How three removalists sent six million people into lockdown

These removalists are a blueprint in what not to do during an outbreak, a lesson in boneheaded recklessness. And they were gone before Melbourne even knew they were here.

Let’s call them Public Enemies One, Two and Three.

We cannot tell you their names, their ages or who they work for. There are no wanted posters. Officially, they are faceless men.

Yet we can detail the stain of pain – likened to an arson spree – that three Sydney removalists, in breaking the rules, have wrought across Melbourne and Victoria.

Their work trip will cost Victoria billions of dollars. They started a fire which rages from Geelong to Phillip Island. Numerous people, from the very young to very old, are ill.

These men are a case study in a virus outbreak. A blueprint in what not to do, and a lesson in boneheaded recklessness. And they were gone before Melbourne knew they were here.

The men brought the virus to Melbourne nine days ago. The virus has since exploited the ordinary rhythms of Melbourne life, by turning up at the AFL footy, various schools, local footy clubs and one or more pubs. Exposure sites approach 130 and primary close contacts number more than 1500.

Melbourne Lockdown 5.0 is because of these men.

Residents of the Ariele Apartments in Maribyrnong report the three removalists did not wear masks while unpacking furniture in the lobby. Picture: Getty

They arrived in two trucks from Sydney’s west. The permits paperwork had been filled out, but the men ignored the strict conditions of their visit.

They stopped off – in breach of rules – for breakfast at a Hungry Jack’s north of Melbourne before their first job, a delivery in Craigieburn.

They then drove to Maribyrnong, to collect furniture from an apartment in Thomas Holmes Street.

Casually clothed, without company logos, they cluttered the foyer of the Ariele Apartments with furniture. Miffed residents couldn’t use the lift for much of the next five hours.

They noted that the removalists did not wear masks.

Later that afternoon, heading to South Australia, the men stopped at a McDonald’s in Ballan. The next morning, after a lengthy servo stop, they unpacked a delivery, before stopping off at least four times on their way home to Sydney.

As COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar put it, they had “lit the fire” then “cleared off”.

On the road, one of the men had been notified that he was a close contact of a positive case. Two of the removalists have since tested positive.

One of them infected a resident of the Maribyrnong apartments. He is a 60-year-old teacher and Bulldogs supporter.

This man’s everyday travels after he was infected would usually seem unremarkable.

The day after, Friday, July 9, in preparing for the new school term, he went to Highpoint Shopping Centre.

He then visited his parents, aged 89 and 90, in their Craigieburn home. One of them had a first vaccination shot, the other had not.

He has since been labelled a “superspreader”, a kind of Typhoid Mary. Yet the man couldn’t know the danger he posed.

“There is no way he would have visited his parents if he knew he was sick,” a source close to the family says. “You won’t find a nicer family, and they were so phobic about the virus.”

He and a friend, also a teacher and MCC member, went to the footy the following day. They stopped for a drink at Young and Jackson before heading to the Carlton-Geelong game.

The pub was pre-game busy. Amid the throng were two men in their 30s – one based at HMAS Cerberus at Crib Point, the other a Richmond office worker.

They are now positive.

The 60-year-old teacher from the Ariele Apartment block visited the Young & Jackson pub with a fellow teacher before taking a tram to the MCG.

The Maribyrnong man and his friend, in his 50s, then caught the route 70 tram to the ground at about 3.45pm, and sat on level two of the MCC Reserve.

The teachers didn’t know the Trinity Grammar teacher who sat nearby. He would be among 20,000 fans to attend the Wallabies versus France clash at AAMI Stadium a few nights later.

The teacher, a Cats’ fan and a well-liked school rugby coach, taught classes from Monday and Wednesday this week.

He is positive. His colleagues and students are in two weeks of isolation.

Nor did the pair know a child, thought to be a grade four student of St Patrick’s Primary School in Murrumbeena.

The child, aged under 10, is positive.

Or two men in their 20s, one from Montmorency, the other a bar worker from Point Cook.

They are positive.

The Maribyrnong man’s friend, from Barwon Heads, attended a school staff day on Monday.

He was positive.

At least three other teachers at his Bacchus Marsh school have tested positive.

The man’s son picked up the virus from his father, and now 390 students and staff at Barwon Heads Primary School are isolating.

The fellow teacher who attended the football with his friend then infected three other teachers at Bacchus Marsh Grammar.

Yesterday, there were 20 Victorian cases directly linked to the Sydney removalists. The public fury against them has distracted from the lesser dramas of the outbreak.

Such as the year 12 student, who sat near the Maribyrnong man at the MCG. He is isolating with his mother, who frets about lockdown and her long planned house auction.

Or the single mother, whose son was in the tier one MCG risk category, who had to leave, her son untested, after queuing for hours at a Covid testing site yesterday.

There is the wider fear of serious illness or worse – the 60-year-old Maribyrnong man, for example, as well as his positive parents, are said to be very unwell.

And there is the uncertainty. Will days grow to weeks? Does the virulence of this virus strain portend a new reality of random and a rapid spread?

These are the crisis questions ahead. And they are posed only because three morons came to Melbourne, ignored the rules, and stopped a city.

“They are not here now and they are not coming back,” Premier Dan Andrews said on Friday.

Or, as the rest of Melbourne would say: good riddance.