Kiwis in Melbourne resigned to another lockdown: 'It is what it is'

New Zealanders living in Melbourne are resigned to another lockdown, saying although it was inevitable, it will still be hard.

The entire state of Victoria will be placed into lockdown for seven days from 11.59pm as the Covid-19 cluster continues to grow.

Last figures show it has 34 active cases, with 26 linked cases and one person in Intensive Care.

Elyse Lillie, a primary school teacher, only returned from visiting family in New Zealand last week and said going into another lockdown would be hard.

"You hear the rumours normally before the big announcement so we've been building up to it for the last 24 hours. But it is hard - as a teacher I just see how the kids feel about it and the last snap lockdown they were really devastated.

"So I'm hopeful that it will just be another seven days. I do really feel for the people who had plans to come home this week."

Yesterday, Lillie lined up for over two hours to get a Covid-19 test.

"It was really busy... They were supposed to be closing at 5pm but by the time I got through it was just after 6pm and they said they were going to be going through until 9pm."

Sara Cowdell said she was not looking forward to another lockdown but was concerned about casual migrant workers like herself.

"Every time there's a short lockdown, if you're a casual worker, you just don't get paid. In both my jobs - I'm a duty manager at an arts venue and I'm a waitress at a restaurant - so when all those things shut down I just don't get paid."

"That's always a bit stressful and something I have a bit of beef with when it comes to workers rights."

Meanwhile, Jo Needham was looking forward to seeing her grandson on Saturday, which would now not happen.

"They were planning to come over and bring him over and all her friends are here and all the babies and all the children and they were just going to have a lovely week.

"It was going to be his first trip - he's 10 months now... Yeah she was a bit tearful [about it] but pragmatic and it is what it is, they'll reschedule perhaps at the end of the month."