Rapid Creek Markets working on reopening plan to ensure safety amid COVID-19 ‘new normal’

WEEKEND mornings at markets across the Top End during a time when coronavirus restrictions are slowly being lifted will be different, but the ‘laksas just as spicy’.

The Rapid Creek Markets trialled a soft reopening at the weekend. Picture: Che Chorley

WEEKEND mornings at markets across the Top End during a time when coronavirus restrictions are slowly being lifted will be different, but the “laksas just as spicy”, according to Chief Minister Michael Gunner.

Territorians will have a clearer idea of how and when coronavirus restrictions in the NT will be lifted on Thursday, when Mr Gunner reveals the government’s detailed road map.

In the meantime, the Rapid Creek Markets, the oldest running in Darwin, trialled a soft reopening on the weekend with strict social distancing rules in place and caps on crowd numbers.

Stallholder Melody Zeuo and her vegetable stall at the Rapid Creek Markets on Sunday, March 29. Picture: Che Chorley

It is understood the few stalls there were there were spaced further apart than usual.

The markets were temporarily suspended in early April.

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Fresh food markets, like supermarkets, have been allowed to remain open, but all chose to close due to fears around maintaining proper social distancing.

A shopper at the Rapid Creek Markets on Sunday, March 29. Picture: Che Chorley

Rapid Creek Markets co-ordinator Costa Miaodis said he was getting advice from the Health Department on how best to reopen the markets safely, and would have more information for the community later in the week.

Mr Gunner, while revealing that Territory-run national parks would reopen for the long weekend, said Territorians would need to get used to a “new normal, a new way of living” while scientists across the globe race to find a vaccine for COVID-19.

A vendor at the Rapid Creek Markets on Sunday March 29. Picture: Che Chorley

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“It will still be the Territory lifestyle we know and love with a few changes,” he said.

“There’ll be camping and fishing on weekends and mornings at the markets, the sunsets will be just as stunning, the beer just as cold and the laksa just as spicy – but all while keeping our distance, hanging out in smaller groups, washing our hands, the simple common sense things that are keeping us all safe.”