Australia Day 2018 – Patriotism Still Wins
It was predicted by some media outlets and feared by the police to be an ugly Australia Day, particularly in Melbourne which the Unshackled covered from the ground. Police were on riot alert and had three designed areas in the greater Melbourne area where they could search people and face coverings were banned.
The left’s attacks on Australia Day for the past year culminated with their Invasion Day March which in Melbourne began at Victoria’s Parliament House and then moved down to Swanson Street ending at the intersection between Federation Square and Flinders Street Station following the official Australia Day parade on the same road.
The Invasion Day organizers claimed there were 60,000 present at the rally though we could see no more than 5,000. They claimed today was a day of shame for all us and that we are all responsible for injustices against Indigenous Australians both in the past and present. The crowd was certainly a mixture of races and among the white and Aboriginal faces in the crowd were many of African appearance.
During their speeches they claimed they are in the majority and the politicians will soon listen to them on changing the date (the more radical ones want the day abolished entirely). This claim flies in the face of two polls released in the past few days stating that Australia Day has 70% support in the wider community.
As well as the protests in the city there was also a lot of focus on the activities of various patriot groups wanting to both celebrate and defend Australia Day. Neil Erikson from Patriot Blue who also runs the Facebook page Nationalist Uprising along with a number of his followers visited the Moreland City Council building in Coburg where citizenship ceremonies were being held.
Moreland was one of three inner Melbourne Councils to cancel all references to Australia Day but was not stripped of its power to hold citizenship ceremonies on the day. Erikson and his followers intended to hand flyers to new Australian citizens as a welcome which contained information about being Australian and the nation’s values and a warning about the communist nature of councils such as Moreland.
There was a heavy police presence outside the council building, Erikson initially asked police if he could go in which was denied. The flyers were taken by around 75% of entrants into the building with no negative responses to them and there were no left wing groups who were visibly present.
The other patriot event to take place was the Australia Day Beach Barbecue hosted by the True Blue Crew which ended up being held at Moran Reserve in southern St Kilda. Attendance was around 100 but it was never intended to be a rally just an Australia Day celebration. Australian flags were displayed all around the park along with those of the True Blue Crew. There were brief speeches made by leader of the True Blue Crew Kane Miller and United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell which has become increasingly closely aligned with the crew.
Police initially had a heavy presence at the event however when it was clear to police intelligence that groups such as Antifa and the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism were not going to attend they scaled back their viability. Moran Reserve may have been picked because of its isolation from public transport which is the most common form of transport for left wing groups. Cars driving past tooted approvingly at the event throughout the day.
Given that Australia Day in Melbourne ended up occurring without incident and despite the media hype about community division about the day it was clear that patriotism won the day. The barbecue of the True Blue Crew would have been one of tens of thousands occurring around the nation at both private and public venues. All the left could muster were their invasion day marches in the major cities. Australia Day merchandise still flies off the shelf at stores around the nation.
Australia Day 2018 was not ruined and if you were anywhere else than the inner cities there was much excitement about celebrating our national day and most people saw through the leftist raging for what it was, an attempt to divide Australia and promote a negative picture of our nation. Let’s hope that our politicians took notice of how the vast majority of Australians celebrated today and can feel confident enough to stand up to left’s bullying on this issue and put the change the date campaign in the bin.
The Unshackled filmed at Moreland City Council, the Melbourne CBD and at Moran Reserve with highlights and interviews to be posted over this weekend on our YouTube channel.
