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Up to a quarter of a million people brought the centre of Melbourne to a standstill from 5pm to 7pm protesting against the War on Iraq. This is the largest demonstration Melbourne has seen and sends a powerful message to the Australian Government and to the United States and Britain about popular opposition to their warmongering on Iraq.

The protest was part of a weekend of protests internationally against the war on Iraq, which saw millions of people on the streets of over 600 cites and towns of the world. Estimates of numbers participating ranged from 10 million to more than 30 million people globally.

A panormaic view of a sea of people outside the State Library at 6.05pm

P2140001.JPG 79.2 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 4:18:58 pm Anarchist Banner	P2140002.JPG 60 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 4:54:54 pm Anarchist banner	P2140005.JPG 65 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 4:57:20 pm Mothers and toddlers for peace
P2140012.JPG 87.3 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:03:14 pm High School Students - Make Love Not War Banner	P2140013.JPG 92.6 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:04:32 pm Outside the State Library looking up to RMIT	P2140016.JPG 83.4 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:05:45 pm Women waiting for march to start
P2140017.JPG 102.0 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:08:08 pm State Library facade	P2140019.JPG 84.3 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:18:36 pm Looking Down Swanston Street	P2140020.JPG 110.0 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:18:47 pm Looking up Swanston Street
P2140023.JPG 88.0 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:40:24 pm Get Fair Dinkum Banner	P2140026.JPG 76.1 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:41:53 pm Don't get Yanked into War Banner	P2140028.JPG 72.8 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:48:04 pm Students on Bourke and Wills Statue corner Swanston and Collins Street
P2140030.JPG 117.5 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:49:31 pm Up Swanston Street from Bourke and Wills Monument	P2140032.JPG 114.2 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:50:09 pm Down Swanston Street from Bourke and Wills Monument	P2140035.JPG 79.8 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:56:07 pm Make Lego not War Student Banner on Bourke and Wills Monument
P2140038.JPG 63.8 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 6:57:58 pm France Maintain your veto placard	P2140039.JPG 103.3 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 7:00:58 pm Americans against war banner	P2140040.JPG 96.2 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 7:02:10 pm War is Expensive - Peace is Priceless Banner
P2140041.JPG 105.4 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 7:03:03 pm Not in our name banner	P2140047.JPG 73.5 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 7:30:19 pm Peace not war banner - St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, and Mathew Flinders Statue	P2140049.JPG 91.8 KB Size: 800x600 Feb 14 2003 7:47:51 pm Peace Not War patchwork banner

Peace Rally - 5pm Friday 14 February
State Library, Swanston st, Melbourne

Associated activities on 14 February:

• Youth against war 2pm Federation Square with music and speakers.
• Trade unionist rally at Trades Hall 4.30 pm to march to State Library at 5pm
• Critical mass: Cyclists pedal for peace with main march
• Peace trains: Belgrave 3.47pm. Geelong 2.43pm

Up to a quarter of a million people protesting for peace brought the centre of the city of Melbourne to a standstill on a sunny Friday Afternoon. The crowd stretched from the corner of La Trobe and Swanston streets outside the State Library down Swanston Street to Federation Square opposite Flinders Street Station, spilling down several side streets. It took more than an hour and a half for the crowd located north of Collins street to pass the Bourke and Wills Monument.

Organisers said this rally was up to 200,000 people, but I think there was more than that. I spoke to one of the high school kids on the Bourke and Wills monument at the corner of Collins street. The crowd before the march already stretched from the State Library past the monument to Federation Square. It took at least an hour and a half for the crowd from Collins to Latrobe street to pass this monument.

This was not just your collection of socialists, anarchists and Greens marching, although they were all there. Middle Australia was there in droves, expressing its opposition to the Howard and Bush Government's drive to war on Iraq.

A festival atmosphere prevailed with many people brightly decorated in costumes, home made banners and placards, and slogans on their clothing. This crowd was a broad cross-section of Australians opposed to Australian involvement in the war on Iraq.

The Age 15 Feb 2003 Masthead and Page One photo of the Peace march in Melbourne

18 February
The capital cities of Australia, over the weekend, have seen massive anti-war demonstrations. These demonstrations are record breaking rallies and marches that even eclipse the large rallies of the Viet Nam Moratorium movement of the 1970s. It includes over 250,000 people in Sydney, over 200,000 in Melbourne, 100,000 in Adelaide and Brisbane, 20,000 in Perth, Hobart and Newcastle, 15,000 in Canberra, and 1,000 in Darwin. But the anti-war feeling isn't restricted to the capital cities. Large numbers of people attended rallies in regional and country towns across Australia including:

• in Queensland
  Bundaberg (150), Mackay (1,000), Noosa (?), Rockhampton (600), Toowoomba (800), Townsville (1,000 to 2,000)
• in New South Wales
  Armidale (5,000), Bathurst (peace bus to Canberra 12 Feb) 32, Bellingen (3,000), Bega (400), Byron Bay (3,000), Foster/Tuncurry (700), Kempsey (300), Kingscliff (1,000), Lismore (7,000), Newcastle (20,000), Tamworth (500), Taree (?), Tathra (1,500), Wollongong (Feb8) (5,000), Wagga Wagga (1,000)
• in Tasmania
  Launceston (1,000), Strahan (50), Devonport (750)
• in Victoria
  Geelong (200), Albury (?), Mildura (?).
• in South Australia
  Mt Gambier (500), Whyalla (Peace Vigil)
• Western Australia
  Margaret River (Peace pilgrimmage) (20)
• Northern Territory
  Alice Springs (400)

In all, between 800,000 and one million Australians marched to stop the war on Iraq.