Australia Day 2026 LIVE: Police line on Spring Street keeps Invasion Day crowd from March for Australia rally

Thank you for joining The Age’s live blog for what’s happening in Melbourne, and around the country for January 26. Read our wrap of the Australia Day rallies here.

Here are just a few things that happened today:

• Thousands of anti-immigration protesters and annual Invasion Day rally-goers converged on Melbourne’s CBD today.
• Victoria Police confirmed there were about 19,000 people who descended on the city with crowd numbers around 17,000 for the Invasion Day rally, while March for Australia attracted 2000 people.
• A gang of four men chased, racially abused a couple and one allegedly performed the banned Nazi salute during the Melbourne rallies, according to police.
• In Sydney, a man was arrested over antisemitic remarks.
• Meanwhile in Canberra, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered a forceful Australia Day message to new citizens, warning that respect for democracy and shared values is not optional.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered a forceful Australia Day message to new citizens, warning that respect for democracy and shared values is not optional, in a major speech delivered in the aftermath of the Islamic State-inspired Bondi terror attack and amid an increasingly heated national debate over immigration.

At the national citizenship ceremony in Canberra, the prime minister diverted from his prepared remarks to tell new Australians: “It’s the respect for our common humanity that defines Australia. Hope, not fear, optimism, not negativity, and indeed, unity, not division – that is the Australia of 2026 that you are pledging to be a part of.”

Quoting former Labor prime minister Ben Chifley, he said migrants had arrived in a country where “democracy is not just a platitude, but something which is practised”.

Albanese framed citizenship as a civic obligation rather than a cultural badge, saying: “Whether we are Australian by birth or by choice, we all share the opportunity, the privilege and also the responsibility of being part of something quite extraordinary.”

His speech came as Australia’s capital cities dealt with Invasion Day protests and March for Australia rallies, highlighting deep divisions over race, immigration and national identity

Here’s the full story.

Below is a selection from our photography team who were on the ground at the Invasion Day and March for Australia rallies in Melbourne’s CBD today and a dawn service organised by Indigenous leaders.

Staying with the numbers, Swanston Street recorded above-average foot traffic during today’s protests, City of Melbourne pedestrian data shows.

The council’s pedestrian monitoring sensor at the intersection of Swanston Street and Little Collins Street recorded 3105 people pass through at the height of the protests between 1pm and 2pm today, almost twice the typical foot traffic for that time on a typical Monday.

Other parts of Swanston Street near Flinders Lane and the State Library also recorded pedestrian numbers almost 50 per cent above typical levels.

The pedestrian counts are a good indicator of relative foot traffic through an area, but keep in mind they don’t work as a count of protest numbers, since they only count pedestrians on footpaths, which misses out most of the crowd when a protest is taking up the entire width of a city street.

There were nearly 20,000 people in Melbourne’s CBD to attend various protest rallies today, according to Victoria Police.

A spokeswoman said the Invasion Day protest, which started this morning at Camp Sovereignty, attracted 17,000 people.

The March for Australia, which started at Flinders Street Station an hour later, attracted 2000 people, police said.

However, there are no figures for arrests or incidents at this stage.