Sunday will mark five years to the day since the COVID restrictions that throttled western Sydney were lifted, and a new account of the 2021 lockdown has gathered the memories of a region still carrying the cost.
For some residents, the moment of realisation came with the sound of police helicopters demanding people return home. For others it was mounted officers patrolling empty streets, military doorknocks in Granville, or fines issued for leaving a suburb. The 9pm curfew became one of the defining images of the period.
The personal toll is carried by Boraa Dannoun, a courier driver who lived in Punchbowl. In the final week of restrictions, both of his parents died of COVID; he buried his mother, then organised a Zoom funeral for his father.
“They died so quickly, and in such quick succession that there was no time to prepare ourselves,” he said. “The core of the family was shattered. You cannot go through the stages of grief as you normally would. I felt numb, in denial.”
“Because of the restrictions, nobody could give condolences in person. We were prevented from saying farewell on our terms: even how we said goodbye was controlled, making the most sacred moment of our lives feel entirely impersonal and surreal.”
The account records his memory of late-night dashes to hospitals, confusion and helplessness in the worst week of his life. Between June and October 2021, 374 people died of COVID in NSW. For western Sydney, the anniversary is not only a marker of release, but of a divide that many say left nothing the same.