The first image was the sight of thousands of people crammed onto famous Bondi Beach on Friday, March 19 in direct contravention of the pleas from government and health officials for the community to practise social distancing to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The second image was the sight of beachgoers being physically chased from the same beach by armed police just a few days later after recommendations for social distancing became strictly enforceable rules.

Those few days was all it took for the NSW Government to publish a new Public Health Order that not only allowed police to issue $1000 on-the-spot fines to people breaching the public gathering rules of no more than two people but also added the risk of a fine of up to $11,000 or jail term of up to six months for people who leave their place of residence "without reasonable excuse".

They are restrictions on human movement that would have been unimaginable just a couple of months ago, when our daily news cycle was dominated by fires and drought and the coronavirus was still an exotic Chinese ailment.

But (most) Australians have responded magnificently to the restrictions placed upon them, placing their trust in our political leaders and health officials to act responsibly to slow the spread of the virus to give our hospitals time to build the capacity they need to save as many lives as possible.

But what now?

Bathurst has gone almost two weeks without a single new case of the virus and NSW on Sunday recorded its lowest number of new cases for about a month.

That's all good news and, naturally, those low figures have us wondering when we might start loosening the reins a little.

At the same time, though, none of us believes this threat has passed completely and we're told any reduction in restrictions will inevitably mean a new spike.

The delicate balancing act comes in slowly letting people start returning to some sense of normal while also keeping the rate of new infections to a level that won't overwhelm the health system.

That means that whatever progress we make from here will be, by necessity, painfully slow, but we need to be patient.

We've made such a great start, but there's a long way yet to go.