About 100 people protested outside the Bangladesh High Commission in Canberra about the current repression and violent clashes in the country between police and military, on one side, and students on the other.
They chanted "we want democracy" and handed in a letter protesting against the crackdown on protests. Placards said, "Save our students" and "Stop killing students in Bangladesh".
People from within the high commission took video of the demonstrators outside.
"I'm worried about my family," said Rashed Saifuddin, who now teaches at the Canberra Institute of Technology and who used to teach in Bangladesh.
"Through the last 24 hours, I lost all communication. I'm extremely worried and frustrated. The internet and phone communication are gone.
"These massacres are happening in every city and every village in Bangladesh.
"I'm feeling devastated. I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime."
In the country itself, there was a blackout of media, with TV news channels off the air. On the latest estimate from within the country, about two dozen people had been killed. Protesters outside the high commission in Canberra said many more people had been killed but, in truth, there was no way of knowing from outside the country.
Students were protesting at jobs being allocated to people favoured by the government. On July 1, a quota system was started whereby around one-third of public service posts were allocated to the children of fighters who took part in the country's liberation in 1971.
But the student protesters in Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest countries, said in effect the system meant jobs going to government families.
"The reason we are gathered here is to express our solidarity with the student movement in Bangladesh," said Mohammad Kaarul Hassan, an engineer in Canberra.
"Rather than listening to the people, the government enforced with the police and army and they started killing students.
"In no way should students be killed. Students are the future of the nation. If the government starts killing students like this, we are looking at a very dark future for Bangladesh."
At the protest in Canberra, there was also some feeling Bangladesh was not a true democracy. Many people outside the high commission said elections had been rigged.
"They say it's a democracy but it's a democracy in the way China or North Korea is," Rashed Saifuddin said.
There seemed little chance of the demonstrations ending over the weekend.
From Bangladesh, Western journalists' wire services said a police statement said protesters had torched, vandalised and carried out "destructive activities" on numerous police and government offices.
Among them was the Dhaka headquarters of state broadcaster Bangladesh Television.
"About 100 policemen were injured in the clashes yesterday," a police spokesman said.
"Around 50 police booths were burnt".
