Coronaivurs: different mindset as Melburnians get a taste of freedom

As Daniel Andrews confirmed restrictions would ease at midnight on Sunday, tens of thousands of Melburnians flocked to parks and beaches to enjoy the sun.

Chris and Jo Parkinson at their Melbourne home in Eltham with their children Billy, 1, and Eddie, 3. Picture: Paul Jeffers

As Daniel Andrews confirmed restrictions would ease at midnight on Sunday, tens of thousands of Melburnians flocked to parks and beaches to revel in the spring sunshine and their returned freedoms.

At Lower Eltham Park in the northeast, the Parkinsons celebrated the 39th birthday of Chris Parkinson with family members they hadn’t seen for months.

It may have been dad’s birthday but one-year-old Billy Parkinson stole the show. Mother Jo Parkinson, 35, said Billy’s uncle was especially excited after last seeing the infant at his birthday in early June. “They were only in Malvern but outside our 5km limit.

“Billy has changed a lot in those five months so they were quite taken aback with his walking and not talking but trying to communicate verbally.”

With both the 25km limit and the ring of steel between Melbourne and the regions lifting at midnight, Mr Parkinson said he was excited to get out of Melbourne into the regions.

“I’ve got a couple of days this week in Ballarat where I plan to go fly fishing,” he said.

“I’m pretty excited — that ­opportunity hasn’t been there for a long time.”

Ms Parkinson said indoor pools reopening meant son Eddie, three, could resume swimming lessons, adding to a sense that the world as we had known it was finally ­returning. “It’s a little bit more normality and getting back into the routine, just having that structure in the week,” she said.

Ms Parkinson said she was enjoying freedoms she’d never fully appreciated before lockdown, such as driving across the city just to spend time with friends.

“It’s a different mindset,” she said.

With the number of active cases in Victoria falling to just four on Sunday, a return to life pre-COVID felt more possible than it had in months.

Ms Parkinson said nine consecutive days of zero new cases and deaths had brought hope.

“It gives me increased hope for COVID normal being closer to pre-COVID normal than I had hoped for,” she said.

“But at the same time, I don’t want to get my hopes up too much for say a normal Christmas or normal summer holidays.”

Ms Parkinson wants to see her sister, who lives in Adelaide, and said her fingers were crossed for the South Australian border reopening in time for the pair to reunite over the summer.

“It looks like we might be able to reunite with them after almost a year apart,” she said.

“We both have kids around the same age so not seeing nieces and nephews for a year … that’s kind of something that’s been really hard for me this year.”

Mr Parkinson said lockdown had gone too far, with the economic and social damage caused by restrictions overshadowing the state’s low case numbers: “Zero zero [cases] for nine days is great but it doesn’t in my mind vindicate what the government has done.”