Neighbourhood in virtual lockdown but some people leaving out excess for others, corner of 14 Waterdale Road and Latham Street.

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.

Melbourne Fringe Festival revised dates now 12-29 November 2020

Staff are encouraged to work from home and are scrambling to get what they need to do that - for some unknown period of time. This woman has gathered her work needs and is sitting on her office chair waiting for transport to take it all home.

Public health warning signs about social distancing in Bank of Melbourne window, 162 Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe, Melbourne.

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.

Supplier to hospitality industry turns to home delivery to save fresh produce small business

‘Stay safe from Coronavirus’ sign from Bayside council.

Fourth artwork in a series inspired by the coronavirus pandemic, which coincided with my being diagnosed with a prostate lump. So, the foibles of biology.

Third artwork in a series inspired by the coronavirus pandemic, which coincided with my being diagnosed with a prostate lump. So, the foibles of biology.

Second artwork in a series inspired by the coronavirus pandemic, which coincided with my being diagnosed with a prostate lump. So, the foibles of biology.

First artwork in a series inspired by the coronavirus pandemic, which coincided with my being diagnosed with a prostate lump. So, the foibles of biology.

These posters went up around our neighbourhood within a day of the government order that limited all restaurants and cafes to take away service only. The same message was also printed as a paper slip and placed under car windscreen wipers. The business behind the signs is Lux Foundry cafe, located on my street in Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia. The sign pleads with people in the neighbourhood to keep patronising the cafe, so the cafe can continue employing its staff: "We will never abandon our team. We will never abandon you. Please don't abandon us". This poster is a poignant illustration of the economic crisis that was unleashed immediately by the COVID control interventions.

A sign in a bottleshop, Liquorland, advising customers that vodka doesn’t work as a hand sanitiser. Shows the scarcity of hand sanitiser at this time!

The pandemic is restricting all kinds of gathering, including religious events.

Without even mentioning the pandemic, the sign offer hope that at some point in the future it will reopen

The sign announces restrictions about service of food to minimize the spread of the virus

Cafes and restaurants were restricted by law to serve meals except as a take away

Residents of Melbourne's wealthy suburbs at the centre of coronavirus spread as they return from Aspen ski season.

Walking by oneself in the dawn light I cannot but wish we too could fly away from the surreal nature of this virus. A tiny speck of life, unable to be seen, has felled the economies of the world and the hubris of mankind in the space of 3 short months. My life continues pretty much as usual except only at home whilst food lasts. All my family continue to be employed - we are one of the lucky ones. I wonder if and when guilt will set in?

Headline: "Beaches closed after crowds defy social distancing rules"

Meme: 2 panels from Scooby doo showing character Fred revealing, in the manner of the usual episodic conclusion, that COVID-19 is a conspiracy from the online streaming service Zoom. Zoom, is widely used in an educational setting to stream classes and meetings online, particularly popular as people are made to self-isolate at home.

Instead of organised rides in groups and having lunch etc at a cafe, most road cyclists are riding alone. This photo shows a lunch of muesli bars etc on a solo ride. Not shown is the hand sanitiser used to disinfect the tap used to fill water bottles.

Our Billy Bragg concert on 7 May 2020 has been confidently rescheduled – to 12 February 2021!

Radio interview by host Jacinta Parsons with Professor Andy May from the University of Melbourne about 'A Journal of the Plague Year' project.

At this moment my partner and I are packing up our lives because of the COVID 19 pandemic. I think if we weren't both students we would feel a bit less anxious, but now with no work and no income to support ourselves, it's time to minimise and Marie Kondo this tiny unit and move an hour and a half away from our lives here in the South-East suburbs. While I am grateful to be moving away from what could become a more dangerous place to live, I'm remorseful and not really ready to leave my first house. It's quaint and while we are staying at home the garden is enclosed and peaceful. Here's hoping the spread will be slow enough so that we can move before we have issues getting food. Hopefully it doesn't get as bad here as it has in other countries.

Taped up seating at the local shopping centre

This meme is a parody of all of the conspiracy theories that have been swirling around the internet.

Alexander describes how his life has changed in the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Some of his challenges include teleworking for a new job, watching over his kids now that they can’t go to school, and coping with shortages of necessities and lack of normal entertainment such as sports. He talks about how he thinks it is a good thing that his kids are not at school, as primary schools are known to be germ spreaders. Alexander conveys his hopes that the lockdown will end soon and normal life will be able to continue.

An empty Burke Road, Deepdene, normally teeming with cars.

We were out for a walk and heard a housebound resident in a local apartment banging out on the drums — more people confined to home might suggest taking up a quieter musical instrument! Neighbourly protocols might be tested.

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.

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.

A piece of prose that highlights global opinions and assertions that were made in March of 2020. The author notes the state of Australian citizens and how people in general there, and worldwide, are being affected, either in a positive manner, negative manner or somewhere in between those two extremes . (Added by curator)

On Sunday 22 March I received the following message from the University's Vice Chancellor, "If you need to come to campus to collect anything essential to continue to teach online or work remotely you must do so before 5pm tomorrow, Monday 23 March." On Monday I posted this image to alert the community of researchers who use our facility that we would be closed until further notice. This poster designed again by Alex Stitt, a brilliant graphic designer, illustrator and social commentator, dates from 1997, and its message is relevant today. This week I have begun to work remotely and attended online training sessions Microsoft Teams 101, and Video Conferencing on Skype and Microsoft Teams.

On the week beginning Monday 16 March cultural organisations across Victoria began to make the difficult decision to close their doors to the public as a precautionary measure. In terms of the RDA, our programs for Melbourne Design Week, the Australian Heritage Festival, and Melbourne Rare Books Week were postponed until further notice. One of the themes of Melbourne Design Week was Communication Design and Health Promotion. The 'Life Be In It' poster designed by Alex Stitt seemed pertinent to the unfolding situation where potentially people might not be able to participate in physical activity outside of their homes. My gym closed last week!

My son's school closed on Monday. He is a high energy kid and copes better when he knows what the day holds. So I devised a schedule for us where he can continue to learn whilst school is closed. We are finding that having a schedule is really helping with our daily life. It is meant to be flexible and serves more of a touchstone for when things get difficult throughout the day. Many people are saying that time in isolation is a great opportunity to learn an instrument or language, master a hobby or really relax - but those of us with children don't have that luxury.

A young child not yet three years old plays alone in a playground inside a park; usually there are several children with their carers playing here at any given time of the day, one day into lock down here and the park and playground is deserted.

Facebook post relating to financial stimulus offered to university students in response to COVID-19; capture on 23/03/2020 at 20:52.

8 tips to look after your respiratory health for trans and non binary people who bind their chest .I am a member of a secret online group for transgender men. A member of the group from the US shared this resource, on how to look after your respiratory health for trans and non binary people who bind their chest. I realised that it was written by a member of the Australian trans community, someone I have connections with in my own city. It felt good to know that resources developed by someone in my own backyard are having a global reach and that the transgender community around the world are pulling together to support one another at this time.

The challenges of working from home.

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

Flinders Street Station in Melbourne city is one of the busiest train stations in the metro network. Normally at 7.45 on a week day morning it would be thronged with commuters, all heading off to work. This morning it was almost deserted. From today almost all workplaces, other than those deemed 'essential' are closed and most people who can are working from home. I work at the Old Treasury Building in the city. We are a heritage site and museum, now closed of course. But we are trying to document the urban environment during this extraordinary crisis, while being extremely careful of our own exposure to risk. From time to time we will share some of our photos and experiences. 24 March 2020, 7.45 AM

A commercial news website reports on the panic buying of toilet paper. URL for full article here: https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/single-toilet-paper-roll-sells-for-1000-as-coronavirus-panic-buying-reaches-new-level-c-729542 In Australia, supermarket shelves were stripped of many essential items once people understood how serious the pandemic was, but the one that became a national obsession was toilet paper. People were filling trolleys with packs of toilet paper as soon as they realised lockdowns might be ordered. Major supermarkets eventually instituted 2 packs per person limits. A black market emerged online. There were many many memes, videos, articles, as well as serious analysis of this phenomenon. The irony is that toilet paper is in fact produced in Australia, so it was never going to run out. So this was an opportunity for us to think about human irrationality and panic; local and global manufacturing (and ignorance of this); enjoy humour as a response... and so much more. Also an opportunity to think about what people used before toilet paper was the norm - squares of newspaper, leaves etc! Suddenly ads for bidets appeared in our newsfeeds as well!

Humorous recount

As an Australian who has just arrived back from overseas (Thailand) on 20 March 2020, I am required to self-isolate for 14 days. As I am sharing a small one-bedroom inner urban apartment. I need to stick to my own room, while my fellow inhabitant lives in the lounge room. I’m also a PhD student in the final throes of trying to get my thesis done and do various casual research jobs at two different universities. This is my makeshift desk set up at the side of the bed to enable me to hopefully get some work done throughout this uncertain period. I also have a tiny 1.5mx2m space set up on the other side of the bed to try to do some yoga during the isolation period.

The video satirises the 'Australian spirit' and the panic buying of toilet paper which is still - 23 March - a feature of the response to the Pandemic in Australia

Banks experiencing high volume of calls re financial hardship

Announcement of leisure centre closure in line with Government requirements

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