Coronavirus: Desolate view from doorways of despair

Navneet Kaur has not left her Tarneit home since March: ‘It’s quite scary and boring at the same time’.

‘It’s scary and boring at the same time’: Navneet Kaur, 29, has not left her home in virus-hit Tarneit in Melbourne’s west since March. Picture: Aaron Francis

Skeleton Creek is just down the road, and for Navneet Kaur and thousands of others who are shadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the waterway is symbolic for its name and urban beauty.

Ms Kaur, 29, lives in one of the two local government areas in Melbourne’s west and outer northwest that account for more than 20 per cent of all Victoria’s coronavirus cases.

The banking analyst says she has not left her Tarneit home since March, preferring to shelter in her modern rental by one of the main inter city rail lines, leaving the shopping and other errands to her brother.

Melbourne’s CBD can be seen from her front yard, its skyscrapers reaching out above the plains.

“It’s quite scary and boring at the same time,” she said. “I am working from home eight or 10 hours.’’

“I haven’t been out since March. It is like we don’t have track of the days. I am just trying to help the government.”

Her decision to remain housebound is excruciating but justified when she considers that the City of Wyndham is responsible for 1290 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started, slightly more than neighbouring Brimbank.

There are 766 active cases in her area, the most ever recorded in Australia at one time.

It is a daily struggle between the two areas over which will have the highest number of cases, both active and overall.

Tarneit is just under 30km from Melbourne’s CBD but looks closer and is surrounded by industrial estates, prisons and freeways.

But its real estate market is strong, with a good house costing well over $500,000. The problem for many of its residents lies in the fact that work, when found, is often casual.

There are a large number of warehouse distribution centres nearby, and the state’s largest cluster at Al-Taqwa College (185 cases) is in Wyndham.

Its median weekly household income of $1721 reflects the national average but mortgages are high and many live week to week.

Pretty much everything seems new: new railway station, new ­library and new school, as town planners tried to cater for Melbourne’s pre-COVID-19 booming population.

The streets are clean and the two main supermarkets are as good as you will get. Aside from the occasional up-ended shopping trolley in the creek and an apparent shortage of lawnmowers, Wyndham looks every bit part of the Australian dream.

Standing by Skeleton Creek last week, retiree Jenny Balding lamented what she said was a failure of local ethnic communities to social distance or wear masks. “I think it’s people doing the wrong thing,” she said when asked why there were so many cases.

In the past week, Tarneit and nearby Truganina residents have witnessed a sharp improvement in the wearing of masks, with virtually everyone now embracing face protection.

At Tarneit Central Shopping Centre, the main meeting place for the community, many were not wearing masks last week. But Alan Lyle, who sells masks for $10 at Tailor 2 Fit at the centre, has noticed that finally the locals are listening to the medical advice.

“With the lockdown, I think it’s safer,” he said. “I think the government has done their best.”

But Mr Lyle will have to close his shop from Wednesday night under the lockdown provisions, leaving him unsure how he will pay the rent. “After we’ve closed, the rent is a big problem,” he said.

On the local train platform, Amile Sy, 26, is preparing to head back into the CBD after a day helping to build solar panels. The Frenchman is in Australia on a working holiday visa and expects Tuesday to be the last day he will work for many weeks.

“It’s changed … and I think it’s going to get harder,” he said.