A worried coastal town develops a sudden hankering for face masks
“It’s gone absolutely nuts,” says Sharron Deans, as customers – so anxious to obtain face masks they were prepared to pay up front and wait for a week or more – lined up to enter her clothing shop, Prestige Promotions.
Around the corner, Joy Bolte of Joy’s Craftworx was busily trying to keep up with demand for fabric for home-sewn masks, and she’d run out of the most suitable elastic.
Joy Bolte checks her fabric suppliesCredit:Tony Wright
"Face masks are the new toilet paper really," Mrs Bolte said.
Both businesses are in Portland, an isolated coastal city of around 10,000, four hours from locked-down Melbourne.
Portland residents are not required to wear masks, and until now, haven’t displayed any enthusiasm for doing so.
But suddenly, masks and the material for making them are among the most popular items in town, and locals known for their skill with a needle and thread have been so overwhelmed with orders for hand-stitched masks they’ve had to close their Facebook advertising sites.
Sharron Deans with some of her stock of face masks.Credit:Tony Wright
Portland – the last significant population centre in Victoria’s west before the South Australian border – had no coronavirus cases for the first half of this year.
But in the past few days, three cases have been reported, causing alarm about “outsiders” visiting the town, which is popular with tourists and sports fishers, many of them from Melbourne.
The concern grew in recent days as new outbreaks were reported along the Princes Highway from Geelong to Colac to Warrnambool. Portland is about 100 kilometres further along the highway beyond Warrnambool.
When Portland’s first case was reported last week to be a woman who was visiting from Melbourne, the Portland Observer newspaper reported it beneath a headline reading “Plea to stop the ‘backlash’ against victim”.
The paper quoted the Portland District Health chief executive, Christine Giles, declaring she was concerned a lynch mob mentality was taking hold, particularly on social media, which could frighten others from taking the coronavirus test.
Much of the concern until about 10 days ago was focused on hundreds of sports fishers hauling their boats from Melbourne in quest of bluefin tuna running off the Portland coast. However, the boat convoys ceased when Melbourne was placed in lockdown.
The sudden demand for masks began on Friday, July 17, as the Observer hit the streets, announcing the first coronavirus case in town.
Sharron Deans said she decided to start selling masks that day and the demand was immediate.
“People are in a panic that we might end up being locked down and they’re worrying supplies of masks will run out and they won’t be able to get them if they wait,” she said.
“We sold about 800 on Friday alone.”
On Monday morning, a queue of about 120 people stretched down the footpath and orders for 1200 masks had been lodged by lunchtime. By the end of the day, the order book had 2000 entries, and orders continued on Tuesday morning, with no guarantee about whether they could be supplied within a week.
Joy Bolte’s experience was similar.
“Things began moving on Friday, Saturday was busy, Monday was crazy and today it’s still crazy,” she said.
“All the patchwork fabric suitable for masks has just been romping out the door. I’ve had to place orders for more elastic.”
Portland's second and third coronavirus cases – each linked with the first – were confirmed during the weekend.
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