Travellers still trying to book accommodation despite COVID-19 lockdown

Halls Gap Valley Lodges' owner Jenny Carmody said she had received multiple requests despite the state-wide lockdown,

"We've had people wanting to book for up to four nights," she said.

"We just say no. We tell them it's not allowed and they just say, 'we'll take the risk'. But we're not interested.

"We (Mrs Carmody and her husband Mark Carmody) are both in our sixties so we don't want it here. We'd hate to bring it to the community."

Mrs Carmody said people had even lied to try and book a reservation.

"A few have said they are essential workers, but when I tell them they need to bring proof of that, they tend to quieten up a bit," she said.

"It's not good - I just don't know what they're trying to do. There is nothing you can do because the park is closed.

"It's very quiet in Halls Gap. It's a bit of a ghost town, but that's how we want it at the moment."

Halls Gap caravan park also said they had also received several requests.

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Horsham Rural City Council mayor Mark Radford said he was disappointed to hear of such stories.

"You just think, 'what are people doing?'" he said.

"I think there are quite a few examples of people intentionally doing the wrong thing and that is disappointing.

"I suppose that is just part of society, that you are going to have people stretching and breaking the rules. That's why we have the police force we have."

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Cr Radford however said by-and-large, Wimmera residents had been obeying the guidelines.

"It is disappointing, but I think our own community is doing the right thing, and the local police have noted the excellent take-up of wearing masks in our community," he said.

"One thing I've noticed is that perhaps when we first went into stage three restrictions back in March, everyone was pretty much in a state of shock.

"I think this time around there's a little bit more expectation of, 'We know what to do. Let's just do this, and get it over and done with'.

"We want to keep seeing these numbers going down, and the sooner we can get back to normality the better."

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