By Gabriella Payne
Rural communities on the outskirts of the Cardinia Shire are dismayed and frustrated that once again they have been classed as a part of “metro” Melbourne and will remain in lockdown, while neighbouring regional Victorian towns – some only kilometres away – will open up earlier than expected.
At the state government’s press conference on Monday 9 August, Premier Daniel Andrews announced that lockdown restrictions would be lifted for all of regional Victoria as of 11.59pm that evening – a decision which has left many fringe towns like Garfield and Lang Lang feeling overlooked and “lumped in” with their more distant metro neighbours.
Garfield local, Warren Caldwell, said that it was incredibly frustrating for the local community, as they considered themselves a part of regional Victoria.
“There are fringe towns like Garfield all the way around, so I know it’s not just us, but you look at it and go, ‘ok well we’re in lockdown, but if I lived another 5km down the road I wouldn’t be…’ it just doesn’t make sense,” Mr Caldwell said, “it’s so frustrating.”
“There just doesn’t even seem to be a process of saying ‘let’s review the boundaries according to the case numbers’ – it just seems to be a case of ‘bang, lockdown metro and bang, lockdown regional’ – and that’s all there is.”
“I think everyone’s sick of being told that ‘you’re regional for this and this and this… but when it comes to lockdown, you can be metro’,” he said.
Lang Lang East resident, Hayley Meyer, felt the same.
“The fact that we get lumped into ‘metro’ every time we get locked down is crazy,” Ms Meyer said.
“I’m on 28 acres in Lang Lang East and I can literally see ‘regional’ if I look out my back door.
“Our postcode of 3984 covers so many suburbs, of which half is regional. It’s just easier for the government to blanket approach the lockdown areas than actually sit and think about it logically,” she said.
Both Mr Caldwell and Ms Meyer said that while they understood the necessity of lockdowns and having a rigid border, they believed that more consideration should have gone into the process and perhaps fringe towns like theirs should be re-classified as regional towns in future.
“Unlocking regional centres such as Warragul which has an immensely higher population than some of the country towns on the fringe of the border just doesn’t make sense,” Ms Meyer said.
“I understand that the border has to be drawn somewhere, but surely it can be reviewed on a case by case basis.”
The Cardinia Shire Council Mayor, Brett Owen, said that while the lockdown restrictions were a state government matter, he and the council acknowledged that the shire was home to many diverse communities and he welcomed them to reach out with ideas and suggestions moving forward.
“The implementation of restrictions is a matter for the Victorian Government’s public health response,” Cr Owen said.
“Council would welcome any consideration to an application of restrictions that acknowledges the unique qualities of our shire and local communities, including an understanding of the diverse geography in Cardinia Shire.
“Cardinia is a shire that contains both rural and urban areas,” he said.
“Council will work closely with all relevant agencies regarding the implementation of Covid-19 restrictions where appropriate. ”
For now though, it seems these fringe communities will have to wait with the rest of metro Melbourne to find out whether or not the state’s sixth lockdown will be lifted later in the week.
