Coastal city battered from its time as Tasmania’s virus epicentre

A Tasmanian city which often needs to scream to be heard has been in the news for all the wrong reasons during the coronavirus emergency, writes Mercury journalist Helen Kempton.

THEY say any publicity is good publicity but the North West’s claim to fame as one of Australia’s coronavirus epicentres is not the kind of advertising campaign the region had expected or wanted.

The North West, with its main urban centres of Devonport and Burnie, is a relatively isolated part of Australia’s island state and when the coronavirus emergency broke out, residents felt they would be almost immune.

That, perhaps naive, mindset changed in late March when the first cases and deaths, associated with the virus happened at public hospitals in the North West.

Cases continued to climb and a region which is often ignored by Hobart, let alone major centres on the mainland, was thrust into the spotlight.

Not as a wonderful and beautiful place to visit and live but a place where infection control mistakes were made and hundreds of health care workers and patients were impacted.

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Extra restrictions on businesses and freedom of movement were imposed on the region and the push to control COVID-19 on Tasmania became divided on regional lines.

The atmosphere in Burnie itself could only be described as bleak.

The streets are mostly empty as all but essential business closed their doors and stood their workers down.

There is also a heavy reality in the air that 12 people have died in Tasmania’s manufacturing and agricultural heartland and hundreds more infected and scared.

Rumours about happenings at the hospital abounded as keyboard warriors repeated stories from somebody’s aunt’s sister who knew someone who worked at the NWRH.

A report into what happened in the North West has shown there were some major shortfalls in terms of staff mingling and PPE protocols at the hospital but the problems were systematic – not down to individual staff or patients.

A city which greeted cruise ship passengers with open arms over recent seasons closed ranks and asked if the “floating Petri dishes” should now be banned from Burnie port.

Indeed a motion to seek an “iron clad guarantee” that the State Government will not allow cruise ships to dock in Burnie without adequate safety procedures in place to protect volunteers, staff and citizens was passed by the Burnie City Council this week.

The council will also ask the government and TasPorts to build a raised walkway from the ships (if and when they resume) into town eliminating the need for shuttle bus service.