Coronavirus Australia: Life’s a beach, and then you die as people flock to St Kilda

In breathtaking mass defiance of social-distancing measures, hundreds of people have flocked to Melbourne’s St Kilda Beach.

Police talk with beachgoers at St Kilda on Friday. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Hundreds of people flocked to Melbourne’s St Kilda Beach on Friday afternoon in breathtaking mass defiance of social-distancing measures aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19.

As warm weather blanketed the city for the first time in weeks, crowds of people descended on beaches, seemingly oblivious to the pandemic that had killed three Victorians in the previous 24 hours.

By 4pm, hundreds of sunbakers in their teens and 20s gathered to enjoy the heat and water, lying side-by-side on the sand and splashing around in the waves. There was little attempt to adhere to the 1.5m social distancing advice among the groups at St Kilda Beach.

Brighton and Elwood beaches also drew large crowds.

Coming so soon after the controver­sy around Sydney’s Bondi Beach fiasco, in which thousands of people flocked to the eastern suburbs beach last week as the corona­virus took hold, the numbers­ at St Kilda Beach on Friday­ angered Premier Daniel Andrews and forced the Port Phillip Council to shut 11km of beach and gardens until further notice.

Victoria Police officers descended on St Kilda Beach just before 6pm, clearing it of most people by 6.30pm.

One officer told her colleagues after the sweep: “This is surreal.”

Axel Gustamos, who is in Melbourne­ on a student visa from Spain, said he was disappointed by the closure. He said he only followed social-distancing protocols around older people and hadn’t bothered on Friday­ because he had been with young people.

“For me, I don’t follow the 1m rule, but I try for the old people­,” he said.

“But for the young people, it doesn’t matter if we touch or stay together.”

Melbourne’s St Kilda beach on Friday. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Mr Andrews told the people gathering there to go home and stop risking people’s lives.

“No one should be at the beach, and if I have to take action to prevent­ people from going to the beach, I will,” the Premier said.

“I hope it doesn’t get to that. People should not be there. You don’t need to be at the beach. If you choose to be at the beach, then that is a choice that may cost someone their life.”

Mr Andrews said it was not just frail, elderly people whose lives were at risk.

“There are people in their 40s who are dying in other parts of the world,” the Premier said

“Don’t assume that this won’t affect you.

Don’t assume that this won’t affect a parent, or someone that you love.

“There are people who are otherwise healthy, no pre-existing­ conditions, and young, people who would have every reason­ to think that they had decades­ to live that have died because of this virus.”

Police talk with beachgoers at St Kilda on Friday. Picture: David Geraghty.

Mr Andrews said he was confid­ent the national cabinet would agree to impose stage three of the coronavirus shutdown, despite failing to do so today.

Welcoming national cabinet’s decision to quarantine returning overseas travellers in hotels, he said: “There will be a stage three.”

“That’s not today,” he added.

“There will be a further stage and when that stage happens, when we make that decision, I hope (it will be) as a national ­cabinet, and I’m sure it will be, because­ we now all of us ­understand that the curves are all different.’’