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.

[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.

From this, two organising meetings were held, the first at a venue on Sydney Road in Brunswick, the second at Ross House in Melbourne city.

At the second, several working groups were formed, a website launched and plans made to begin a protest encampment at City Square commencing 15 October.

The protest encampment was established at City Square on the afternoon of Saturday 15 October during and following a rally at the site attended by 3,000-5,000 people.

The existence of the encampment jammed the commercial media discourse with discussions about political corruption, corporate greed, economic corruption, the failures of representative democracy, etc., and drew attention to events elsewhere in the world during the Arab Spring, European anti-austerity protests and the Occupy movement globally.

After 11 hours of rolling sit-ins and defence against police attacks, a crowd of over 1,000 sought refuge in Victorian Trades Hall where an assembly was held.

Adam Bandt, the Member of the Australian Parliament for Melbourne, criticized the decision to remove protesters, saying "Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and Lord Mayor Robert Doyle have made a huge blunder by sending in the police, turning a week-long non-violent protest into a site of confrontation".

These encampments included: During the occupation of Flagstaff Gardens, on 6 December four protesters wore their tents as a practical joke on police that had arrived to evict them.

[19][20] On 10 August 2012, Mayor Doyle deleted Facebook and Twitter accounts created for his election campaign amid Occupy Melbourne protesters using the pages to post demands for a public enquiry into alleged police violence at the City Square eviction.

There were small autonomous collectives of indigenous, women and queer identifying people during the initial protest encampment.

Since 2013, the website occupymelbourne.net (not to be confused with the original OccupyMelbourne.org) has posted numerous anti-Islam articles including one claiming that there are plans for the erection of large mosques in several suburbs of Melbourne.

[28] The website has also posted a number of articles attacking various people involved in Occupy Melbourne, as well as various conspiracy theories.