MELBOURNE: Thousands of people converged on Melbourne's central business district to protest against government plans to forcibly close remote Australian Aboriginal communities. It was the largest of dozens of rallies held around Australia and globally on Friday.

The Western Australia state government announced last November that it planned to shutter up to 150 remote Aboriginal outback communities, saying it could no longer service their needs properly.

The announcement drew the ire of Aboriginal and human-rights rights advocates, who say the government should be strengthening communities, not shutting them down.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott further inflamed tensions in March when he said that it was a "lifestyle choice" for Aboriginals to live in remote outback communities and that taxpayers should not be forced to pay for these "choices."

On Friday, up to 10,000 people marched through Melbourne chanting "shame, Abbott, shame", no pride in genocide" and "always was, always will be, Aboriginal land," according to The Age newspaper .

While police were out in force, there were no immediate reports of any arrests being made at the protest, which came just weeks after a similar-sized rally shut down the Victorian state capital's central business district.