Opinion: Newcastle wants Sydney to notice it, but not like this | Timothy Connell
The storied Newcastle nightclub is painted beige now. The stained carpets have made way for stained-glass in an attempt to go upmarket and most of the hot, hazy nights – think of a montage frombut now the whole world knows it as The Argyle, ground-zero for a record-breaking superspreading COVID event.
My mum called from Sydney the other day. I was walking to my car in a spot I’d jagged near it. Was that a good idea? Well yeah, I replied. Construction went on across the road, dogs passed, pigeons fluttered. You could see the murmuring outlines of workers inside, which seemed like a good sign. There would have been deep cleans, I went on. Mild symptoms. I heard my voice and felt less sure. News updates grimly punctuate the dying days of our working year, on the hour.
Hundreds of people have been deemed close contacts after attending The Argyle House nightclub in Newcastle.would it kill you to notice ? But not like this. Duck up the M1 for the odd Christmas, yes. Anoint us the unrivalled incubator for the variant, no thanks. Holiday plans in our city and the surrounding Hunter region feel precarious, suddenly, as you read again on Facebook that, “I bet COVID-19’s not the worse thing I’ve caught at Fannys”. We have more than a third of the state’s COVID cases, which feels high.
Office stresslords parse rumours, which boil down to us being locked down again. No, surely not. They’ve said they’re not doing that. There is a whiff of wowserism over the lack of masks worn at the nightclub, the proximity of the revellers, even the “Prom Night” theme; “it’s not Australian”. But three big venues are part of this, and all kinds of people caught up. Attendees of a university medical ball. People who finished dinner and felt like a dance.
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