RETURNING TO AUSTRALIA: INITIAL RELIEF, LONG TERM REGRET?

Image: Supplied

BY ROSIE GUNDELACH 

Touching down in Australia four weeks ago was a relief. Our young family was returning home after an expat stint in Hong Kong that stopped quite abruptly when my husband, working for a Hotel Group, was made redundant due to the current climate (months of social unrest and then Covid-19).

The weather was warmer, the sun was out, we were hanging with family and people were mask free. Life felt normal again. My life had been basically the four walls of our tiny apartment, bribing my 2-year-old to wear a mask (with fairy bread) so we could go to the park, lots of glow stick baths, cubby houses and Paw Patrol since late January.

Whilst we were away, we got many text messages and phone calls from family and friends worried about us…suggesting we return home, and in the end, we bit the bullet, saw it (the redundancy) as a sign from the universe that our time here was up, and made the journey home.

It’s funny and somewhat puzzling though that now that we’re back on home soil, and Australia is ramping up their measures to combat Covid-19 in our backyard, that I can’t help but compare the two different approaches of attack, and the biggest difference seems to be the attitudes of the communities. 

Australia’s happy-go-lucky, laid back attitude is one of our best qualities; what draws so many people to travel here year-round and makes us proud to be Aussies. But this time, it’s doing us a disservice. You see, the family and friends that were messaging us whilst we were away in Hong Kong, worried for our health and safety, aren’t taking this seriously, and that is and will be a disservice to all of us as a nation. 

A lot of people in Hong Kong, without mandating a self-isolation or quarantine period from the get-go, kind of just did this. It was around Chinese New Year when the talk of Covid-19 begun to escalate and a lot of our friends and colleagues bunkered down for the break. By early February, schools shut, working from home became the new norm for a lot of people, and masks (whether they’re effective at minimising coronavirus or not, is beside the point) were being worn by the majority of people you’d pass on the street; making you more aware of your personal space, hygiene, and others.

Roughly seven million people live in Hong Kong, in the space half the size of the ACT, yet Hong Kong has fewer than 170 cases, Australia has surpassed 850 cases today. The irony of this is social distancing and self-isolating should be easier here. We’re more spread out. Many people are lucky enough to have backyards and with more space, mental health, I dare say, will be better protected (how I would’ve killed for a quiet spot in our apartment sans husband and babies, or a balcony for some VIT D!). 

I have family members planning to go to parties this weekend, attending Yoga studios and gyms; family members that haven’t seen my husband since his return to Australia on Feb 10 from Hong Kong, imposing their own quarantine periods on him (before the mandatory 14 days was imposed), yet have their own businesses with very close contact to community members daily, with children in childcare. There seems to be a warped mentality of what’s happening here versus everywhere else. It’s ignorance. 

Social distancing, closing schools and self-isolation, as we keep reading, day in, day out, will help nip the “Covid-19 spread” in the bud. Knowing the facts and living the facts are two very different things; one is a lot harder than the other. Practising social distancing and self-isolating (not because you’ve come in contact with someone with Covid-19, but because we want to flatten the curve sooner rather than later) takes effort! It’s hard on your mental, physical and emotional health.

The Australian government needs to take a leaf out of the Hong Kong playbook here and re-evaluate school closures and how they are communicating to the Australian people.

Because the Aussie’s I know, are confused! And confusion isn’t going to help us one bit!

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