The street is still, still like a photograph.
There are no cars on the road. A person last walked in the street more than two hours ago. She abandoned her Woolworths shopping trolley on the footpath and went home.
Above the street, lights flash on the top floor of high-rise apartment buildings.
Businesses, too, mark their territory in neon lights.
The HACER crane rests for the night on Church.
St. Richmond’s Epworth Hospital, on Bridge Rd, however, is open all hours. The nearby Melbourne CBD skyline is lit up like a Christmas tree.
In the distance, a red light flashes on and off from a tall building. It looks like a lighthouse.
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The only movement in the street is the night drizzle. It falls on top of the yellow street light. It wets the road. It creates a mist.
The pedestrian crossing makes a slow ticking sound and a train toots its horn as it leaves the station.
On the first night of curfew at 11.15pm, this is what a slice of Melbourne looks like.
A minute later, a man on a motorised skateboard rides past in the bicycle lane.
At 11.24pm, a car drives past. At 11.25pm a Deliveroo driver on motorbike rushes off while a taxi driver does a U-turn at the other end of the road. A man dressed in grey and with a bag slung across his chest appears. He walks in the street. His head is bowed and he touches the houses’ fences as he walks.
He turns right at the intersection while the motorcyclist turns left. The motorcyclist’s back seat is packed with bags.
The lights outside the houses and flats turn off, the lights inside them too.
Three hours of the first night of Melbourne’s curfew down: Five more hours to go.