Items

• 
  2020-08

  Walking through lockdown

  Like many, I’ve taken to walking every day to help move my body and feel active during lockdown. I was an avid walker prior to Covid-19, but now walking has become more than just a means of exercising. Walking has become a time to myself, for myself, where I can escape my flat and explore. I moved to South Melbourne at the start of this year and walking during lockdown has allowed me to explore my suburb and become more familiar with where I live. Being comfortable gives me confidence and a sense of accomplishment that I have “conquered” South Melbourne. While Covid-19 has limited me in other ways, the restrictions have allowed me to focus on my sense of place and cementing this area as my new home.
• 
  2020-10

  Northcote Public Golf Course #PeoplesPark

  HIST30060: The Northcote Public Golf Course was reclaimed during Melbourne’s second lockdown as the #PeoplesPark. Members of the community had repeatedly broken into the course by cutting through the wire fence and bending it back. When I visited, the hole had been turned into a semi-permanent doorway and was covered in signs and notices such as this. The #PeoplesPark was a vibrant community space, with an abundance of picnicking families, groups of friends, dog walkers, and frisbee throwers. My friend described the space as a ‘slice of heaven’ – it was a blissful and joyous break from the stress of lockdown.
• 
  2020-11-08

  The Bondi COVID-19 Testing Centre

  HIST30060 To accomodate the huge numbers of people needing COVID-19 tests, a screening clinic was erected in the Bondi Beach carpark. The first time I saw it, I didn’t really know what to think. Of course I was pleased, and proud, that Sydney was creating free and open spaces to test as many people for COVID-19 as possible. But seeing the clinic in Bondi, against the sunny beach, felt surreal. Even after months of living with the pandemic there’s still something indescribably strange about such a familiar place having to adapt to COVID-19.
• 
  2020-07-22

  Not Wanting to Wear a Mask During a Pandemic

  HIST30060: Making History From 22nd July 2020, it became compulsory in Victoria for everyone to wear a properly-fitted face mask when out in public. This was indeed commonsense for a lot of people, many in the streets already starting to wear face coverings before the official ruling came into place. But just because it’s commonsense does not mean it is at all easy or comfortable or that it will not be the cause of what is now known as ‘mascne’. At first, the adrenaline rush of it all meant that wearing a mask felt kind of cool, and made everyone look like a spy, or at least made you feel like one. And it was quite entertaining to see people taking it all the way with their creative face coverings. But after a while, it was kind of annoying to put on a mask to take out your rubbish, made afternoon walks a bit more sweaty on the face (and noisy with the sound of your own muffled breath from being puffed, also caused by the reduction in exercise during quarantine). But with all the minor inconveniences of wearing a mask during a pandemic, you are mostly thankful it’s compulsory in your city, especially when someone on the bus coughs.
• 
  2020-09-03

  A hoopless basketball ring

  This is an image I took of a basketball court at my local park that had had its basketball hoop unscrewed. As I stood there and looked at it, I realised the weight of the pandemic in terms of its social impact.
• 
  2020-10-28

  First Day Free

  HIST30060. The first day out of the second lockdown in Melbourne, Australia, I got invited to a picnic with friends from high school. We went to a park that was local to everyone and no one at the same time, having been going there for parties and gatherings for the past six years. This photo is of a café local to Yarraville in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Alfa Bakehouse backs right out onto the train station where I get off and the only reason I went passed it was to check if a froyo place I loved had yet reopened with other retail and hospitality businesses. To see this many people together was both exhilarating and uncomfortable at the same time. Knowing that freedom was finally in our grasp but the overlying fear that we could easily return to lockdown if we are not careful. I made my way to my friends shortly after this picture was taken and talked and ate for hours, even getting a sun burn, and it reminded me how all that time in lockdown was worth it if people can see one another again and enjoy their time together.
• 
  2020-10-28

  Spoons send hope

  HIST30060 The pandemic has brought together communities in a way that little else has. It is often during the worst times in history that people seek comfort and solidarity in each other, secure in the knowledge that every person is in the same boat as them. We have seen similar Spoonville’s pop up in different suburbs around Melbourne. I believe that their purpose is something for children to enjoy when going out on walks during the many months in lockdown. When I first saw the Spoonville’s being posted on social media, I thought that it was a cute and fun idea. It wasn’t until I saw them myself that I realised the impact of what those spoons represent. People took the time to make them, create the desire for more to be made and I am sure inspired joy in the young children of my community. In times when so much is uncertain, it is nice to walk by the spoons and see them still there, a representation of the heart of Laverton.
• 
  2020-06-06

  Stop Black Deaths in Custody, BLM Protest - Melbourne

  An image from the BLM protest in Melbourne. A protest sparked by George Floyd's murder but rooted in issues in so-called Australia. Always was, always will be. The protest was a vindication for abolitionists. Several thousands of people congregating without a single case of transmission between protestors and all community-led, in spite of heavy police presence. Highly communicative organisers, quick-thinking marshals, and responsible demonstrators made it a powerful and safe day. It was deeply affirming to be surrounded by so many who see and are concerned about white supremacy in comparable ways to me, and also a time to listen to voices of the strong activists who ought to be centred in discussions around Aboriginal deaths in custody, decolonisation, and police/prison abolition. HIST30060
• 
  2020-07-14

  Access restrictions during Victoria's second wave, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne

  A regular entrance to the hospital is closed and covered with posters with public health messages and information on access restrictions in response to Victoria's second wave of infections in July 2020.
• 
  2020-07-26

  Jewish Melbourne: 'consider those with hearing difficulties while wearing a mask'

  Chevra Hatzolah encouraged people to consider those with hearing difficulties while wearing a mask: "😷 Please consider those with hearing difficulties whilst wearing a mask. 😷 Please: - Be patient - Speak louder but do not yell - Articulate your words - Speak slowly - Use your hands and body language (gestures and pointing) - Move to a quiet place - Use alternative methods to communicate e.g. text Information is sourced from: https://www.deafvictoria.org.au/coronavirus/ Wherever you can, keep 1.5 metres apart from others, wash your hands often, and cough or sneeze into a tissue or your elbow. And if you have symptoms – get tested. In a medical emergency call 9527 5111."
• 
  2020-07-20

  Drinking fountain with safety instructions in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

  A drinking fountain (bubbler) on Macquarie Street in the central business district of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia with government-issued safety instructions.
• 
  2020-07-16

  Signs welcoming workers back to Chifley Tower, an office building in the centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

  This photograph indicates measures taken to celebrate the easing of pandemic-related restrictions on the gathering of people in commercial settings.
• 
  2020-04-06

  Hopper Life Filter

  I have included this photo as it reminded me so strongly, on the night I took that photo, of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942). For some reason I have always found the colour palette and story of that particular painting to be really soothing and calming, and it has always been one of my favourite painting for that reason even though by genre and artist it falls well outside my usual area of interest. I remember reading something years ago which described the scenes depicted in Hopper’s artworks in this period as depicting liminal social spaces, characterised by public spaces designed for crowds (cafes, hotels lobbies, restaurants etc.) which are nearly empty and in between phases of activity, and this whole year has felt like one giant Hopper painting that I can’t escape from. I looked at a bunch of his paintings again whilst deciding what to say about this moment, and the painting Automat (1927) is one I have always identified with in a really positive way being both rather introverted and a ritual tea drinker. When I was looking at his paintings again and saw it however, I felt such a strange rush of both sadness and anxiety and I can’t help but feel like my enjoyment of Hopper’s paintings in this period has been ruined forever, though hopefully my feelings about the paintings will swing in the opposite direction again as I age and change myself, as great art is wont to do.
• 
  2020-05-14

  The First Day Out

  This was taken on the first occasion that I left my hometown in almost two months of isolation. My partner and I went to Richmond, a town only ten minutes from my house and very familiar, but the act of leaving was peculiar after so long sequestered. The Richmond Bridge, featured in the image, is the oldest of its kind in Australia, a piece of convict heritage that has stood the test of time. Some of my earliest memories feature the bridge and its surrounds, and returning to that place at the beginning of a post-COVID-19 existence was a peculiar sensation. For me, it will now have dual historical implications, as a relic of the nineteenth century, and of the plague year.
• 
  2020-05-26

  Australian school library COVID-19 information desk

  Mentone Girls' Grammar School Kerferd Library information desk during the COVID-19 return to campus (Phase 1) 26 May 2020. For student and staff safety the library stopped lending headphones and chess sets. In phase 1 junior school students in Prep to year 2, as well as senior school students in years 10, 11 and 12, returned to campus. Students in years 3 to 9 remained off campus and continued with online learning until phase 2 which commenced on 9 June 2020.
• 
  05/26/2020

  University Apartments on College Road

  One section of the UTAS student accommodation on College Road, Sandy Bay. Here reside several hundred university students from across Tasmania, Australia and the world. At the beginning of the year residents would gather at social events, making new friends and reconnecting with old ones. But when the pandemic reached Tasmania the mood grew tense and students withdrew into their accommodation.
• 
  05/07/20

  The first day outside of home

  This photograph was taken of me the first time I left my home since I began self-isolation six weeks prior. It was taken in Richmond, a place only a few minutes from my home, but moving in that space, and seeing larger numbers of people was difficult after being isolated for so long.
• 2020-03-18

  What we do as the plague approaches: Post 1

  Melbourne writer Arnold Zable began regular posts on Facebook in mid March about his thoughts and feelings on the pandemic. He has given permission for them to be reproduced here.
• 
  2020-05-10

  Public park taped off to prevent access during the COVID-19 pandemic

  A table at a park in Bondi Junction, New South Wales, Australia taped off by Waverley Council (the local government authority) to discourage public gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 
  2020-05-05

  Free Parking During The Virus, Central Ballarat, Australia

  Illustrates Council's effort to reduce costs for necessary travel during period of social restrictions
• 
  2020-05-05

  Mural, Ballarat Bakery Hill 5 May 2020

  Two virus murals, long-distance shot, Bakery Hill, Ballarat, Australia
• 
  2020-04-24

  Street as playground

  With social distancing in place and stay-at-home rules, kids are playing more in the street right outside their own properties.
• 
  2020-04-01

  Tied up play equipment

  Children can go to school and child care but can’t play on public play equipment. This makes me think about the all the energy small children are having to contain when confined to their homes.
• 
  2020-04-08

  Ballarat COVID-19 Report Number One

  Personal observation of lockdown in a regional Australian city
• 
  2020-03-31

  Playground closed

  All the local playgrounds closed from today. This one is Rossi Reserve in Ford Street, Ivanhoe.
• 
  2020-03-31

  New park rules appeared today

  We are going for a walk every day for exercise, noting as the days go by new signs and information about social distancing. These signs were not there yesterday, and the teenagers playing basketball at the hoop and the kids playing on the playground have now disappeared. Just groups of two, or families with a few more, walking slightly furtively past one another. And many more bicyclists whizzing past on the shared paths — have already seen a bingle or two.
• 
  2020-03-31

  Until the mirror ball spins again

  Melbourne Fringe Festival revised dates now 12-29 November 2020
• 
  2020-03-30

  Signs on bank window re social distancing: 1 person per 4 square metres rule

  Public health warning signs about social distancing in Bank of Melbourne window, 162 Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe, Melbourne.
• 
  03/30/2020

  Empty street

  Shot from intersection of Seddon Street and Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe take 6:30pm Monday when street would normally be packed with peak hour traffic.
• 
  2020-03-29

  ‘Stay safe from Coronavirus’ sign at beach

  ‘Stay safe from Coronavirus’ sign from Bayside council.
• 
  2020-03-27

  Social distancing?

  Headline: "Beaches closed after crowds defy social distancing rules"
• 
  2020-03-24

  Social sequestration at the shopping mall

  Taped up seating at the local shopping centre
• 
  2020-03-26

  Empty road

  An empty Burke Road, Deepdene, normally teeming with cars.
• 
  2020-03-25

  The optimism of children

  Schools have closed for an interim period (maybe) — the kids down the street send messages of encouragement for all the people in the neighbourhood who are out taking a daily constitutional.
• 
  2020-03-25

  Chalk messages on the footpath from neighbourhood kids

  Schools have closed for an interim period (maybe) — the kids down the street have chalked messages of encouragement on the footpath for all the people in the neighbourhood who are out taking a daily constitutional.
• 
  2020-03-23

  Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne, looking West

  Showing Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne. Sales on in the major department stores but no one around to buy it.
• 
  23 March 2020

  Leisure centre closure

  Announcement of leisure centre closure in line with Government requirements
• 
  18 March 2020

  Trolley wipes

  We can wipe our trollies, but no toilet paper.
• 
  2020-03-28

  The social distancing line

  The Australian Government has recommended social distancing of at least 1.5 metres. This pharmacist has taped a line on the ground in front of their counters — it makes trying to reach forward to pay for goods a bit like a fairground game of "tap the card reader with your bankcard".