Bay island residents starved of grocery deliveries as lockdown orders swamp Woolworths

Bay island residents are waking up at 5am to get coveted timeslots for online grocery delivery bookings during the lockdown.

Barges are used to take Woolies trucks and groceries to the bay islands.

The Covid lockdown has sparked a grocery delivery crisis, stranding some of the state’s poorest on islands where there is no major supermarket retailer.

Hundreds of bay island residents have been forced to wait for up to six days to get their online shopping lists filled and delivered from Woolworths.

There is also heavy competition to get online booking slots to lodge orders.

Most island households have been forced to go online and order groceries after the state government instigated a 10km radius travel restriction for non-essential purposes and announced a lockdown on Saturday last week.

Island residents are still allowed to travel more than 10km to the mainland for essential purposes.

To get the coveted online bookings, many residents have been forced to log on to the Woolworths website at 5am.

It is more than 10km on a ferry from Russell, Karragarra, Macleay and Lamb islands to the Redland Bay ferry terminal and then a further 6km to the main shopping precinct at Victoria Point, which has the closest Woolworths, Coles and Aldi.

Woolworths at Victoria Point, where the groceries and packed for shipping to the islands.

The earliest date for new grocery orders to be delivered on any of the four islands is next Thursday, August 12 and the earliest date to make the next bookings will be Saturday.

Of the main grocery retailers, only Woolworths delivers to the islands and this week reported being inundated with island online orders.

Russell Island resident Suellen Fox was unable to get her $70 grocery order filled on Thursday after Woolworths said its online delivery “windows” were at capacity.

Woolies could not take any more online bookings on Thursday.

However, the retail giant said it was prioritising vulnerable customers.

Other island residents including Bec Newham said they were forced to log on to the Woolworths ordering site before 5am as residents battled for booking slots.

Some said their children were going without their preferred brand of nappies while others were forgoing special dietary needs instead of travelling to shops outside the 10km radius to Victoria Point.

Woolworths said it did not have enough trucks or staff to cope with the massive spike in island demand.

“We’re unfortunately experiencing some logistical delays getting online deliveries across to the Moreton Bay islands due to the changing COVID-19 situation in Queensland,” the retailer said in a statement.

“Our teams are doing their best to bring in extra capacity to service orders being placed by our customers.”

Woolworths staff at Victoria Point, where the groceries are packed for delivery, said they had been run off their feet with deliveries to the island on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

They said demand kicked off as soon as the lockdown was announced with island residents getting in early to book deliveries.

“We only have a certain number of trucks and a certain number of drivers and we have to deliver to all of the four islands,” staff said.

“As the only major supermarket delivering to the islands, we understand the importance of the service to the community and thank everyone for their patience.”

Supa IGA does island deliveries.

On Thursday, island residents were told they would not be able to book their grocery deliveries for Saturday, August 14 until Sunday this weekend.

Sealink, which runs the passenger and car boats to the islands, said there was capacity for Woolworths to put an extra delivery truck on its barges to the islands.

The barge operator said there had been no change to the regular passenger ferry services to the islands, which were about 50 boats leaving Redland Bay to the islands each day.

The only changes to the Sealink services during the Covid lockdown will be this weekend, when there will only be five barges running from Redland Bay on Saturday and Sunday, instead of the usual nine.

Food parcels are available.

Island residents stranded with no access to online grocery bookings have been alerted to a $10 delivery service from the local IGA store or the weekly Bay Islands Food Parcels service, held on Wednesday at the Russell Island Recreation Hall.

For $10, residents can pick up a parcel of groceries.

Some have even resorted to using services such as Lite n Easy, which does island deliveries as does My Health Aisle, which offers a free delivery service to Macleay Island.

Food Relief, an emergency help service is also available for island residents on 3245 2117.

Originally published as Bay island residents starved of grocery deliveries as lockdown orders swamp Woolworths