Shepparton’s multicultural community ‘on the brink’ in Covid lockdown

A third of the city's roughly 60,000 people are locked in their homes in isolation and the streets, supermarkets and cafes are empty

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The Goulburn Valley highway, which stretches north-south through Shepparton, is usually busy with an endless rumble of trucks a constant passing through the city centre en route from Brisbane to Melbourne.

In previous lockdowns, the drop in traffic and closure of shops and schools had been noticeable, but not acute. People still lined up for takeaways on Saturday mornings, children still raced their bikes down by the Goulburn river, where - under lacing gum trees and yellow wattle - Covid-19 felt 200km away, a city problem, not something that touched the regions.