Some thoughts, explanation, and a warning for other parts of Australia that aren't (yet) in lockdown.
That quickly increased to 20 cases, so some restrictions were introduced.
1) It takes 2-3 weeks typically for interventions to have an impact that we see in case counts.
2) If an intervention is too small, all that means is that the exponential growth slows down.
If it's still growing a few weeks later, then it's a GROWING epidemic that's 10-20 times as large as it was.
Act Fast.
Australia did a lighter lockdown than the UK. Australia almost eliminated infection. The UK still has many cases, with much worse lockdown impact.
Australia did theirs when the epidemic was much smaller.
That's it. Because it was still small, a shorter, lighter intervention was much more successful.
But at hundreds of cases a day, the disease would continue to spread into parts of Melbourne without those restrictions.
Playing catchup to a disease that grows exponentially with lots of unseen cases doesn't work (see Europe and North/South America).
For these parts, I hope that seeing how quickly it grew in Melbourne serves as a warning.
Actions that slow the spread mean that if it reaches your region the growth may be slow enough that a mild response is successful.
It's not perfect, but anything that slows the growth is important.
In sports you defend where your opponent is going, not where the opponent is.
But if they follow your advice and you're wrong, we won't know for 2 weeks. If the probability you're wrong is 10%, are you willing to risk a widespread epidemic on that?