It’s tops-off in the Top End as locals in Darwin bask in their lockdown – while skateboarders and scooter-riders in Brisbane are cruising through Covid.
While much of the country shivers through a wet and miserable pandemic pause to normal life, the Northern Territory is refusing to let the lockdown get them down.
Locals have been spotted strolling through the streets of Darwin in bikinis and bathers – while still keeping safely masked up.
And flashing the flesh in the snap shutdown seems to be paying off, with the territory set to re-open when the current lockdown order ends on Friday.
Locals have been spotted strolling through the streets of Darwin in bikinis and bathers while still staying safely masked up (pictured)
While much of the country shivers through a wet and miserable pandemic pause to normal life, the Northern Territory is refusing to let the lockdown get them down (pictured)
Darwin reported no new cases or exposure sites on Wednesday after intense efforts by contact tracers to track down all possible contacts of infected cases.
‘We still want to see some results back but having no new exposure sites puts us on a very good footing for 1pm on Friday,” predicted NT chief minister Michael Gunner on Wednesday.
‘So far the results are on track for where we would like to be for a 1pm lifting.’
And in Brisbane, the lockdown has been a chance for skateboarders to turn the deserted city centre streets into their own giant-sized arena.
In Brisbane, skateboarders have been taking their chance to make the most of the city’s deserted CBD streets (pictured here on Wednesday)
The shutdown has proved a godsend for scooter-riders too, with plenty in Brisbane taking to the streets on two wheels (pictured) on the first full day of the city lockdown.
The shutdown has proved a godsend for scooter-riders too, with plenty in Brisbane taking to the streets on two wheels on day one of the city lockdown on Wednesday.
NT looked to be on the verge of a major outbreak when it was hit by six local cases linked to a fly-in fly-out worker at the Tanami Desert gold mine.
The mine and its 700 workers were put into lockdown after the miner arrived from Brisbane having been infected at a Queensland quarantine hotel.
The cluster was linked to an alert in Palmerston when the wife and daughter of another miner tested positive after they went to a Zumba class and a shopping trip.
The scare caused Sunday’s snap Darwin area lockdown to be extended for 72 hours until Friday.
The Darwin lockdown (pictured here) has also been a tourist boom for Katherine 300km away, which has seen a mass influx of tourists who were locked out of the NT capital
Tops-off in the Top End as locals in Darwin bask in their Covid lockdown (pictured)
Another miner caused an instant three day lockdown of Alice Springs on Wednesday when it was discovered he had transited through the Red Centre airport on June 25.
He was in the airport for six hours and initially tested negative but has since tested positive, sparking the current alert and local lockdown.
However the early action in the Darwin area seems to be paying dividends – and locals are adapting to the new Covid-normal in their own unique style.
NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker has told his officers to fine anyone who is not wearing a mask or breaching the emergency health orders.
NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker has told his officers to fine anyone who is not wearing a mask or breaching the emergency health orders. (Pictured here are NT Police enforcing the directive in Darwin on Wednesday)
Impromptu drive-thru takeaway food points have been set up in Darwin under the lockdown, including this one pictured here at the Darwin Trailer Boat Club
One 36 year old man has since been fined for not wearing a mask in a Darwin cafe and a 24 year old Victorian man was fined for failing to lodge an entry form on the territory’s Queensland border.
He told police he had been on an epic road trip from Melbourne to Darwin through South Australia and Queensland – and was unaware of the lockdown because he’d had no phone service for ‘thousands of kilometres’.
The Darwin lockdown has also been a tourist boom for Katherine 300km away, which has seen a mass influx of travellers who were locked out of the NT capital.
The tiny town of 6,300 population has had to open its showground to campers flooding into the inland town on the edge of Kakadu National Park.
Scooter-riders in Brisbane have been cruising through Covid on two wheels (pictured)
‘We’ve had a huge influx of people, all our parks are full,’ Katherine Town Council Mayor Lis Clark told the NT News. ‘We are still getting people in.
‘We’re taking everyone who needs it, just because every business is booked out and there’s nowhere else for these people to go.’
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