‘There’s worse places to sit out a lockdown’

The Stay family are among the last remaining residents of the Lakeside Caravan Park in Narrabeen, near the epicentre of Sydney’s northern beaches coronavirus cluster.

Kylie and Jason Stay, with Chloe and Tyler, make the most of being locked down at a near-deserted Lakeside Caravan Park in Narrabeen, northern Sydney, on Sunday. Picture: Jane Dempster

It’s the relative calm at the centre of the storm.

For Jason and Kylie Stay – and children Tyler, 7, and Chloe, 4 – it was meant to be Christmas at the grandparents followed by a trip in the caravan to Port Stephens.

Now they’re one of the last remaining residents of the Lakeside Caravan Park in Narrabeen, a popular holiday destination just south of Avalon, the epicentre of Sydney’s northern beaches coronavirus cluster.

The spread of the virus through the idyllic peninsula has cleared out the park, normally heaving at this time of the summer, as well as many others along the coast.

But the same reasons that have sent campers and holiday-makers running for cover are those that kept the Stay family in place – with the park largely to themselves.

The plan, according to the Stays, was to sell the family home in Warriewood and move in with Jason’s parents for Christmas before heading north with the family.

 

That plan came to nought when Jason’s father visited the Avalon RSL club, one of two venues described by health authorities as a source of many of the COVID-19 cases. He’s gone into isolation; they’ve stayed in Narrabeen – in a caravan park with barely another resident, now closed, alive at night with only the sound of cicadas.

“What a difference a month can make,” Kylie, 42, says, looking out on the deserted caravan park, normally buzzing with families at this time of year. “It’s dead quiet.”

“The in-laws finish isolation at midnight on Christmas night.

“So, unfortunately, it looks it’ll be Christmas Day in the caravan park.”

“It could be worse,” says Jason, shrugging, as Tyler and Chloe rattle past on their bikes. “At least we are healthy and there’s worse places to sit out a lockdown.”

Christmas will look different this year to almost every family around the city. On Sunday, Gladys Berejiklian said the northern beaches cluster had grown to 68, making additional restrictions on gathering necessary. And on Wednesday those may be extended over Christmas.

Either way, holidays to Queensland, Victoria and other states are out of the question.

A COVID-19 care team worker hands out water, hand sanitiser and masks to people waiting for tess outside the Brookvale Community Health Centre in northern Sydney on Sunday. Picture: Adam Yip

Jade Dunne, a mother of two who lives in Cremorne on Sydney’s lower north shore, says the decision by Daniel Andrews to slam shut the state’s border to Sydney from midnight Sunday has been a “devastating blow”.

“We have been separated from our family all year,” she says.

“We were just about to welcome my in-laws for Christmas. The last time our family saw our youngest child he was four months old; he is now 16 months old.”

Others are getting on with it. New restrictions – capping family gatherings at 10 and bans on singing, chanting and dancing – will also be accommodated, as well as rules prohibiting northern beaches residents from leaving home except for essentials.

At St Mark’s Anglican Church in Avalon, Reverend Sturt Young is already making changes to his plans for holding Christmas services and weekend mass.

“Seeing screens isn’t the same as seeing people, but I think there’s still a strong sense of community,” he says, working on setting up the camera.

“We have become pretty resilient over the past nine months and, while things are different, the message of Christmas is always the same.”

Despite long queues, more than 28,000 tests were carried out on Saturday – the highest level recorded by NSW health authorities since early September.

As the peninsula scrambles to avoid a lengthy Christmas lockdown, there’s the persistent question: How did the coronavirus come to be in Avalon, a particularly secluded part of Sydney that has been largely unscathed during previous outbreaks?

For now, NSW health authorities can’t say. But Health Minister Brad Hazzard angrily denied suggestions on Sunday that wealthy overseas travellers had been granted exemptions from hotel quarantine and returned to the area with coronavirus.

“They do not get exemptions in terms of self-quarantining,” Mr Hazzard said. “They get exemptions to perhaps quarantining in a different environment, still with police protection. I don’t think that is what you are talking about.

“But we have exemptions for people who may need to attend a funeral because the mother is dying.”