They’ve suffered more than most during NSW’s lockdown, but excited Western Sydney residents have today been out in force, enjoying their new freedoms.
After 106 days in lockdown, queues of shoppers counted down the final minutes of the Sydney lockdown while waiting in line outside Kmart stores in Casula and Mount Druitt.
Retail shops, restaurants, pubs and hairdressers were permitted to reopen on the stroke of midnight to customers fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Subjected to harsher restrictions than the rest of Sydney, residents of the 12 local government areas (LGAs) of concern endured nighttime curfews and strict limits on how far they could travel.
NSW Premier Dominic Perottet said the Canterbury-Bankstown area and Western Sydney would continue to be monitored but he hoped today’s reopening conveyed a message of unity.
Canterbury-Bankstown has had 2,787 cases in the four weeks to 8:00pm last night which is the highest number for an LGA in the state.
Blacktown recorded the second highest figure with 2,048 cases in the same period.
Kmart Penrith witnessed similar scenes to those seen in Casula and Mount Druitt with a queue of shoppers stretching 100 metres from the entrance as the store reopened.
Several people took to social media posting videos of the long queues.
By daybreak, the frenzy had subsided.
Over in Parramatta, there were shorter lines, mostly made up of men desperate to get a haircut at the barbers.
Vietnamese restaurant Pho Pasteur has been run by father and daughter duo Rita and Van Pham for the past 29 years.
The local institution had expected the streets to be busier.
“I might put it down to the rainy weather or perhaps people are being cautious.” Rita Pham said.
On reopening day, Ms Pham was limiting dine-in customers to ten at a time to allow staff time to check on vaccination status.
“It’s been good definitely being able to finally have people dine in but there has been a little of trepidation.,” she said.
“Customers have been great with QR codes but it is a bit strange to go that extra step and ask people to look at their personal health records.”
A few customers were turned away after thinking that confirmation they had booked a second dose would be sufficient.
Ms Pham will monitor how customer numbers go this week before deciding how many staff she’ll need to hire and how many days the restaurant will open.
“We lost a lot of staff, particularly with the restrictions it was hard as the majority of our staff members were from Fairfield area.
“With our pho, it’s not exactly suitable for takeaway so many of our staff moved on while we were closed.”
For service-based businesses like beauty salons, they haven’t had the option of selling products to keep business going.
Reopening day has come as a welcome relief for Kaya and Siddharth Shakya who opened their beauty clinic in Harris Park almost nine years ago.
“We are over the moon. It’s mixed emotions I don’t really know how to explain what we’re going through. There’s excitement but there’s worry as well.” Ms Shakya said.
“We’ll need to do extra cleaning after each client before the next comes in.”
They were booked out all day and the phone continued to ring every few minutes.
The clinic’s eyebrow threading service is particularly popular among their Indian clientele.
While the full calendar is promising, Mr Shakya said it would take time for the business to recover.
“It would be great if the government could continue the support till the end of the year so businesses like us can get back on our feet.
“It’s been tough… but we’re up for the challenge.”
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