Coast locals urged to dob in lingering Melbourne holiday home owners to police
Melburnians who break the rules and stay in their coastal holiday homes now risk being dobbed in to police by locals, or subjected to the same stay-at-home restrictions as they would face in the city.
HS Coronavirus News
Don't miss out on the headlines from HS Coronavirus News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Melburnians who break the rules and stay in their coastal holiday homes after Sunday risk being dobbed into police by locals, or subjected to the same stay-at-home restrictions as they would face in the city.
It comes as reports emerge of some Melburnians considering bunkering down in their holiday homes for the rest of the year and enrolling their children in local schools, which remain open in regional areas and start back on Monday.
Victorian Senator Sarah Henderson said if Melbourne holiday home owners did not “do the right thing and stay away”, they could trigger a second coronavirus wave across regional Victoria, which until recently had been “a true safe haven”.
“We can’t afford to see that compromised. I urge local residents living in regional Victoria to report all suspected breaches of restrictions to police,” she said.
While Premier Dan Andrews has been clear in saying Melburnians cannot stay in their holiday homes during this lockdown, confusion has reigned over other State Government advice stating they could ‘finish’ holidays already started.
One small coastal council said holiday home owners with permanent Melbourne addresses would be subjected to the same coronavirus lockdown rules as other Melburnians, if they didn’t leave.
Melburnians would only be able to leave their holiday homes for the four reasons of attending work and school, exercise, caregiving and essential shopping - and banned from dining out, sitting down for coffees in local cafes and entertaining friends, a Queenscliff council spokesman said.
In line with Health Department advice, local businesses would check identification and could refuse service to anyone who normally lived in Melbourne.
“Anyone with a principal place of residence in metropolitan Melbourne or Mitchell Shire who is already in the Borough (of Queenscliffe) is subject to Melbourne’s Stage 3 Stay at Home restrictions,” he said.
“Council has a strong working relationship with our local police and we understand officers will be patrolling roads . . . as well as throughout regional communities, including Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale.”
Bass Coast council chief executive Ali Wastie, whose municipality includes Phillip Island, said locals were on the lookout for, and reporting, Melbourne residents who arrived at holiday homes or failed to leave them.
“School holidays are ending and it will not be acceptable for people to extend their holidays. We should be seeing a significant drop off in numbers . . . there’s no reason for people to be at their holiday homes,” she said.
The council had received many calls from worried locals about arrivals from Melbourne, and was telling them to contact police.
“We have been telling people it’s a police matter and if they are concerned people are coming down to lockdown in holiday houses . . . they need to register it with local police,” Ms Wastie said.
Small coastal and country communities were very aware of who was ‘local’ and who was not, she said.
Geelong council - with Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove in its boundaries - the Surfcoast Shire which includes Torquay, Anglesea and Lorne, and East Gippsland with Lakes Entrance and Mallacoota, also implored Melburnians to stay away from their holiday homes, for the sake of local residents.
Mornington Peninsula Shire - which is under metropolitan lockdown rules - has appealed to the State Government to be reclassified as regional, fearing Melbourne people will be “funnelled” to its towns, which have elderly populations.
The Department of Education yesterday said students from locked down Melbourne or the Mitchell Shire would not be allowed to transfer to new schools in regional areas, if they had only temporarily moved away from their primary residences, “except in exceptional circumstances”.
MORE NEWS
VICTORIA RECORDS 216 NEW CASES