2020 has been a very strange year, for Australia and for the rest of the world. This global pandemic has changed our way of life collectively in many ways and yet experiences within countries, states, cities and even at an individual level are very unique.
Melbourne’s lockdown has been one of the strictest and longest in the world and if you had described some of the imposed rules to me a year ago, I wouldn’t have believed you. Who could believe that restaurants, cafes, bars, shops, cinemas and gyms would all be closed? That parents would be forced to homeschool and that playgrounds would be roped off? That we would not be able to move more than a 5km radius from our address, leave our homes for more than 2 hours or be out past the 9pm curfew? That there would be a mass shift to working from home for all that are capable of doing so? And most shockingly, that it would be illegal to visit our parents and siblings. We have endured these restrictions since March and it is now October… almost the entire year has been consumed.
This post is intended to capture a moment in history and gather some of the more culturally interesting and positive stories that have emerged from the pandemic, beyond the factual reporting on numbers and opinion pieces on policies.
CITY PRIDE
Sofia Levin recently wrote a Love Letter To Melbourne for Broadsheet, which really captures the mood perfectly. We all love our city and can’t wait to breathe the life back into it now that this Covid-19 business is almost under control.
Like anyone who’s ever loved, there are times when I’ve taken my city for granted. For example, if I asked you what Melbourne smells like, could you answer? For me it’s the malty cologne of Carlton Brewery near the river, the scent of curry floating from Collingwood apartment blocks at 5pm sharp, and the burnt-toast aroma of coffee roasting in the backstreets of Fitzroy before the city wakes. There are other smells I didn’t know I’d miss: a salty whiff of hot chips along St Kilda beach, the pungent cocktail of tomato sauce, beer and piss at the MCG, and the overpowering odour of chlorine from that garish fountain at Crown Casino.
Sofia Levin – Broadsheet
Also on Broadsheet, Pete Dillon captured A City Holding Its Breath. A series of over 50 photos show the strangely empty streets of Melbourne in the hours before Stage 3 lockdowns were officially declared.
Photo Credit: Pete Dillon
Time Out have temporarily rebranded themselves as ‘Time In’ to recognise that our behaviours will change but we all still want to make the most of our city from home. They have also started an initiative called ‘Postcards From Iso‘ which asks Melburnians to share what we’re doing to pass the time and what’s making us smile. A highlight for me was their article on ‘How To Recreate Melbourne Experiences At Home‘. All of them made me laugh, but the Hopetoun Tea Rooms is quoted as just one example to entice you to read the rest.
Hopetoun Tea Rooms: Make a cake. Heck, make several. Arrange cakes artfully on your kitchen bench. Next, set up a velvet rope outside your kitchen, and stand in it for about an hour while staring at the cake. After an hour, you may go into the kitchen to eat some cake.
Nicola Dowse – Time Out
COMMUNITY SPIRIT
The Aussie Teddy Bear Hunt kicked off early this year, with many putting teddy bears in the windows of their houses so that children could ‘hunt’ for the bears on their daily walks. It’s the kind of thing that helps us feel connected as a community and less alone in isolation, whether you have children or not. As a adult, I spotted a lifesize Mr Bean cutout in a window and it brought a smile to my face too.
A little later in the piece, Spoonsvilles started to appear in the suburbs. Here is one I spotted within my 5km radius, full of little handmade characters made out of wooden spoons.
HAVING A LAUGH
ABC Darwin kicked off a fight amongst their ABC counterparts across Australia with the suggestion that a travel bubble should exist between WA, SA & NT. The excluded states didn’t appreciate this very much and the resulting banter is hilarious.
Plus Australian Memes is full of goodies like this classic and this and this.
Also some cities showed solidarity by clapping essential workers or singing from their balconies, but Aussies just decide to stand out the front of our houses and scream together because “Covid’s shit. Every1’s a bit sad. Just stand on ur porch and scream until u feel a bit better”.
SILVER LININGS
The pandemic is obviously not a good thing, and some are struggling more than others, but we can always find silver linings in it. The environment has been a beneficiary of the change in human behaviour, with improved air quality allowing the Himalayas to be seen in parts of India for the first time in decades, the canals in Venice to run crystal clear and more wildlife to emerge and thrive than ever before.
Businesses are thinking differently to survive and we’re seen the emergence of services like Providoor (delivering restaurant quality meals to your home) and Click For Vic (directory set up by the Victorian tourism body to support small businesses). Many businesses have shifted to online delivery whether to feed, treat or entertain. There are plenty of websites keeping up to date with what’s on offer, so I won’t try to do so here. But personally I’ve enjoyed some home pottery with Ceramiques to pass the time and once I even did a remote wine tasting with Tractorless Vineyard. These options would never have existed before.
We’re also seeing mindset shifts and new habits formed that many want to retain as part of a ‘new normal’. We’re slowing down, exercising daily, prioritising our relationships, appreciating nature, making things from scratch, re-evaluating our consumerism and some are even enjoying the benefits of working from home.
Three more weeks of lockdown, Melbourne, and hopefully we’ll be done with it for good! Here’s to adventuring beyond our 5km radius in the near future!
