Hunter Covid: Shortland house party now suspected as University of Newcastle superspreader

For over five days, authorities have told the Hunter that a gathering on Blacksmiths Beach was the start of the region’s Covid outbreak. But it wasn’t.

Authorities now believe that a Shortland house party — and not the much-publicised Blacksmiths Beach gathering — is at the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak threatening to keep the Hunter in lockdown for weeks.

It can be revealed that two southwestern Sydneysiders who passed the virus on to several others at the relatively small Blacksmiths Beach get-together on July 30 were also present at the significantly larger Shortland house party two days earlier.

A pop up testing station has been set up at the University of Newcastle after students tested positive for Covid-19. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Peter Lorimer

Also at Shortland were an unknown number of University of Newcastle students, who are believed to have inadvertently transported the virus to the university’s Callaghan campus where at least three people have now tested positive amid fears the Delta variant could continue to spread quickly.

But despite hundreds of students and staff who attended the on-campus accommodation block International House from July 28 ordered to isolate, the university was still forced to call police to help investigate a Monday night party, with claims the campus is short of security officers because most have been forced to isolate themselves.

A pop up testing station has been set up at the University of Newcastle after students tested positive for Covid-19. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Peter Lorimer

Hunter New England Health had failed to mention the Shortland party since the lockdown took effect on August 5 until more than an hour after receiving questions from The Newcastle News on Tuesday.

In announcing new exposure sites, the health service’s public health physician, Dr David Durrheim said in a video posted online on Tuesday afternoon: “It is extremely disappointing to learn belatedly that members of the party group from the Blacksmiths Beach and from the Wallsend-Shortland gathering unfortunately also attended three of our busiest nightclubs, licensed venues in Newcastle on the 30th [of July].”

Dr. David Durrheim.

It can be revealed that it had taken contract tracers several days to convince the southwestern Sydneysiders, who were in a party of three and travelled to the Hunter by train some time before the house party, to come clean with where they had been.

The house party occurred on the same night they visited the Shortland Hotel bottle shop for half an hour on Wednesday, July 28.

On August 8, the same pub was listed as an exposure site for July 29, this time for three hours as the Sydneysiders visited the public bar, and the Blacksmiths Beach party occurred on July 30 — two days after the house party.

The two infected Sydneysiders had also visited shopping centres and nightclubs while in the Hunter.

The University of Newcastle revealed last Saturday (August 7) that two students living on campus had tested positive to Covid-19.

Later that day, the university said any International House resident who had been on campus from July 28 — the night of the Shortland house party and two days before Blacksmiths Beach — were deemed a close contact and needed to isolate for 14 days.

A further positive case was reported on campus the following day.

Yasmin Catley

“Hunter New England Health needs to be transparent with the community and clarify the initial outbreak site,’’ shadow minister for the Hunter, Yasmin Catley, said.

“It is obvious this could well be a superspreader event and people need to have the knowledge if they attended these popular sites.

“My office has had multiple calls from people who were at various venues yet have not been contacted by the Government.’’

However, a HNEH spokeswoman said on Tuesday night that the service would only answer questions if there was “a public health imperative to do so”.

The spokeswoman later said HNEH and NSW Health would not be commenting.

To add to the Hunter public’s growing anger at a lack of information are fresh claims that International House students were continuing to party in breach of the public health order.
Professor Alex Zelinsky AO, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Newcastle said: “While most of our residential students on campus are complying with Covid restrictions, we have been informed of some breaches of the Public Health Order. This kind of activity is dangerous and incredibly disappointing and frustrating for the staff working hard to keep everyone safe, and for those residents who are doing the right thing.

“NSW Police are investigating these breaches, and we will take the outcomes of these investigations extremely seriously.

“Staff who have been impacted by the COVID-19 positive cases on our Callaghan campus have been identified, and are self-isolating according to the level of contact they’ve had with a positive case.

“Where this has impacted staffing rosters, the University has moved quickly to fill these gaps. “There are no gaps in the level of service or security being offered to our students on Callaghan campus.

“Our security presence has increased since lockdown began, increased again over the weekend, and is being supplemented by NSW Police.

“The safety and wellbeing of our students remains our primary concern, and we are providing round-the-clock care to our residents to ensure they have access to health advice, food, essential supplies and mental health and wellbeing support.”