The One Day To Never Go Into The City

The one day I recommend you never go into the city: Australia Day.

Back when I was able to travel on public transport, I went into the Melbourne CBD on Australia day twice.

On both occasions I witnessed people catcalling and verbally abusing anyone of colour, spitting on them as they walked past, things like that.

On both occasions there were fights in front of me. In the latter case, there was a full-on ten person brawl in a bus I was on.

Racism is a problem in general, but there seems to be a contingent that takes the date of 26 January as permission to become actively violent. The critical mass combined with alarming patterns of systemic apathy from Victoria Police means that violence just kinda happens on that day.

Dunno about you, but I'd rather stay the hell away from that regardless of the colour of my skin.

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Version: 1

Written: 2026-02-10

Written on: 7.5mg olanzapine since 2025-11-11

Mental health was: very poor - estimate 15% brain