Around 30 people gathered outside Town Hall with signs that read “not in my name” and “seeking asylum is legal” before catching the train down to Melbourne to join its protest.

Thousands of people marched in Melbourne, where they voiced their opinion on asylum seekers, the environment, women’s rights and a range of other issues.

Brendan McNally from Buninyong said he was very impressed with the turnout at the rally.

“Having gone to the moratoriums in the 70s I’ve seen a few marches. It was very much a spur-of-the-moment social media thing,” he said.

“More importantly there’s been a huge cross section. It certainly wasn’t dominated by the usual protestors.”

Suzanne Gatz from Ballarat said the protest had a really good feeling about it.

“It was quite a mixed group. You had all ages. There was a really broad range of issues that people were concerned about,” she said.

Ben Lever, who works at Federation University, said there was a “massive” turnout in Melbourne and it was the biggest protest he had attended.

“It was streaming all the way down Swanston Street, up to parliament and then to Treasury Gardens,” he said.