IT was the seven-day lockdown in Bathurst that lasted two months.
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A year ago this week, regional NSW was put into lockdown in response to COVID-19 clusters in Dubbo and Walgett that, NSW Health feared, were getting out of control.
Greater Sydney had been put under stay-at-home orders in late June - on the same afternoon that the Bathurst Winter Festival was set to kick off - but Bathurst had so far managed to avoid the same fate.
That changed on August 14, when NSW Health made a formal announcement that a snap statewide seven-day lockdown would start at 5pm.
It was an uncertain time: a time of daily briefings to the media from then-Western NSW Local Health District CEO Scott McLachlan, daily briefings to the media from then-NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, regular sewage testing in the cities of the region (looking for COVID fragments) and, crucially, low vaccination rates.
In the weeks that followed, Bathurst businesses proved their adaptability once again (Bakehouse on the Boulevard was unlucky enough to have its new Howick Street store open only a couple of days into the new lockdown arrangements), local schools adjusted and the Bathurst Hospital emergency department expanded temporarily to brace for an expected increase in COVID cases.
In early September, people queued from as early as 6am as a Western NSW Local Health District and Australian Defence Force walk-in vaccination clinic opened at Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre.
Down the road from Bathurst, meanwhile, Oberon local government area came out of lockdown and then went back in less than three weeks later.
Bathurst's business and community facilities eventually emerged from lockdown in mid-October as part of a phased opening-up approach that was tied to vaccination.
Member for Bathurst Paul Toole - who had become Deputy Premier in the preceding week - captured a sense of the mood as the crucial date arrived.
"It's the day that people have been looking forward to: people being able to get out, catch up with family and friends, people getting back to work, and getting businesses to open their doors. It has been an important milestone to reach," he said.
Twelve months later, the past does seem like a foreign country.
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