Items

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  2020-07-01

  Brunswick West Testing Blitz

  HIST30060: My suburb, Brunswick West, was marked as a ‘COVID-19 hotspot’ in late June. This image shows a line of people waiting to be tested at Dunstan Oval during the subsequent ‘Testing Blitz’. I saw several doorknockers distributing pamphlets and directing residents to the testing site. The Blitz aimed to test the majority of residents, and we had to supply permits at police checkpoints to leave the postcode.
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  2020-06-30

  Meme: Hotspot Lockdown in Brunswick West, Melbourne

  This meme was posted in my Melbourne friends' Facebook Messenger group chat in the wake of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' announcement that certain 'hotspot' suburbs in Melbourne would return to Stage 3 lockdown at the end of June 2020. From the point of view of people outside of hotspot suburbs, it makes light of other neighbouring suburbs turning a blind eye to people who have to go back to lockdown, creating temporary walls between spaces, people and families. Unfortunately, because I lived in Brunswick West, I was one of the unlucky few in my friendship group who had to go back into lockdown. I watched on social media as all my other friends caught up with each other and took advantage of being able to travel more and go out to bars and cafes. As unlucky as I felt, memes like this one always functioned as a way to laugh at bad situations. My friends and I usually coped with lockdown through memes and jokes, characteristic of gen Z humour. HIST30060.