Coronavirus: For Victorians, this latest outbreak is a completely different experience

Police carry out checks on the Calder Highway in Victoria. Picture: Getty Images

I write today’s commentary for all those Australians dealing in business and personal affairs with Victorians.

It’s hard for outsiders to imagine what is happening in our southern and second most populous state.

Given my age, and that of my wife, our family in March banished us to the NBN-connected coast and I have been operating there ever since.

But what is currently happening in regional and capital city Victoria is totally different to what was happening in the previous pandemic peak around March/April. There now is a much greater sense of fear and apprehension, along with even greater financial uncertainty.

This time, almost every Melburnian knows somebody who has been infected. Last time around most merely indirectly heard about infections. Now the numbers are much greater and it makes a big difference to the fear factor. You could be next.

For baby boomers and those who are older that represents a serious health risk. Melburnians must now only exercise close to their home to reduce travel.

In schools, where possible, year 11 and 12 students - the only ones allowed on campus - usually spread around the empty areas to reduce the infection risk. Most take all their books home each night for fear that someone will be infected overnight and they will have to return to online learning. Distancing and mask-wearing is now more widely practised in the community.

A pop-up testing clinic in Melbourne. Picture: Sarah Matray

But one of the Melburnians I know who became infected was not contact-traced for a long time. That means the contact tracing has fallen behind, and that increases the danger of even greater infection rates and deepens the sense of fear. With infections topping 400 on Friday, that danger became a reality.

We will know in the next few days whether the state has got on top of the infection rate. If infections fall sharply, the NSW border might be opened in September, but if they stay high or rise - as now seems likely - then the border will be closed until December at the earliest. Make your business and personal plans with those possibilities in mind.

Last time around, like all Australians, Victorians spent up on their homes including appliances. That is still happening but, depending on the infection rate, I suspect it will not continue with the same momentum.

Melbourne’s Swanston Street. Picture: Sarah Matray

Yesterday I arranged a business lunch in a nearby town with a person with a Geelong postcode drivers’ drivers licence. I went to the restaurant ahead of time but was not allowed in until my licence was checked. Unfortunately it still had a Melbourne postcode and I was told I could not dine in the restaurant unless I could produce a long-term dwelling lease.

Fortunately in the car I had evidence (post diversion and newspaper accounts) that I had been living in the nearby town since March. Very nervously the restaurant proprietor allowed me to sit down but pointed out that she was taking a risk of a big fine. She had been inspected just yesterday. Her advice was that if I wanted to stay in regional Victoria I had to change my licence postcode.

We had been going back fortnightly to Melbourne for a routine medical appointment but now there are long delays as a result of inspections on the road back to the coast to stop infection-prone Melburnians travelling to regional Victoria.

Police checks near Gisborne in Victoria. Picture: Getty Images

I now fear that trying to negotiate on the roadside with the police or the defence forces with my various pieces of paper would not be successful. If we go back to Melbourne we may not get down here again. The medical appointments have been cancelled.

This is a very different experience for all Victorians. And behind those lifestyle changes and infection fears is a great deal of personal financial suffering, led by the tragic disintegration of previously successful small businesses. My non-journalistic activities cause me to encounter many small business tragedies.

JobKeeper and JobSeeker have helped that process but they run out in September and no-one knows exactly what will happen after that.

Combined with the financial and the infection impacts and you have a very different state of Victoria to the confident prosperity-driven state that existed in 2019.

If you want to negotiate a deal with Victorians, keep your Victorian jokes to yourself. It’s no laughing matter down here now.