Close to 200,000 people took to the streets across Australia for the Black Lives Matter–Stop Black Deaths in Custody rallies on June 6-7. Solidarity with the movement in the United States was central, as were calls for justice for the more than 400 Indigenous deaths in custody since 1991.
The largest rally was in Melbourne, with some estimating up to 70,000 took to the streets. There were 30,000 in Brisbane, 5000 in Adelaide and 50,000 in Sydney, despite the NSW Supreme Court ruling that the protest was unlawful. It was later overturned on appeal, minutes before the formal part of the rally began.
Protests were organised across regional Australia including in Ballarat, Wagga Wagga, Mildura, Townsville, Cairns, Katoomba and northern NSW.
Protesters took a knee for George Floyd, the African American man who was murdered by police in the United States on May 25. They highlighted the 432 Indigenous deaths in custody in Australia since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, for which there have been no convictions.
