Sawt Falasteen - Suspicious device found at Australia Day rally

Large crowds braved a heatwave across much of the country to demonstrate on the national holiday, which marks the 1788 arrival of a British fleet in Sydney Harbour.

Activists demanded justice for Indigenous peoples, many carrying banners proclaiming: "Always was, always will be Aboriginal land."

In Perth in Australia's west, police said they evacuated a rally of a few hundred people after a "very rudimentary" device the size of a coffee cup was found in front of a stage. It contained screws and ball bearings wrapped around an unknown liquid in a glass container.

Detectives arrested a 31-year-old man and searched his home after he "told police it may contain explosives", Western Australia Police Force Commissioner Col Blanch told reporters.

The man had not been charged yet, he said.

In Sydney, police allowed protests to go ahead despite new curbs introduced after gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah festival on Bondi Beach on December 14, killing 15 people.

The "overwhelming majority" of people enjoyed the day normally in Sydney, said New South Wales Assistant Commissioner Brett McFadden.

However, police arrested a 31-year-old man in the city on suspicion of hate speech "unequivocally assigned with neo-Nazi ideology". Separately, a 17-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly assaulting police.

Millions of Australians celebrate the holiday each year with beers and backyard barbecues or a day by the sea.

Shark sightings forced people out of the water at several beaches in and around Sydney, however, following a string of shark attacks this month -- including one that led to the death of a 12-year-old boy.

- 'Invasion Day' -

Many Indigenous rights activists describe the January 26, 1788, British landing as "Invasion Day", a moment that ushered in a period of oppression, lost lands, massacres and Indigenous children being removed from their families.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples make up about four percent of the population.

They still have a life expectancy eight years shorter than other Australians, higher rates of incarceration and deaths in custody, steeper youth unemployment and poorer education.

"Let's celebrate on another day, because everyone loves this country and everyone wants to celebrate. But we don't celebrate on a mourning day," Indigenous man Kody Bardy, 44, told AFP in Sydney.

Another Indigenous protester in Sydney, 23-year-old Reeyah Dinah Lotoanie, called for people to recognise that a genocide happened in Australia.

"Ships still came to Sydney and decided to kill so many of our people," she said.

Separately, thousands of people joined anti-immigration "March for Australia" protests in several cities, with police in Melbourne mobilising to keep the two demonstrations apart.

Police said they were investigating allegations of three assaults in Melbourne, including one involving racial abuse and a Nazi salute.

"March for Australia" protesters in Sydney chanted "Send them back".

Some carried banners reading: "Stop importing terrorists" and "One flag, one country, one people".

Several also held aloft placards calling for the release of high-profile neo-Nazi Joel Davis, who is in custody after being arrested in November over allegations of threatening a federal lawmaker.

O.Salim--SF-PST