Melbourne celebrities with lockdown fatigue
Breaching lockdown to snort white powder at an illegal gathering is just one of the ways some high-profile Melburnians are avoiding the city’s harsh restrictions.
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With Melbourne sadly outranking Buenos Aires as the most locked down city in the world, it’s little wonder Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber hasn’t revisited his signature song, and changed the title to Don’t Cry For Us In Victoria.
However, some in our shut-down curfew-imposed state have danced to their own tune, either busting out the cheap Kmart plates at another person’s home, or having a cheeky Airbnb party then getting next-day amnesia about the guest list, or crossing interstate borders in a stealth mission only to feature on Instagram and Channel 7.
Here are 10 Victorians who tried to get around the rules of lockdown.
JODI GROLLO
She had walked all the streets of Briggggghhton, so it was only a matter of time before bayside Karen bought a ticket outta town.
Jodi Grollo, also known as social media sensation Karen from Brighton, shot to fame after whingeing about walking the same streets of the posh seaside suburb.
There’s only so many times you can peer through the windows of a locked-up Lululemon on Church St, babe.
Interviewed by a TV news crew while walking around The Tan, Ms Grollo whined: “You get sick of walking the same streets. You know, I’ve done all of Brighton.”
Soon after, she booked into one-star accommodation at Howard Springs en route to ‘Noosha’.
Grollo, who is connected to rich people, resurfaced a few months ago to rework a Backstreet Boys song into a lockdown ditty.
However, like the boy band, Karen from Brighton’s time had passed, and nobody cared.
NIKKI OSBORNE
Actor and comedian Nikki Osborne left Victoria to start a new life to save her children’s mental health.
Osborne, who competed on I’m A Celebrity last year, but is forever etched in our minds for her stellar monologues on the excellent late night stoner TV show Quizmania, packed up hubby and their two kids to live in Queensland.
She said: “My youngest needs to be in a classroom, and he needs to be social. It’s been hard seeing the impact on him. That broke me.
“This kid needs to be playing, he needs to be in the sun, he needs to be out and about and away from this very strange environment.”
But hotel quarantine almost broke them. “You adjust to waking with cracked lips and dry throat from the aircon,” Osborne croaked. “There were four of us in our cell.”
The family settled in Queensland a year ago.
DANIEL HAYES
His permit allegedly said “compassionate grounds”.
But as soon as Geelong real estate agent Daniel Hayes crossed the Queensland border on his grunty motorcycle, all he did was buy a new tyre and, as you do on the Goldy, get a tattoo.
Hayes, a prolific fundraiser who has a YouTube channel called “Million Dollar Bogan,” filmed his three day Vic to Qld journey because … content.
“I had a great time,” Hayes told a Current Affair.
“It was wonderful to get out before we got locked down again. I don’t know if I’ve done anything wrong.”
Queensland Police conducted “inquiries in relation to the matter” which may, or may not, have included a deep investigation into how tyres and tattoos are classified as compassionate.
Earlier this year, the karma bus dropped Hayes at the Big Brother house.
HAYDEN BURBANK AND MARK BABBAGE
Friends say it was a mistake 57 years in the making.
But Hayden Burbank and Mark Babbage’s alleged border breach into WA, to see the Dees play their first Grand Final since 1964, saw the Melbourne mates benched in a Perth jail.
Mr Burbank, 49, owner of Morris Jones restaurant in Prahran, Mr Babbage, 39, a financial planner remain locked in a cell until a court appearance on October 13.
Mr Burbank and Mr Babbage each face three charges of providing false information to border authorities.
The duo were photographed at a grand final eve luncheon at Perth Crown, and later inside the Demons’ change room alongside midfielder Alex Neal-Bullen after the match.
Associates say their undying Dee-votion got the best of them.
Demons captain Max Gawn agreed.
“If I was jumping borders, I’d be sitting one out, one back,” Gawn said, foolishly forgetting to say allegedly.
“I wouldn’t be going to the change rooms, I wouldn’t be going to the after-party.”
JOCKEYS’ AIRBNB BLUNDER
Jamie Kah, Mark Zahra, Ethan Brown, Ben Melham and Celine Gaudray. What a quinella.
Unfortunately, there were no winners in this lot, only five jockeys busted having an illegal party in a Mornington Airbnb during Melbourne’s latest lockdown.
All have been suspended during racing season’s peak period.
Superstar racer Kah said: “There is no excuse for what I have done and I have let myself down, my family and friends, the racing industry and all Victorians doing the right thing in this lockdown.
“I deserve the penalty handed down by the stewards and will take the time to reflect on my actions and its impact on so many people.”
Kah accepted the sanction for the Covid-19 breach, but Melbourne’s premier jockey has launched Supreme Court action against being found to have lied to stewards.
Her appeal is set for October 28.
LADY PAMELA
The luxury cruiser left Victoria on August 10 last year at the height of renewed lockdowns across the state.
Owner and property mogul, Simonds Group executive director Mark Simonds, was on board with his family at the time and they were granted quarantine exemption on August 20 upon entering Queensland.
The skipper Greg Numa, who was a former manager of TV personalities Rex Hunt and Sam Newman, was fined $4500 but did not record a conviction after pleading guilty to one count of making a false declaration to an emergency officer. Multiple emails were sent to authorities lying about disembarking from the ship as it sailed from Victorian waters.
JAKE EDWARDS
The former footballer and mental health advocate turned Married At First Sight star is now living in Queensland.
He recently left Melbourne for two weeks of quarantine in the sunshine state before revealing his new career path in real estate.
It comes after he checked himself into a wellness retreat in June following his split from Sophie Guidolin in May.
A new outlook and a new life awaits. “My move to Queensland has filled my soul in many ways,’’ he wrote on Instagram.
TANIA ZAETTA
It took months of Government paperwork, applications and waiting in line as a Queensland resident returning, but former Who Dares Win host Tania Zaetta has finally left lockdown in Melbourne.
As well as being close to see her mum, Zaetta and partner Chris Rogers wanted to give their three year-old twins Alby and Kenzie a more normal life.
She is currently in quarantine on the Gold Coast.
“Living in the world’s longest lockdown (statistically!) along with the rest of Melbourne is hard for those in others states to even comprehend as they mostly go on with their lives,’’ Zaetta wrote on Instagram.
“For us it’s time to escape for a while so our kids can discover what ‘lockdown free’ life is like.”
NADIA BARTEL
The fashion and lifestyle influencer was fined $5452 along with three others for breaching CHO directives after an illegal lockdown party at a Richmond property in September.
A video showing Bartel allegedly snorting an illegal substance was accidentally posted to Instagram.
The mum of two issued an apology saying she had “let you all down by my actions”.
Many marketing experts are tipping her brand will be repaired.
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