Victorians have all been feeling the lifting of lockdown a little differently.
But if these figures are any guide, most have wasted little time reclaiming their freedom of movement.
We're moving around Melbourne
You can see on the City of Melbourne's pedestrian trackers the moment the 80 per cent easing occurred and retail reopened on October 29.
In the hour around 7pm at Bourke Street Mall, there was a 881 per cent surge on the previous month's average foot traffic past David Jones and Myer.
And it wasn't a one-off, with data from last week suggesting the CBD is seeing a decent bump in visitors compared to lockdown in October.
Those heading out on Melbourne's roads would be right in thinking the city is heading back towards the chronically congested norm.
Which some have found oddly soothing.
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Mobility across the state, as measured through the number of route requests made in Apple's maps app, had been creeping up slowly for weeks.
But it has surged since the lockdown ended, with driving route requests back to levels higher than were normally seen pre-pandemic.
The transport department said there were still fewer peak hour trips occurring to and from the CBD than before the pandemic began, but localised journeys were higher than pre-pandemic levels.
The government said it had also observed an increase in cars on the road in some regional centres.
In the final week of October, road patronage was at 99.1 per cent of pre-pandemic levels on the Surf Coast Highway heading into Torquay.
Public transport usage is still down on pre-lockdown levels, possibly as people opt for a car while cases remain high.
But the early signs of a return are there, with around 3.5 million users in the final week of October, compared to a lockdown low of 1.6 million in late September.
And don't forget, lots of Victorians are still working from home.
The state's current settings encourage people to work from home if they can, but allow for fully vaccinated employees to work on site.
When 90 per cent of the 12+ population are vaccinated, the roadmap offers a more enthusiastic endorsement to get back into the office.
We're planning trips to enjoy the opened economy
A glance at what Victorians have been searching online is also revealing.
While there were some half-hearted searches for picnic inspiration during lockdown, it's searches for restaurants that soared in October as the state stepped out of restrictions.
Victoria's hotels are slowly beginning to fill up, with hospitality data analytics company STR noting a surge in Victorian hotel occupancy from 22.6 per cent around October 24 to 56.9 per cent on October 30, the weekend Melbourne and the regions were reunited.
We're getting back in the air as well
After hitting the lowest monthly international passenger figure this century in September, Melbourne Airport has also begun to wake from its lockdown slumber.
Scores of international flights bringing Australian residents home have been landing since late October, while the overall number of scheduled flights roughly doubled in the week to November 1.
Passenger numbers have been climbing steadily, with around 11,000 people moving through the airport's four terminals on Friday, up from 4,000 the week before.
Still, it's a long way from the 100,000 or so the airport was seeing on an average day two years ago.
Flights between Sydney and Melbourne, usually the busiest route in the nation, are likely to only grow from here, with border restrictions between the two states now eased.
So far, all the COVID numbers are moving in the right direction
It's less clear what all of this might mean for COVID-19 cases.
Burnet Institute modelling forecasts another peak in cases around December-January, which hopefully won't be accompanied by a huge spike in hospitalisations, thanks to the state's extremely high vaccination coverage.
But so far, in both New South Wales and in Victoria, that upwards trajectory in infections is yet to fully emerge.
The seven-day average for daily new cases in Victoria has been dropping fairly consistently, but rose slightly with the latest day's figures to about 1,205.
The overall trend for hospitalisations has also been stabilising and dipping slightly.
As the pandemic has taught us, it's hard to be certain what lies around the corner.
But for now, Victorians appear to be keen to just get on with life.
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTExLTA4L3ZpY3RvcmlhLW1lbGJvdXJuZS1jb3ZpZC1tb2JpbGl0eS1kYXRhLXJvYWRzLXRyYWlucy10cmFtcy1idXMvMTAwNTg4ODgy0gEoaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEwMDU4ODg4Mg?oc=5
2021-11-07 19:37:55Z
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