Martin Gill is CEO of the Borough of Queenscliffe, on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula. Australia’s last “borough” council covers just 10.83 sq km, including the seaside towns of Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale.

We have an older population, many of whom have lived through previous crises, so there’s been a calmness here around coronavirus. Our community accepted it and got on with life. Some locals may have felt protected from the risks of the world and it was challenging at times to get messages across about changing what we’re all used to doing, especially with no COVID cases in our region.

Queenscliffe has many non-residential ratepayers with holiday homes, and some permanent residents were initially concerned whether their movements presented a risk to the community. We used Facebook and other platforms to discuss those concerns and ensure everyone respected each other. We also talked to key community groups and tapped into their leaders to help spread the word that we’re all in it together.

With our reliance on tourism, there was a big impact on jobs and business viability, but firms were quick to pivot, especially in hospitality. Cottage By the Sea, which usually holds youth camps, contacted us to say they had three months of supplies and offered them as care and meal packages. Businesses like that could have closed and counted their losses, but instead were proactive, kept staff on, and provided a valuable community service.

As a council, we’ve changed our customer service so people can leave a message and receive a return call within five minutes. We’ve promoted a shop local campaign, introduced various financial relief measures and set aside recovery funding for a hardship policy.

People have started flooding back since domestic travel restrictions eased, which is encouraging for our future, but there’s risk around complacency so we must remain cautious.

Martin Gill
Chief Executive Officer
Borough of Queenscliffe