Fishing, boating hit hard under Melbourne’s stage four COVID-19 restrictions

Under the new state of disaster measures announced over the weekend, if you live in greater Melbourne you can only travel within 5km of your home to exercise. Activities classed as recreational, such as fishing or boating, are not allowed under the new restrictions.

For those people who do live near a boating or fishing spot, a daily curfew means you can only be out of your home between 5am and 8pm each day.

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Even if boating and fishing were allowed, it would almost be impossible to do. Under the new restrictions, Melburnians can only spend an hour exercising, and must wear a face mask while doing it – barely enough time to get to the boat or line in the water before you'd have to pull it out again.

Better Boating Victoria said boat ramps, piers, jetties and other marine infrastructure would remain open during stage four lockdown.

You cannot leave metropolitan Melbourne for sporting or recreational activities.

People without a valid excuse that are either more than 5km from their home or outside the curfew hours face a $1652 fine. The state of emergency will stay in place for six weeks.

Regional Victoria, including Mitchell Shire north of metropolitan Melbourne, will move into stage three COVID-19 restrictions from Wednesday – although wearing face masks in public, including at a jetty or boat ramp, is compulsory from today.

Recreational activities are still permitted, although people are being asked to use common sense while engaging in them.

Permitted recreational boating activities include using jet skis and powered vessels for transportation or fishing, water skiing, wake sports, sailing, kayaking, windsurfing, kiteboarding or paddle sports.

Boat dealers can take a recreational boat out on the water "for the purposes of facilitating retail sales", meaning that if you have had your boat engine serviced or are taking delivery of a new one, a dealer can take the boat for a shake-down run.

It also means that you will be able to join a dealer for a test drive of a new boat.

The one big change for regional Victoria is that under the latest round of stage three restrictions rolled out to Melbourne last month, boating and fishing were recognised as a permitted outdoor recreation.

It is not a boating and fishing free-for-all, though, as under the stage three restrictions anyone on a boat who does not live under the same roof as other people on the boat must maintain a 1.5-metre distance where possible.

The most up-to-date advice published on the Victorian Health Department's website still says people living in Mitchell Shire should not go boating.

Boating on the Murray River is still prohibited in the wake of NSW closing its border with Victoria to halt the transmission of coronavirus. Under state law, the NSW border officially ends at the high water mark on the Victorian side of the river.

People living along the Victoria/NSW border can apply for a special permit to launch a boat on the Murray, but under the permit conditions they cannot set foot on NSW land.

Melbourne's new restrictions are the toughest introduced to the state since World War II.

If you live in Victoria and are heading out boating: