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VICE Australia

Watch: Melbourne Protests Against Forced Aboriginal Community Closures

VICE Australia took our cameras down to speak to the people involved and hear what they had to say.

On the First of May, an international day of action was held to protest against 150 Australian Aboriginal communities being cut off from power, water and essential services. One of the biggest was in the city of Melbourne.

The Australian Federal Government announced last year that it would not longer pay for services to the 274 aboriginal communities in West Australia, the State government now says around 150 remote communities will have to be cut off from essential services, effectively forcing them to shut down.

The crowd, which police estimated at 5,000 people, aimed to shut down the centre of the city during rush hour on a Friday afternoon, and was dubbed by Australia's most read newspaper as a "Selfish Rabble".

VICE Australia took our cameras down to speak to the people involved and hear what they had to say.