Advocates say the issue was not properly addressed during the federal election campaign, with funding pledges "barely even hitting the sides".
The No More: National Rally Against Violence saw attendees gather in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart and regional centres in between.
Founder of support organisation What Were You Wearing, Sarah Williams, called for more preventative action.
"We need to be able to stop it before it starts," she told a two-thousand-strong crowd on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne on Saturday.
"We need more funding for primary prevention, more trauma-informed response training for police, increased crisis housing, bail law reform and uniform consent laws," she later told AAP.
Similar rallies played out almost simultaneously in every state capital as well as several regional cities and towns.
Hundreds met in Sydney's Hyde Park while the regional centres of Newcastle and Wollongong saw a similar turnout, including the family and friends of Mackenzie Anderson, a young mother who was stabbed 78 times and brutally murdered by her former partner in 2022.
Hundreds more rallied in Brisbane, carrying signs reading "We weren't asking for it" and "Weak laws cost lives."
Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, who accused ex-colleague Bruce Lehrmann of raping her at Parliament House, was also at the rally with a sign reading: "25 women killed and still not an election issue."
In the lead-up to the rallies, organisers urged more men to attend and take accountability over violence against women.
"Men listen to men ... we need more male role models out there," Ms Williams said.
Consent and healthy relationship education should be expanded to more schools with additional funding, and community sporting clubs and major codes could also play a role in reaching different generations, she said.
A total of 128 women have been killed since January 1 last year, according to the Australian Femicide Watch website.
Its founder Sherele Moody read aloud the names of the women as images of their faces were laid before Melbourne's Parliament steps.
"We're here because men keep killing us," she said.
"Violence against women is primarily a male problem ... it's not a women's problem to solve but it's women who are the ones who do the work."
Advocates say a government-run national domestic violence register is desperately needed to track the issue.
Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month, marked each May, is an opportunity to raise community awareness of the impacts of violence and the support available to those affected.
The rallies also called for fully funded frontline domestic violence services, expanded crisis accommodation and increased funding for primary prevention programs.
Mandatory trauma-informed training for all first responders should also be rolled out, organisers said.
The re-elected Labor government previously promised to prevent domestic violence perpetrators from abusing tax and superannuation systems.
It has also pledged to invest more funding to stop high-risk perpetrators through electronic monitoring.
But Ms Moody said ministers and leaders needed to sit down with frontline services to figure out what works.
"All the safety nets have holes in them and the funding barely even hits the sides," she told AAP.
Ms Williams also said the government should engage with a wider range of organisations and advocates in the sector.
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National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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