Another setback for South Wharf

By Rhonda Dredge

The streets have been deserted for so long that it was a shock to the proprietor of the Urban Hub Foodstore to find 30 police cars on his doorstep at 7am this month.

It was the first day of October and police and media were converging on the Novotel hotel just across the road from his store. This was the day Victoria Police took over the security of the hotel after The Age reported a breach.

“They came down pretty hard,” he told Southbank News. “There were 30 police cars this morning and TV crews.”

The local businessman said that the quarantine had just been re-instated on the Friday before and that they’d consolidated at the South Wharf hotel from other hotels in the CBD.

“They think they can manage it a lot better than in the CBD where it’s on the main road,” he said.

By mid-morning the road in front of the hotel was empty save for two remaining television vans. He said that the breach was an internal affair within the hotel and would not affect him.

But another worker from a nearby clothing store said he’d seen people from the hotel shopping in DFO.

“A couple of months back people walked into DFO. It was pretty bad. It was between the lockdowns,” he said.

The streets around DFO are deserted but some businesses have stayed open. He said they hoped the area would open up again on October 19 •