Three of Australia’s most famous beaches will close after crowds flocked to popular surf breaks over the weekend, breaching social distancing laws and risking the spread of COVID-19.
Hundreds of people continue to breach the new laws across the country, introduced over a week ago by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to stay home unless it’s essential, and to gather in groups no greater than two people.
Among those, Victorian learner driver, Hunter Reynolds, 17, was fined $1652 by police while learning to drive “too far from home” and 58 people at a Queensland car rally were fined $1334 each for failing to also comply with COVID-19 directions.
Hunter’s mother Sharee told Melbourne radio station 3AW they were travelling about 30 kilometres from their Hampton home to Frankston.
“We didn’t think for one minute that we would be doing anything wrong.
“We weren’t in contact with any person, we weren’t stopping anywhere, we weren’t planning on visiting any destinations, we were just learning to drive in those conditions.
“She (the officer) said we were too far from home and we would cop a fine, and that Hunter would be the person to receive that fine.”
The officer told them they’d been “smashing it on the roads today”.
Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate told reporters on Monday that “unfortunately out-of-towners” travelled down from Brisbane and Logan to the Gold Coast’s iconic beaches at Surfers Paradise, The Spit and Coolangatta.
He said the beaches will close from midnight on Tuesday and more will close if people continue to ignore the advice from health authorities.
“The curve is flattening, this is not the time relax, it’s time to kill it off,” Cr Tate said, closing the beaches ahead of an influx over the Easter weekend.
The mayor said the closure was a reluctant decision he was forced to make to protect the community and while “Gold Coast beaches are quintessential Gold Coast”, authorities had to consider the overall situation.
“For us to win this fight against COVID-19, we are in it together. And if the minority of people are absolutely congregating and spreading it, I know, governing for the majority but in this case, the health issue is a No.1 priority,” he said.
Car parks will be barricaded off to stop beach access, and parking officers will be deployed to monitor illegal parking while the closed beaches will be patrolled by authorities.
“We love you but we don’t want you visiting now. The beaches are open for our locals so they can walk and continue to exercise. We with working through the finer details to have parking officers redeployed to
monitor illegal parking.
“I didn’t want to do this but over the weekend, shows me, especially people visiting from Brisbane are not listening to us.
He said anecdotal information from police, the media and locals, is that when cars were pulled over by police to question their intent, many said they were going to the beach.
“It’s not essential travel,” he said. “Out of towners are congregating and not respecting what we Gold Coasters are doing … really sending the message out to Brisbane and Logan that the Premier says stay in your suburb. And Brisbane is not part of your suburb.”
When asked if people defied the barricades which will be put in place by the council, he said people risked parking fines and “the laws will keep escalating”.
Meanwhile, Victoria police have fined another 108 people in the past 24 hours for breaching the state’s COVID-19 self-isolation rules with 983 spot checks in the past two days and more than 14,000 spot checks since March 21.
-with AAP
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