Patrick Carlyon: How did our great city turn to Armageddon?

He fronted 120 Covid press conferences in a row but when our city was facing Armageddon our Premier was missing.

How did our great city come to this? Where kids cower in cars as protesters shriek, roar and menace?

Where flares are lit, and police cars kicked, and parliament barricaded and running skirmishes of tear gas and rubber bullets – met by bottles and whatever else is to hand – bring an already closed city to a standstill?

Melbourne feels hunkered down, held to ransom by lawlessness, as if it is powerless against mob rule. And, if we are to believe that mob, we will be powerless to its whims again today and tomorrow.

A man sets off a flare. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

Construction workers are opposed to mandatory vaccinations. And to their industry being closed, never mind their collective disregard for the Covid threat contributed to that closure. So they kicked on Tuesday. And jeered. And did burnouts, in scenes which resembled the unrest on the streets of Bougainville to our north two generations ago.

Except that it seemed more like Boganville. Or some hi-vis version of Armageddon.

A TV reporter said he was manhandled and showered with urine by protesters.

A female driver shrunk in fear as a protester lay on her car’s bonnet. Then, a protester spat in her face.

“It’s something I’ve never seen before,” said a journalist at the scene, who sought refuge in a truckie’s cabin. “Thousands of protesters marching into oncoming traffic.” Yesterday, amid the sea of fluoro vests and CFMEU black and white, at Flinders Street Station and the major arterial connecting the west and east of the city, there were calls against Premier Daniel Andrews.

The shrillest – dubbed “Nazi man-babies” – are said to be anti-vaxxer campaigners. Mostly young men, they would rather risk ill-health or worse than submit to “experimental” procedures.

“This is our bridge,” they chanted on the West Gate as they blocked cars and lay down on the road, and broke glass bottles on the road below.

They had roamed around the city, from the CFMEU offices, where police advanced, to Parliament House, before electing to congregate on the bridge.

Some were drinking; one or two were spotted snorting what appeared to be white powder before marching on the bridge.

A car does a burnout in front of protesters. Picture: Jason Edwards

Some looked and sounded drunk. They danced and sang and stopped ordinary people going about their business in a protest they claimed was about freedom.

The Premier, who fronted 120 press conferences in a row during the state’s deadly Covid second wave, chose not to appear publicly yesterday but released a statement and later tweeted out his condemnation.

With Melbourne on the edge of a terrifying abyss, there are so many pressing questions he needs to answer. Most importantly: If we ask how our once beautiful city descended into such ugliness, we might also wonder: when exactly do we get our city back?