Loud boos have drowned out “welcome to country” performances at Anzac Day dawn services in Sydney and Melbourne as irritated Aussies pushed back at the humiliation rituals for the second year in a row.
At Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance boos rang out after professional aboriginal Mark Brown said “I’m here to welcome everybody to my father’s country, beautiful bunurong country”, and continued for about four minutes.
Members of the crowd could also be heard shouting “get off the stage”, and “they didn’t die for this” during the ongoing booing, which broke out again when Victorian Governor Margaret Gardner made her own indigenous land acknowledgement.
Four minutes of prolonged booing at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance. pic.twitter.com/pB6iPhZBmJ
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) April 24, 2026
At Sydney’s Martin Place a large section of the crowd to the west of the Cenotaph began booing after indigenous serviceman Uncle Ray Minniecon began his acknowledgment and the heckling lasted for more than a minute.
After the service ended he lashed out in comments to ABC News where he used the anti-Australian slogan “always was and always will be aboriginal land”, and said those booing should “understand their place” and “show respect to us as traditional owners”.
“We have experienced this type of racism for over 230-odd years. It really is a Whitefella problem, not a blackfella problem,” he said
Video of the Sydney boos shows police asking a handful of people to leave during the booing, and a “belligerent” aboriginal man was also ejected from the crowd. A witness told Noticer News he became aggressive when the booing started.
In Perth police detained about 15 people, including a former member of the ADF, and ordered them to move on before the service began in an attempt to stop the booing, but a “welcome to country” by a female veteran Di Ryder was heckled regardless. In Busselton a man was also detained for booing.
Afterwards Vice Admiral Justin Jones, Chief of Joint Operations Command, was asked by a Sky News host if he found the booing “disappointing”, but responded by defending free speech.
“Well, one of the things we in the Defence Force are defending, as I’ve said, is our democracy and freedom of expression, so whilst that might be disappointing those are exactly the principles that the Australian Defence Force is designed to defend,” he said.
Fed-up Aussies boo loudly during a “welcome to country” at the Anzac Day Dawn Service in Sydney.
Follow: @NoticerNews pic.twitter.com/xfQ55ywjS7
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) April 24, 2026
🔥 BREAKING 🔥
The Australia Defence Force supports Australians Freedom of Speech & Freedom of expression which was displayed today by Aussies including Veterans that fought & bled for Australia while being ‘Welcomed to their own country’.
Labor has disrespected ALL Aussies… pic.twitter.com/mrNd0ieFpj
— Lozzy B 🇦🇺𝕏 (@TruthFairy131) April 24, 2026
War hero Ben Roberts-Smith attended a dawn service at Currumbin on the Gold Coast where a crowd of thousands stood in the rain to honour the Anzacs.
Roberts-Smith, who wore his medals to the ceremony, told reporters afterwards the support from the public was “overwhelming”.
“I never thought about not coming, I was always going to be here,” he said.
“I know it’s bigger than me. It’s not a day where I think of myself at all.
“It’s about remembering every single person that has given us the country that we live in.”
The boos came after similar scenes in Melbourne in 2025, which led to nationalist activists Jacob Hersant, Nathan Bull and Michael Nelson being charged with “offensive behaviour”.
Header image: Left, right, the Sydney and Melbourne aboriginal performers (7News, 9News).
