The Sydney Morning Herald
· collected 2026-10-09 · by Mostafa Rachwani
There was a moment in western Sydney, just over five years ago, when it felt like the world had collapsed.
asserted
world → be → Sydney
It struck people at different times.
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It → strike → times
To some, it was when they heard the whirr of police helicopters demanding people return home.
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people → hear → helicopters
To others, it was the sight of officers patrolling empty streets on horseback.
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officers → patrol → horseback
Others felt the apocalypse in seeing the military doorknock residents in Granville, or hearing of people fined for leaving their suburbs.
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military → feel → suburbs
This was western Sydney during the 2021 lockdown: a whirlwind of death, a storm of disease and economic collapse leaving nothing behind.
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This → leave → nothing
Sunday will mark exactly half a decade since the restrictions were lifted after they throttled the region and left nothing the same.
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they → mark → nothing
To Boraa Dannoun, the realisation that his world had upended came as he was organising a Zoom funeral for his father, only days after he had buried his mother.
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he → upend → mother
Both of his parents died of COVID in the final week of the 2021 lockdowns, buried just as the restrictions were lifted.
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restrictions → die → lockdowns
“They died so quickly, and in such quick succession that there was no time to prepare ourselves,” he said.
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he → die → ourselves
“The core of the family was shattered.
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core → shatter → family
You cannot go through the stages of grief as you normally would.
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you → go → grief
I felt numb, in denial.
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I → feel → denial
“Because of the restrictions, nobody could give condolences in person.
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nobody → give → 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.”
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moment → prevent → lives
The courier driver, who was living in Punchbowl at the time, remembers the worst week of his life in excruciating detail.
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who → live → detail
He remembers each parents’ final words to him, the late-night dashes to different hospitals, the confusion and the sinking, crushing helplessness.
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He → remember → hospitals
Between June and October 2021, 374 people died of COVID in NSW.
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people → die → NSW
The 12 “LGAs of concern”, which included Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield and Penrith, had the highest number of cases across the four-month stretch.
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which → include → stretch
From late August 2021, residents in those LGAs were banned from going outside from 9pm to 5am, and were restricted to a 5km radius for grocery shopping and exercise.
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residents → ban → shopping
They were only allowed out of their homes for one hour a day.
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They → allow → hour
These restrictions were also heavily policed, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research in 2021 found police disproportionately fined residents from those western Sydney LGAs, with the bureau finding no evidence of “non-compliant activities” in the region.
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bureau → police → region
It was amid those restrictions that Mike Searle had to eulogise his grandmother via video, with none of his family to grieve with him.
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Searle → have → him
“I was probably closest to her more than anyone else in the world,” he said.
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he → say → world
“And we’re sitting there, and I’m watching myself eulogise my grandmother with my ‘bubble buddy’, with her little certificate that allowed her to be there.
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her → sit → certificate
“It just felt very dystopian.”
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It → feel → ?
He felt permanently changed by the ordeal.
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He → feel → ordeal
“I think it has changed my philosophy on shared grief,” he said.
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he → think → grief
“I feel like my grief was prolonged, and that I was sad for a lot longer than I needed to be.
“Because what I missed was that kind of shared communal grieving process.
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missed → feel → process
“Not being with my family or my friends to work through those five stages of grief just made it a lot harder.”
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it → work → grief
From her office in the heart of Fairfield, one of the first epicentres of the 2021 outbreaks that led to the restrictions, Tairyn Vergara worked tirelessly to organise food and supplies for the families doing it tough.
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Vergara → lead → it
The chief executive officer of The Parks Community Network witnessed a rising resentment around her, as the bite of the lockdowns led into the crunch of the cost-of-living crisis.
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bite → witness → crisis
“I think people felt that it wasn’t handled fairly, that it was easier to be tougher with some people than others, and I think that probably has stayed with us all this time,” she said.
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she → think → us
“And now, that resentment has turned to anger.”
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resentment → turn → anger
Rents, grocery prices, bills, interest rates and services have all increased exponentially alongside stagnating salaries across the country.
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Rents → increase → country
In western Sydney, the crisis has left many with the same issues they faced during lockdown.
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they → leave → lockdown
To Vergara, both the lockdowns and the economic crisis that followed have folded into each other, combining to fuel outrage at governments of every level.
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that → follow → level
Dannoun, who still grieves his parents every day, said his experience ultimately left him with questions about how his family’s ordeal was managed, which have morphed into a broader political scepticism.
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which → grieve → scepticism
“The government COVID protocols have made me incredibly sceptical of politicians and the NSW health system,” he said.
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he → make → politicians
“I don’t believe everything was done to save my parents.”
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everything → believe → parents
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
