Darwin ‘travel bubble’ post ignites golden roast battle between ABC’s Facebook pages

Darwin ‘travel bubble’ post ignites golden roast battle between ABC’s Facebook pages
By Christian Fleetwood


Was it ever meant to be taken seriously? We’ll never know, but this travel bubble post has given us the best Facebook beef we’ve seen in years.

The perfect break from a toxic couple of weeks, the rowdy social media battle between the public broadcaster’s Facebook pages began with a post from ABC Darwin:

“How do you feel about a ‘travel bubble’ for the NT, Western Australia and South Australia?” the page asked its followers Tuesday.

According to the outlet, the Darwin Major Business Group had called for quarantine measures to be removed for air travel between the three jurisdictions, which have recorded fewer COVID-19 cases than other states and territories, and are enjoying looser restrictions.

https://www.facebook.com/ABCDarwin/photos/a.341539384872/10158464568169873/?type=3

What eventuated was a Facebook storm of comments – at least 54,000 at time of writing – including from the regions left out of the bubble and their respective ABC offices, kicking off with ABC Hobart.

We’re relying on Twitter to share these with you, ironically.

Not interested in taking any lip from an upstart, Darwin fired back with a ripsnorter: “You’re lucky we even included you in the map”.

And then all hell broke loose.

ABC Canberra chimed in boasting its “Canberra bubble” had zero cases – Darwin hit back by taking the micky out of the capital territory’s awfully cold weather.

ABC Sydney, keen not to be undermined, said: “Hard not to take this personally, guys”, leading to the Sunshine Coast team digging into a state treasure, replying: “It’s for your own good. We don’t want Noosa looking like Bondi”.

There were even calls from the little-known offices, like ABC Wide Bay.

“Hey @ABCDarwin are you sure you want to leave us out? We have rum & ginger beer…”

And South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula office, saying, “Our local border patrol has been notified”, with an accompanying photo of Bruce the shark from Finding Nemo (2003).

Along with Sydney’s little brother, ABC Illawarra: “I now know what it’s like to be on the outside, looking in – thanks Chisel.”

And the cheeky ABC Western Plains page: “While all the big brothers and sisters are busy fighting we just got control of the tv remote.”

A peacekeeper from the Hemsworths’ neck of the woods, ABC North Coast said: “Sending calming vibes from your colleagues at Byron Bay – peace out.”

However, after all the chaos of the comments section, it appears ABC Perth has no interest in the travel bubble.

“Change your clocks to WA time and ditch daylight savings and then we’ll talk,” they wrote.

After a few days of back and forward burns, bringing Australian Story and the ABC’s head office in to the fray, and countless tags and calls to “bring the popcorn”, ABC Darwin is calling on the big guns.

“Can we get Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services here? We’ve got some serious burns in the comments.”

We’re sure we have missed a few of some of the best the comments’ section has to offer, so we’d encourage you to check in on the post as the burns continue.

Featured image: Darwin travel bubble (Facebook/ABC Darwin)

Latest News