If what I gathered is correct, they were trying to keep the protests more pressed toward a suburb-type area, as opposed to where they originally wanted to protest, which was more in the city, where they could actually get more attention and be heard.
A lot of what's been happening has been information warfare as well. For instance, the media has been making these people out to be villains, while the police have been the ones using their clubs and pepper-spray quite frequently to disperse them. To combat that, people literally all sat down on the street to show they're not the problem.
The police in Australia are completely against these people — or, at the very least, they most certainly appear to be. In another situation, when asked if they would "take a knee" to show support and solidarity, they all responded with: "No."
Which naturally confused the protestors, since they had excitedly been doing so for the BLM marches. It appears from the outside, that these officers are fully supportive of the police state. Unlike many other police in other countries.