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\nPolice were predicting 400 people might turn up, instead up to 5000 scientists and science supporters rallied and marched through Melbourne streets as part of the global #marchforscience rallies organized in about 600 cities and towns around the world. <\/p>\n
Australia’s scientists have already felt Federal budget cuts for science research and funding for the CSIRO reduced<\/a>, and have campaigned against such attacks on science with some limited success, with the aid of international colleagues. <\/p>\n The inauguration of the Trump regime in the United States and the spectacular success of the women’s march on Washington DC the day after inauguration were strong motivating factors for scientists to organise this very public statement of the necessity of science in the modern world.<\/p>\n Speakers for the Melbourne march included:<\/p>\n Read a local report by Alexandra Laskie in The Age<\/em>: Fact over fiction: Thousands rally to Melbourne’s inaugural March for Science<\/a><\/p>\n See the diversity of people and their messages in the photos taken by our Nofibs Melbourne citizen journalist, John Englart. These photos are also available at high resolution with a Creative Commons licence (CC-by-SA) at John’s Flickr site<\/a>. View some of the social media in the storify: Melburnians #marchforscience on #earthday2017<\/a><\/p>\n Cities around Australia came out in support of science. Rally numbers included up to 5000 people in Melbourne, up to 4000 in Sydney, 1,000 in Canberra, 1,000 in Brisbane, 500 in Perth, 250 in Adelaide, 350 in Hobart, 60 people in Launceston, and smaller rallies in Port Macquarie, Townsville, Armidale and other regional towns.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\n