I have been isolating pending the result of a Covid 19 test since Wednesday afternoon. On Saturday, between 10am & 3 pm, a confirmed Covid case attended a supermarket. I attended that same venue between 2:01 & 2:15pm. This made me a Tier 2 contact of the positive case. I had to isolate, get tested & isolate again pending notification of test results. I made a point of pre-registering for the test.
I tried to get tested yesterday at a drive-through centre in a local recreation reserve. This was the only local testing station of three in the area that takes people who have pre-registered. They were temporarily closed, with a three-hour wait. I checked on the iPhone for more venues, in the next two nearest suburbs they were not accepting pre-registrations, so I looked further afield. Literally. About 30 minutes away (due to roadworks-incurred delays) was a big recreation reserve called Casey Fields. [Not to be confused with a former local airfield called Casey Field, where ex-pilot & Australian Governor General Richard Lord Casey kept a small plane for his own use.]
I tried that site. They had a 2-hour queue but at least they were open. I arrived at 10:40, having missed the entrance because the original one was no longer in use, they had a dedicated road leading to the venue. A section of gravel overflow parking leading to a huge marquee was full of cars, later estimated by Google Maps to be 4 acres/1.6 hectares in total area.
I was tested at 12.26 pm, told to go home & isolate until the result was known. At 11:26 am today, 23 hours after being tested I received this SMS message:
"Test on 23/09/2021
RESULT: COVID-19 virus was NOT DETECTED
Test performed by Aust Clinical Labs."