Victoria introduces the $5000-a-day fishing trip
Melbourne fishers who try and sneak out of COVID-19 quarantine zones to wet a line face a massive fineVictoria Police has warned it will specifically target cars towing boats and at boat ramps as the state moves to introduce more relaxed COVID-19 travel restrictions in regional areas, hitting those that break the rules with an almost $5000 fine.
The move will split the state into the haves and the have nots – those in greater Melbourne who are still limited to within a 5.0-kilometre radius of their home and living with curfews, time limits outside their homes and bans on recreational activity such as fishing, and regional areas that from tomorrow can still go fishing and are even allowed to visit their local cafes.
The state has introduced a new $4957 on-the-spot fine for anyone who defies the greater Melbourne stage four lockdown – the most severe in Australia to date – and travels outside the quarantine zone.
The fine is also per person, meaning that two mates who throw the rods in the boat and head off outside the so-called “ring of steel” could face almost $10,000 in fines.
Increased patrols
Police said they would increase patrols at checkpoints in the lead-up to next week’s official start of the two-week school holidays in an attempt to catch anyone attempting to escape to regional areas.
Police presence at caravan parks and boat ramps will also step up, with a warning that all cars towing caravans or boats would be stopped and checked.
“We absolutely have a role in this to ensure those deliberately, blatantly breaching [COVID-19 lockdown] measures are caught and appropriately fined,” Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said.
“Certainly we will be checking every vehicle that is towing a caravan a camper trailer or other trailer, towing a boat or a jet ski or has a surfboard, a fishing rod or swags,” he said. “They will all be checked.”
The $4957 fine is the largest on-the-spot fine ever legislated in Victoria.
Under the metropolitan lockdown, which may yet have weeks to run, anyone in Melbourne caught more than 5.0 kilometres from their home without a valid reason faces a $1652 fine.
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