a crowd estimated at 700 ‘took over’ the Cairns Esplanade after being fired up by speeches in a cafe.

They shouted slogans against ‘government control’ and bore anti-vaccine messages.

No uniformed officers appeared to be present, the Cairns Post reported. 

In Sydney 1,500 officers were deployed on Saturday to stop a growing threat posed by protesters who wanted to march on the city’s worst day of the Covid pandemic – with 825 cases recorded.

The huge coordinated police presence and operation appeared to overwhelm protest efforts. 

In Sydney taxi and rideshare services were shut out of the city between 9am and 3pm, with companies facing fines of up to half a million dollars if they take passengers to the central business district and surrounds.

Police also encircled the city with a giant exclusion zone featuring checkpoints and road blocks and also prevented trains from stopping in the central business district. 

A NSW Police spokeswoman said just before 1pm ‘there have been arrests in and around the city’. 

Scuffles broke out around Victoria Park, where one protest was due to begin, at the western edge of the CBD.

Police broke up the group and blocked demonstrators, many of whom were maskless, from walking into the city.

Protestors who did make it into the CBD were moved on by police, with some wrestled to the ground by officers around Town Hall. 

It is understood the demonstrators quickly expressed frustration at the protest’s lack of leadership on encrypted messaging apps, the ABC reported.

‘Where are our leaders?!’ A protester wrote into a Sydney group.

‘Where the f*** are people who promised to lead it?’

A man expected to play a lead role in the Sydney protest, Anthony Khallouf, was jailed for eight months in the days before the action.

The 29-year-old pleaded guilty to breaching public health orders after he was arrested at Hornsby train station in northern Sydney on Thursday afternoon.

One demonstrator called the march ‘an epic fail’. 

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Brisbane’s Botanical Gardens for a ‘Freedom Rally’ carrying placards with anti-vax messages with many stating that they believed Covid is a hoax.

The crowd chanted ‘they say wear a mask, we say no’ and ‘wake up Australia’ as they marched to Parliament House.

Several protesters acted aggressively towards local media shouting slogans about virus and vaccine ‘propaganda’.

One man carried a placard comparing Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with Adolf Hitler.

Others repeated baseless claims that vaccines were not safe for their children.

Queensland Police patrolled the protest but did not arrest any of the demonstrators.

Brisbane is not under stay-at home orders and the state currently has much lighter restrictions than residents in Melbourne and Sydney are ordered to observe.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said on Saturday morning police were fining people for being more than 5km from home even before the protest began. 

‘Please do not attend this demonstration, the risk of spread of the virus is significant,’ he said.

‘Every protester who we can identify and who we can apprehend will receive a $5,500 (£2,800) fine. It’s just ridiculous to think that people would be so selfish and come and do this.’ 

The freedom rallies on July 24 saw thousands of people across Sydney and Melbourne in anti-lockdown, anti-mask demonstrations that quickly turned violent.

More than 1,000 people marched through Melbourne’s CBD, lighting flares outside Victoria’s Parliament House.

Police formed a barrier on the corner of Flinders and Swanston streets where they held back the crowd chanting ‘you work for us’.

Mounted officers told the group to disperse with a number of protesters being detained.

‘Protest against this virus by staying at home, following the rules and getting out of lockdown,’ Dan Andrews said of the July protest. 

Authorities were expecting similar numbers on Saturday, with a lack of organisation in the group making it nearly impossible to predict how many.

‘Most of them are cleanskins, mum and dad types, hardworkers who are paying tax,’ police said.

‘The bulk of the group are really people trying to find a platform for their issues.’ 

‘There will be a highly visible police presence in the Melbourne CBD, on the roads and across the public transport network on Saturday to ensure the community in complying with the chief health officer directions,’ Sergeant Megan Stefanec said in a statement.

‘Those who choose to blatantly disregard the CHOs directions and put the health and safety of all Victorians in jeopardy can expect to be held accountable.

‘It is very clear under the current CHO [Chief Health Officer] restrictions in Melbourne there are only five reasons to leave home, with a strong need to avoid public gatherings.

‘This includes activities such as public protests which are again not currently permitted.

‘The CHO restrictions also do not permit travel more than 5km from home, unless the travel is for a permitted reason.

‘Gathering in public with other people to stage a protest is not a permitted reason for leaving home.’ 

On Friday, Premier Andrews warned Victoria could ‘look like Sydney next weekend’ after the state recorded 55 new Covid-19 cases despite his hardline lockdown restrictions. 

On Saturday the state recorded 61 new cases. 

He hit back at people criticising the strictness of Victoria’s sixth lockdown, including the unpopular decision to close all children’s playgrounds in Melbourne despite widespread backlash and no conclusive evidence of Delta transmission. 

‘The government is playing its part, we locked down early, we couldn’t have locked down any earlier,’ he said defiantly during Friday’s Covid briefing.

‘We went hard. I can’t be clearer with the people of Melbourne. 

‘If we have a weekend this weekend like we did last weekend, then next week we’ll look like Sydney. It’s as simple as that.’    

Regional Victoria is set to go back into lockdown and restrictions in Melbourne toughened even further to stop the spread of the city’s Delta outbreak, as former Premier Jeff Kennett claimed the state will stay shut down until 2022.

Mr Kennett said ‘well-placed’ food industry sources briefed on distribution disruptions by the state government warned him about the extended lockdown and tighter restrictions lasting into next year, The Herald Sun reported. 

Premier Andrews held an urgent Cabinet meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss new rules which could include changes for childcare centres, tighter travel limits, shorter exercise times, a construction halt, and a ban on takeaway food and coffee.

An outbreak in Shepparton grew to 17 cases late on Friday and a new exposure site emerged at a machinery hire company in Bendigo, causing grave concerns the virus has leaked further into regional Victoria – just 11 days after lockdown was lifted for its residents. 

Mr Andrews was reportedly poised to announce the regional lockdown and new restrictions immediately, until deciding to wait for overnight case numbers on Saturday morning instead. 

But late on Friday evening the state government said it had told community sporting leagues in regional Victoria to ‘immediately cancel their activities for this weekend’.

‘The situation in Melbourne and across regional Victoria is extremely concerning,’ a spokesperson said.

‘Advice will be provided to government tomorrow morning and all options are on the table.’