Victorians lost lives, jobs and a part of themselves during lockdown

The darkest time in Victoria’s history is behind us, but we’re still stuck. We sacrificed a part of ourselves in lockdown and it’s showing.

COMMENT

When people talk about the “sacrifice” Victorians made, I wonder if we’re on the same page.

The definition changed for me recently — just after Daniel Andrews uttered those now immortal words: “Now is the time to open up.”

For months, throughout the entirety of a jarring, agonising, monotonous lockdown, I had thought about the sacrifice that others were making.

The healthcare workers who sacrificed their own safety to stand in front of a deadly virus and put the public first.

The business owners who sacrificed a life’s work when they walked away from what they built, sometimes never to return.

The families who sacrificed a final goodbye with loved ones in aged care homes or at funerals with a 10-person limit, not including the deceased.

But there’s something else that struck me about sacrifice when the Premier delivered the news on Monday that Melburnians had waited so long to hear.

A pedestrian in Little Bourke St, Melbourne during lockdown. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Tim Carrafa

The sacrifice I and so many others had made wasn’t about what we had done or not done — it was about what we had given involuntarily.

We’d sacrificed the part of ourselves that was unafraid of normal life. The virus and the lockdown had taken that away and replaced it with something else entirely.

“Not going to lie, I have mixed emotions with Melbourne no longer in a lockdown,” one Melburnian wrote on Monday. “As much as I am happy we can go about our lives, I’m also scared/worried wave 3 will hit us.”

Others expressed a similar notion to hold on tight to the thing that has kept them safe, the four walls of their home and the 5km radius they became so familiar with.

I'm happy that lockdown is ending and it's another🍩🍩 day, but I really have zero desire to charge out to the shops or a restaurant any time soon. Seems stressful. Anyone else feel this way?

— Beverley Wang (@beverleywang) October 26, 2020

Is anyone else incredibly pleased, but also scared about reopening Melbourne. The thought of another outbreak and another hard lockdown is terrifying. #CovidVic #COVID19Victoria #melbournelockdown

— Harrison (@Harrisonfw_) October 26, 2020

Same here. No big desire to eat out or go to a pub or go to shops. I’ll have a drink at home 😂😂. https://t.co/e6L2yMZyJz

— Maker Mayek (@MakMayek) October 27, 2020

Sacrifice was a theme during comments made by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday afternoon, too.

“I just want to say thank you and congratulations,” he said. “You’ve done it really tough in Melbourne and across Victoria in recent months and I said right at the outset of this lockdown that Australia will only succeed if Victoria succeeds, and you are succeeding.”

He’s right. Australia’s ability to do what less than a handful of nations anywhere in the world have done and defeat a second wave rested squarely on the shoulders of Victorians. And those Victorians came through against all odds.

There were plenty of Victorians who pushed back hard.

There were protests in the streets that made headlines around the world.

There were those who refused to wear masks and those who took the fight against curfew to the Supreme Court.

A woman walks along Bourke Street in the CBD. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

Family members and close friends turned on each other as debate raged about the validity of the lockdown and indeed the virus itself.

But the vast majority bought in to a plan that was radical — a plan no other Australian state had attempted. And the hard lockdown took getting used to.

The novelty very quickly faded and the difficulty of managing daily routines set in. Family members were separated and many are still separated by a hard border between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.

But, as I wrote months ago, the majority of Melbourne’s six million people are patient and resilient and just got on with it.

They cancelled weddings and struggled to juggle home-schooling and working from home.

They walked the same streets and measured their days in puzzle pieces.

Retail staff in Foot Locker in the Bourke St Mall getting ready to open this week. Picture: Jay Town

They tuned in religiously to the Premier’s press conferences.

And then he finally said it. “You’re free.” Well, sort of.

“Now is the time to congratulate every single Victorian for staying the course,” he said.

“Now is the time to thank every single Victorian family for being guided by the data, the science and the doctors, not letting our frustration get the better of us but, instead, proving equal to this wicked enemy. Indeed, better than this wicked enemy.”

Some will rush out after midnight tonight to embrace the return to life as they knew it before lockdown.

Others will go gently and cautiously. And that’s fine, too.

[e-mail] | @ro_smith