Hi Steve,

Yes. Both Videotrack and I are in the state (Victoria) that went through Australia's second wave.

When we reached 725 positive cases in one day, Victoria's Premier put us into Stage 4 lockdown. We had 4 months of lockdown at various stages: masks, social distancing, staying home except for 1 hour per day to exercise (going to medical appointments, essential shopping, etc. was permitted), curfew, not having guests at home, etc. For a while we were also only permitted to travel within a 5 kilometre radius.

The underlying principle was to keep people from mixing as much as possible so the virus had no where to go and no way to travel. While the restrictions might sound harsh, we have an exceptionally good state leader and around 99.9% of 6,000,000 people jumped on board with him and his Chief Health Officer. I had no doubt that I was in safe hands.

Wherever I went, people were happy and joking. I didn't run into any who complained. The mood was, "It is what it is so let's just do it and get on top of it." And we did. We're one of the few places in the world to tame covid. When we were up to 725 positives tests in day, I read somewhere a while back that Britain (or maybe France or Spain — I can't recall exactly which) had a similar number at the same time. They went one way and we went the other.

Today (Feb. 11) we have 10 cases. These came about from travellers who quarantine for 14 days before coming into the community. Prior to these quarantine cases, there was a time that we had no positive test results for something like 60 days. The Australian Govt. and State Govt. financially supported a lot of people through this.

Victoria was the only place in Australia that went through this second wave and extended lockdown, and we managed to stop covid breaking loose and creating an Australia-wide problem. Victoria is now predicted to lead Australia out of economic gloom. So the lockdown was actually a good thing.

Murdoch Media (lots of newspapers and SkyNews) did their best to undermine all we were doing to get on top of covid. They were relentless and insidious. Pretty much no one listened to them and we just travelled on following the lead of our premier.

When I look around the world, I see what could have been. It's awful.

Hmm... I said much, much more than I intended. If you get to this line, though, thank you for reading through it all.

All the best,
Noel

P.S. Videotrack's experience may be different from mine. I can only talk about my area.

MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2026