Occupy Melbourne

Occupy Melbourne
Part of the Occupy movement
Occupy Melbourne's First General Assembly, City Square
Date	15 October 2011 – 2012
Location	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 37°48′51″S 144°58′34″E / 37.814158°S 144.976194°E / -37.814158; 144.976194
Caused by	Economic inequality, corporate influence over government, inter alia.
Methods	Demonstration, occupation, protest, street protesters
Number
2,500 at peak (150 sleeping at peak)
Arrests and injuries
Injuries	2 police, 43 protesters
Arrested	112 (no charges)

Occupy Melbourne was a social movement which took place from late 2011 to mid 2012 in Melbourne, Australia as part of the global Occupy movement^[1][2] Participants expressed grievances concerning economic inequality, social injustice, corruption in the financial sector, corporate greed and the influence of companies and lobbyists on government. Protests began on 15 October 2011 in City Square with a 6-day-long protest encampment, from which people were forcibly evicted by Victoria Police at the request of the City of Melbourne CEO on 21 October 2011.^[3] From 2 November 2011, Occupy set up camp in Treasury Gardens before being moved on from that location in December.^[4][5] A significantly diminished number of protesters set up camp at Father Bob's church at his invitation until his retirement in January 2012. Physical manifestations of the movement had largely dissipated by mid-2012 though it adopted a strategy of decentralisation and became influential in the creation of new community networks, affinity groups and collectives.