NSW Covid: Everything you can do when Freedom Day arrives
After months cooped up in lockdown, Sydneysiders are desperate to get out and enjoy NSW. Read our FULL LIST of what will be available once Freedom Day arrives.
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Sydney’s tourism industry is preparing to celebrate “freedom day” with special deals to celebrate having fun.
The Sydney Visitor Centre hopes Sydneysiders will plan ahead and support local operators who are coming out of the worst tourism crisis in a lifetime.
BridgeClimb is hoping to get people back onto the Harbour Bridge with a 35 per cent discount on some walks, and experiences such as a photography climb.
BridgeClimb CEO David Hammon, who also runs Blue Mountains Scenic World with his family, said the first 200 climbers would also get a voucher to the local Glenmore Hotel as an incentive to book ahead.
“This lockdown has been particularly hard for tourism because it’s gone across two sets of school holidays … I know lots of people are now booking ahead into November so we are seeing some good signs of people keen to get out and do stuff.
“We are in the business of making memories and helping people emotionally bond with each other through experiences, and what a great way to get out of lockdown and do something like the BridgeClimb or Scenic World.”
Mr Hammon is hoping to reopen on October 22.
“The sooner we can reopen the sooner we can start repairing for the summer holidays,” he said.
“We have lost a lot of staff over the last year, too, quite a lot of people have left tourism and gone to other industries less affected — we used to be about 240 staff at BridgeClimb and now we are down to 130,” he said.
Other Sydney tourism attractions hoping to get people using their discover vouchers and booking ahead include Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, where Gentoo penguin breeding season will be in full swing, and Wild Life Sydney Zoo, where koala cubs will be out and about.
Madame Tussauds will have fashion icon Zendaya joining the collections for a limited time for reopening, and Sydney Tower Eye’s Lego Brickman Cities exhibition has been extended to January.
A new space exhibit is also opening just in time for families looking for a post-lockdown day out.
The Neighbourhood Earth experience — created by the team behind van Gogh Alive, partnered with NASA and the US Space and Rock Centre — will open in November at the International Convention Centre.
The experience features a fully immersive space with 14 screens and a projected dome transporting visitors into the world of space travel, with replicas of space suits and spacecraft so kids can see what space travel looks like up close.
“This allows you to step into a different world and escape, and really it just gives you a beautiful feeling of wonder and awe and inspiration, and when I saw it, it just made me feel really happy and calm and I think we all need a little bit of that at the moment,” said M Live CEO Emma Triggs.
While international cruises may be a while off, harbour cruising experiences will also open up next month, with Sydney Luxury Cruise offering small private cruises for romantic experiences or small parties.
WHAT YOU CAN DO ON FREEDOM DAY
Restaurants and bars: Hospitality can reopen to fully vaccinated people, with a 1 person/4sqm capacity indoors and 1 person/2 sqm outdoors.
Retail: Non-essential retail can reopen to the fully vaccinated with a 1 person/4sqm rule.
Beauty salons: can reopen to the fully vaccinated, but will be capped at five clients.
Gyms can reopen with the 4 sqm rule and classes of up to 20, and all pools will be open.
Gatherings: Five fully vaccinated visitors will be allowed in a home (not including under-12s), groups of 20 allowed outdoors.
Major events and venues: Stadiums, racecourses, theme parks, zoos and other large entertainment spaces will reopen with the 4sqm rule, capped at 5000. Five hundred people can attend ticketed seated outdoor events, and cinemas, theatres and museums can reopen with the 4 sqm rule, or 75 per cent seated capacity.
Weddings, funerals and worship: Weddings of 50 people will be allowed with dancing. Funerals can have 50 mourners, and churches can reopen with the 4sqm rule.
Things you can’t do: Unvaccinated people will only have access to essential shopping. No singing in churches, dancefloors closed, community sport still off. Regional travel was originally set to open back up, but the government has backflipped and pushed travel back to 80 percent. You can travel anywhere in Greater Sydney but not beyond.
WHAT YOU CAN DO at 80 per cent
All freedoms apply to vaccinated adults.
Restaurants and bars: Booking cap will be scrapped, 4sqm rule for indoors and 2sqm rule for outdoors. You will be able to drink while standing at indoor venues.
Retail: Non-essential retail will still have the 4sqm rule.
Gatherings: 10 people can gather in a home, 20 at unregulated outdoor gatherings, 200 at covid safe events, 500 at ticketed and seated events and the non-vaccinated can gather in groups of two.
Community sport: will be reinstated.
Entertainment: Theatres and cinemas can operate at the 4sqm rule or 75 per cent capacity, whatever is larger. Libraries and museums can open with the 4sqm but nightclubs will remain shut.
Beauty: Hairdressers, beauty services, massage and tattoo parlours can open with the 4sqm rule uncapped.
Fitness and gyms: can open with the 4sqm rule and classes capped at 20 people. Indoor pools remain closed.
Major events and outdoor venues: Stadiums, racecourses, theme parks and zoos can open with the 4sqm rule capped at 5,000, unless given a specific exemption.
Weddings, funerals and worship: Weddings can go ahead with the 4sqm rule (uncapped) with dancing allowed. Unvaccinated people can only attend weddings with up to 5 guests. Funerals are uncapped with the 4sqm rule, the unvaccinated can attend funerals with 10 guests. Places of worship can open with the 4sqm rule and no singing, and the unvaccinated will be allowed.
Travel: Travel will be allowed between the regions and Greater Sydney. Caravan parks and campsites can open to everyone including the unvaccinated and car pooling is allowed for the vaccinated.
Masks: will remain mandatory in all indoor settings but not mandatory outdoors (except for hospitality staff)
WHAT YOU CAN DO ON DECEMBER 1
These freedoms will apply to everyone regardless of vaccine status.
Gatherings: No limit to household visitors, indoor and outdoor gatherings shift to the 2sqm rule, no limit on outdoor informal gatherings, outdoor gatherings of over 1,000 must have covid safe plan.
Retail and beauty: can operate with the 2sqm rule.
Restaurants and bars: 2sqm rule for indoor and outdoors, standing while eating and drinking allowed.
Gyms and indoor recreation: 2sqm rule for indoor fitness including indoor swimming pools.
Major outdoor recreation: Theme parks, zoos, racecourses and stadiums can open uncapped with the 2sqm rule.
Entertainment: Theatres, cinemas, music halls, museums and libraries can open uncapped with the 2sqm rule. Nightclubs can reopen with the 4sqm rule.
Weddings, funerals and worship: 2sqm rule for weddings, funerals and places of worship with singing allowed.
Masks: Mandatory on public transport and in airports, and for front of house hospitality staff.
Travel: Travel uncapped around NSW and home quarantine for arrivals.
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