I got the train to work on Monday, which is unusual for me as I usually drive but I was finishing work early to have lunch and do activities with my partner and kids, so I didn’t need my car. As I walked from Southern Cross Station towards Crown Casino, I noticed a large police presence on one of the corner blocks opposite Crown, which is near my work. I didn’t think too much of it until later on. After lunch at Crown, I drove past the same police and noticed the whole area had police there. We thought it was pretty odd.
Then Tuesday, there were police in the same places again. At work I found out there was going to be a big ant-war protest on Wednesday September 11th at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre which was hosting the Land Forces Defence Expo. The police presence on Monday and Tuesday had been there to prevent any mischief by protestors during the setup of the event. The area I had driven by was the back of the massive building, which is quite non-descript so I’d never noticed what it was before. The fact that this event was hosted on September 11th seemed pretty tone-deaf, by the way.
On Wednesday the protest was huge. My driving route to work came to a complete standstill as parts of Montague Street were blocked off due to the protest that extended all the way to DFO. Many drivers got out of their cars to get a better look at what was going on, since traffic wasn’t moving at all for several minutes. It was safe to say that a lot of people were not at work today due to protesting, or were late to work due to traffic delays.
Above you can see where traffic was backed up, and some of the road closures (there were more mapped out later in the day) vs where my office is on Clarendon Street (blue briefcase icon).
The trams used to get from Melbourne to Clarendon Street, such as the Number 12 Tram were blocked off and traffic was directed around the Clarendon Street McDonald’s whcih is currently being renovated. As the day continued, it became rainy and the protests seemed to slow down. At this point I noticed trams had been replaced by buses.
There are parts of Clarendon Street that are for trams only, so it looked quite godd to me to see buses driving on parts of the road that are usually only for trams. It is good that people were still able to get around the city in the rain.
On the following day, I walked to Crown to get lunch and didn’t see any protestestors in the area. Apparently they were somewhere else in the city. I imagine the numbers for tomorrow will also be lower, as they’ve probably got their point across by this point.
