Coronavirus: The punters are not happy about Melbourne’s lockdown, Dan

Shelves at a Camberwell supermarket are stripped of meat, left, and toilet paper, centre; shoppers queue outside a Melbourne Costco yesterday. Pictures: John Ferguson, AFP

It’s 10am and there is a run on meat at Coles in Camberwell and panic buying in the coffee aisle.

The toilet paper has arrived on wooden warehouse pallets and it’s busy but not frantic.

But, to be frank, not much has changed in Melbourne’s inner east, nor do we really expect it to.

The rest of the supermarket is pretty much fully stocked, the roads are quiet but not empty, the trains are still rattling by and the local football oval has the usual numbers of dogs and owners on their morning walk.

Aside from Daniel Andrews’s “shock and awe” overnight curfew, the shutting down of some industries and the limits on movement, Lockdown 3.0 has the feel of Lockdown 2.0.

Not so for the punters.

“We’re in the 26th week of a six week plan,” wrote Shirley in Melbourne’s Herald Sun.

The Herald Sun has long been the barometer of mainstream Melbourne, its readers for decades deciding elections and fuelling much of the news agenda.

Many of them John Howard’s battlers from the 1990s, their people were not too happy this morning.

“A police state, with a curfew? Surely this isn’t a modern-day Australia!’’ screamed Tania in the Hun.

Bret wasn’t stoked either: “Victorians have a right to be absolutely filthy.”

Then Paul the centrist chimed in: “I’m OK with most of this but a curfew?’’

Elsewhere across the city, the changes will have a greater impact.

In the outer suburbs, the 5km limit on travel has the potential to be extremely limiting for many and for Year 12 students the implications are profound as they prepare for the end of their schooling.

No football, no schoolies, no shared dreams in the schoolyard. Deep uncertainty about their futures.

The thousands of jobs that will go as a result of this lockdown will have a generational impact on society, as will the likely death of many, many businesses.

There is a real sense that many have barely been hanging on during the first two lockdowns and that this will skewer them.

Last night on a tour of the city post-curfew, it is clear the economic shutdown is already having an effect.

The great Melbourne shutdown began at 8pm, rapidly draining the life out of the CBD.

Tysn(OK) Dearley, 19, of Mt Druitt in western Sydney, had more than a few problems getting out of the way of police and will be typical of many people in Victoria in coming years.

“It’s a bit hard because I’m homeless,” he said. “I’m on my way to St Kilda. Everything was good until the virus started happening.”

Melbourne’s CBD, once the southern capital’s great strength, has been transformed by the virus, its coffee, restaurant and university culture broken by the threat of disease.

It was the same story today as fewer and fewer people entered the CBD, yet another knock-on effect of shutting down a metropolis.

Day one of the six week look down under way.

Only 41 days to go.