On most Friday evenings, the streets of Melbourne fill with people coming into town, late night shopping, and students from RMIT and MU doing the rounds. Office staffers also tend to stay back (particularly if the weather is fine, and football is not on), rather than racing home. Add to that, Valentine's Day and the fact that many of the people would have been watching, rather than participating with interest, and the size of the crowd involved quickly drops back to 50 -60,000.
Working in the CBD, there was more noise associated with a 1,000 strong building forecourt protest than what I heard from the general direction of Swanston Street and the State Library, just a block away.
Yes, there was a protest. Yes, they came from all walks of life. But, no, the protest was nowhere near the vintage of those led during the Vietnam moratorium by the likes of Jim Cairns and others.
