Residents of the Flemington public housing estate subject to hard lockdown in Melbourne finally received food and supplies from about 5pm Monday night but say they are still depending on community volunteers for many practical needs.
Before Monday night, food delivery had been patchy and disorganised. Residents say their main support has come from volunteer and community groups, including the Australian Muslim Social Services Agency, based in North Melbourne, and Sikh Volunteers Australia.
The Sikhs were also feeding health workers conducting Covid-19 tests on the estates.
Manpreet Singh said the Sikhs had received Facebook messages pleading for help from the public housing tenants a few hours after the emergency lockdown was announced on Saturday.
“Sunday we came around 12 o’clock and the authorities allowed us to provide the food,” he said. The meals were delivered to the foyers and then carried up into the towers by police and government workers.
But residents have reported lockdown rules changing day to day, and tower to tower, with much of the confusion centring around deliveries of food.
When Catherine, who asked not to include her last name, was told her tower on Cunning Street, North Melbourne was going into lockdown, she hadn’t been shopping in a week.
“I asked the police if I can’t get bread or milk, can they get them for me, because I honestly need those things for my son for the night and for breakfast. They just refused and said someone would come within an hour.”
But Catherine says the food never arrived so the next day she asked her workmate to drop off supplies at the front of the building.
“He just left the bag and I came and I grabbed it, and the police said ‘Yes, you can get someone to come bring you things, but that’s it’.”
On Monday she asked her workmates to bring more supplies, including Panadol for a neighbour’s sick child.
“My neighbours were crying because they had no food … there is a lady, her child isn’t feeling well and she needs Panadol since Saturday.”
Catherine’s workmate, Clare Gillam, said on Monday she was stopped 100 metres from the building and told they couldn’t drop off food and had to leave or be fined.
“There were two cops. I explained ‘Hey, I’m here to drop off food ... and children’s Panadol’,” she said.
“They said ‘Sorry we are not doing that’”. When she queried further, she said the police officer told her: “Sorry there is nothing we can do.”
Each tower appeared to have a different approach to food deliveries. Some residents reported being allowed to order Uber Eats, while others could receive no packages at all.
A resident from the Holland Court tower in Flemington, Nekroma El Marqaz, said the rules changed throughout the weekend.
“By Sunday they change the rules a little bit, that people can only drop the food off to the door, ‘one-point contact’ they call it. You can just pick it up and go back upstairs, but you can’t hang around in the hallways … No Uber Eats, no deliveries, nothing, just your own friends only,” he said.
“Other buildings, they have different rules, I don’t know why. In other buildings no one can come anywhere near the doors, nobody can go downstairs, no point of contact at all.”
Other meals organised by charities, including the Victorian Trades Hall Council and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre were delivered from Sunday but in the chaos many were left around the buildings, with some going to waste.
Melissa Whelan, who lives on the Flemington Estate, said that at 11am on Tuesday she’d had no information from the Department of Health and Human Services, which is coordinating the operation at the flats. “All I had was a policeman knocking on my door at 10 on Saturday night with the detention order,” she said.
“So far as keeping us informed is concerned, it has been the volunteer youth workers and the media,” she said.
“I understand they are working flat out, but you think they could at least drop a letter around letting us know what’s going on and when we will be tested,” she said.
Other residents reported that their main sources of information were from their local members of parliament and social media.
Residents in some towers were receiving messages via the PA system but not all of them could hear clearly or understand the language.
The lack of clear communication led to a volatile situation on Monday night when residents looking down from their windows saw SES volunteers apparently taking away food that had been left for them.
Meanwhile, they received text messages from friends and family reporting that they were suddenly being prevented from delivering food, by an order of the Department of Health and Human Services. Health workers also reported that they were suddenly being prevented from entering the buildings.
Messages were shared by residents through social media alleging that workers were stealing food that had been bought for specific households at private expense.
The federal MP for the area, former Labor party leader Bill Shorten, and community volunteers moved to clarify the situation.
It emerged that the food being taken away was mainly donations left on steps and foyers overnight which, in the absence of proper organisation, had not been delivered and had been attacked by rats.
However, some groceries bought at private expense had also been removed by mistake. These were returned.
The order preventing deliveries had been temporary, while the infection control officer needed to sign off on deliveries was absent, but the confusion was an example of how easily temperatures can rise due to a lack of clear communication with frightened and stressed residents.
The Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement late on Monday night apologising for the confusion, “inconvenience and frustration” and thanking the residents for their patience.
“We are currently working with the parties involved to make sure food and other supplies are being provided without further interruption.”
The Guardian understands a protocol for deliveries by community members is being developed on Tuesday.
By late Monday night, a system had been developed in which DHHS and Department of Justice workers delivered food to foyers, and SES volunteers in hazmat suits carried the boxes up to individual flats.
A spokesperson for Coles supermarkets said the Waterfield Street, Coburg supermarket had been “repurposed” to supply the residents, and boxes were being packed with fresh food and long-life groceries, including halal meats.
