The region was thrown into chaos last week as first increased restrictions, followed by a “circuit breaker pause” was imposed on the state.
With less than 12 hours’ notice residents last Wednesday evening were confined to their homes as part of an initial six day shutdown in response to a COVID-19 outbreak in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.
The lockdown initially caused confusion, followed by panic buying across the region and resulted in a growing sense of community outrage.
That outrage was amplified on Friday as the shutdown was abandoned almost as quickly as it started, after revelations that a medi-hotel security guard had lied about how he contracted the virus.
While supermarkets, butchers, chemists and bottle shops were over- run with panicked shoppers, other businesses were quickly trying to offload excess stock they would have been unable to sell during the shutdown.
Police were sent to oversee the overflowing supermarket carparks, as queues stretched for hundreds of metres.
While some businesses were closed completely, others like EDI Tree and Garden turned to their COVID-safe plan to enable them to continue working.
Business owner Craig Birrell said, after checking with the list of restrictions, he was authorised to continue operating.
“It’s going to be different for a few weeks, with people being very cautious, but we still have plenty to do,” he said.
“Our workers are wearing masks and we have got good sanitation practices in place, we are not taking any risks.
“We have only done essential works such as hazard trees and insurance jobs deemed dangerous, all private work has been rescheduled for after lockdown.
“I feel lucky that we have been able to work when so many places had to shut the doors during the lockdown.
“We have just got to do what we can and make sure we continue to operate in a safe environment.”
Meanwhile, coffee shop Confession, in Mount Gambier’s main street, which only opened last week and was forced to cancel its opening celebration, decided to celebrate the end of lockdown with a pyjama party.
More than 150 people turned out in their pyjamas from midnight to mark the easing of restrictions.
Owner Don Pratt and his team pulled together the event very quickly and was overwhelmed by the response.
“We missed our big open day on Friday with the lockdown so we were very keen to get going again and with the announcement the restriction would lift at 11.59pm we thought let’s do it and what better way to do than a PJ party as that is how most people would have spent the last few days in them anyway,” he said.
“The response blew us away with our Facebook post going crazy over-night Friday and the turnout was simply amazing.”
Mr Pratt also raised money for the Spare Ya Change 4 Kids charity, donating money from each coffee sold.
“We cannot thank people enough for showing the love to come out at midnight to support SYC4K,” he said.
“The array of onesies and PJs on display and the happy faces made the night even more special, 157 coffees were sold for the hour along with 42 presale tokens for future coffees so that put $199 in the bank for SYC4K along with further cash donations from generous people the total raised was $385 for the cause.
“This was great exposure for the charity and 25 Acres Pizza also picked up the cause and offered the same special all-day Sunday on their pizza sales, raising a further $201 for SYC4K, making a grand total of $586 for the day, which was outstanding.”
