A woman donates books to holidaymakers locked down in the Aquarius Backpackers Lodge in Byron Bay on Thursday.

A woman donates books to holidaymakers locked down in the Aquarius Backpackers Lodge in Byron Bay on Thursday.Credit:Daniella Smith

So we are all doing the right thing. Our hands are washed,our masks are on,we’ve signed in,we’ve been vaxxed,waxed and,thanks to the QR code,tracked. Our community and businesses are looking forward to actually having a local economy,then wham,we are hit with a COVID-19 case at the Aquarius Backpackers Lodge.

The lights go off in party town. It’s one week of intense personal inquiry for 81 contestants at the Lockdown Lodge. That was not the Byron break I am sure those holidaymakers were looking for. If this was a reality show,it would be “I’m not a celebrity,so clearly I won’t be getting out of here.” No,you won’t. The cops are outside. Quite a few of them.

They’re outside because we can’t let COVID out. Because we don’t know how we’ll cope if the virus rips through our region. Our shire has just under 36,000 residents but that population can surge by tens of thousands in just a few days and we have only four dedicated intensive care beds at Lismore hospital,which are meant to service everyone from Grafton to the Tweed,with a surge capacity of 20 beds. We welcome more than 2.2 million visitors every year to Byron shire,but they never used to have COVID. Now we’re a human petrie dish. By the sea.

We want to find a way to manage this. Affirmations,turmeric,meditation,astral travelling,vax. We’ll give it a crack. But we are going to have to be strategic. There is no modelling to guide the trajectory of a town like Byron Bay. Our challenges are as unique as some of our residents.

A backpacker in lockdown in Byron Bay on Thursday.

A backpacker in lockdown in Byron Bay on Thursday.Credit:Danielle Smith

Schoolies officially starts next week and we have 16 flights a day landing at Byron-Ballina airport,full of young people who’ve had a really crap year. The last two years for these kids has been hard. They’ve lost their usual motivations and milestones,so getting to the finish line is particularly significant for them. They have really earned some downtime. Let’s hope it can still happen.

When you pack your togs and your most Instagrammable linen boho beach clobber for your trip to Byron,you might want to throw in a few books and download your meditation app too. You might be coming here to let go,but it might just end in a very fabulous beachfront lockdown.

Mandy Nolan is a Byron Bay resident of 30 years,a comedian,writer and the Greens candidate for Richmond.

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