This one is in part down to increasing disconnect between the brains of some of our politicians and their mouths, along with certain aspects of the media stirring up "outrage" as clickbait. You won't have any chance of seeing the graffiti if you're on a phone or tablet screen rather than a real monitor, so from left to right it's a square head with a flat mouth and crosses for eyes, the words "Covid here" and "Go Home", "Covid Is Here" and another face with crosses for eyes.

Last week there were large gatherings on some beaches in Sydney. Based on the photo evidence, social distancing (which we've been advised should be 4 square metres per person except for couples or families) was honoured more in the breach than in the observance. Some beaches were locked down as a result, especially in the eastern suburbs; Bondi and Bronte for example. Which... is probably fair enough, because along with people who were congregating in bars as if there was no epidemic, it was indeed over the top.

There has been talk of locking down all beaches, but that has not yet been done. This did not stop one idiot state Premier, not naming any names, Queensland, from saying on TV this morning that "If you want to go to the beach, well, you can't." Except that that isn't a rule yet; the rule is just to keep social distancing. There WAS a memo about people being sick of mixed messages, Premier. Seriously, the subject of a lack of clarity coming from our leaders is a topic that has been coming up every single day.

Then the Daily Mail, which has been found time and time again to have simply appropriated other people's work, published an outrage piece about how people went to Manly beach after Bondi's closure. The hysterical bleating sheep in the comments mostly shared in the confected outrage EXCEPT... the few photos which were not - I don't want to say "fabricated", exactly, let's say "selectively framed" - showed that the only people on the beach WERE well and truly observing social distancing. Personal opinion: if a so-called masthead is prepared to steal, they are certainly prepared to lie to garner clicks. This does not help the situation. At all.

Long story short, if Sydney beaches are closed you can bet that a lot of people will head for the Illawarra where the whole coast is a beach. They will usually arrive via Bulli Pass, the goat track which leads from the freeway on the escarpment down to the coastal plain and which terminates... at this wall. I suspect that this sign was sprayed by some local beach-goers who do not much care for that idea since it is likely to get our beaches closed as well.

(Update: Just as I was posting this, the Prime Minister announced further lockdowns. You can no longer leave your home except for essential shopping, exercise, or if you can't work remotely. And this is supposed to go on for 6 months. We shall speak more of this, no doubt.)

Not that it matters. That intersection is so dangerous that it'll probably kill a bunch of them long before they get to the beach anyway. Covid is the least of their worries.