Astrid and David Nurse and their three young children live in Sunbury in the Hume City Council area, which was one of six Local Government Areas declared a ‘hotspot’ by the government on Wednesday.
‘‘We wanted to visit for the school holidays but have been told by the park operators that we can’t come,’’ Astrid said.
‘‘I get that they're trying to mitigate the risk of infection, but it hasn’t been mandated by the government. Also, Hume City Council area is a huge area so for everyone in that area to be penalised for the smaller outbreaks seems unfair.’’
Premier Daniel Andrews announced a new ‘‘suburban testing blitz’’ across 10 Melbourne suburbs in 10 days on Thursday, as Victoria recorded another 33 coronavirus infections overnight.
Sunbury was not one of the suburbs.
The Nurses have had their villa for four years and before the birth of their third child five months ago, they had been staying there up to twice a month.
‘‘We use it a lot. It’s our only holiday lifeline,” Astrid said.
‘‘This year we had been gunning to get up there for school holidays.
‘‘My in-laws and other family live up there so we also use that time to visit them.
‘‘It’s extremely disappointing because we love Echuca-Moama and we know the towns rely on tourism.’’
Astrid said she was waiting to hear back from park management about how long the ban would be enforced and if the family could get any money back.
‘‘It looks like we’ll be spending the school holidays in the back yard,’’ she said.
Thursday was the ninth consecutive day Victoria had recorded a double-digit increase in the number of coronavirus cases.
About 1000 Australian Defence Force personnel have been called in to help with the response, focusing on the state’s hotel quarantine program.
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