Premier Daniel Andrews said there was an "unacceptably high" number of community transmission cases. The state of disaster gives police greater power and also allows authorities to suspend parliamentary acts.
The changes illustrate that it is tough to bring an outbreak under control with less than mandatory requirements. If there is any wriggle room, people will find it.
At the weekend state authorities decided to shame people who have breached lockdown rules.
State Police Minister Lisa Neville said: "Can I be really clear, just in case there is any doubt at all, that there is absolutely no reason or need to drive from Melbourne to Wodonga to have a Big Mac."
The trip takes more than three hours and 300km by highway.
Another Melburnian got behind the wheel to journey 115km to Ballarat for "fresh air".
In another case a man just had to drive 34km from Thornbury to Werribee to get a haircut from his barber.
The frustration levels at being stuck in a situation they cannot get out of are too much for some people to bear. But they are in a minority.
Of more than 25,000 checks conducted on Saturday, the state police force issued only 168 fines.
Such bizarre breakouts – someone's dash to do something normal that he or she would normally take for granted – should make us all feel relieved to be here.
In England, the British Government is having to stall reopening because the society has got to the limit of what it can safely do without risking a resurgence of the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson postponed the easing of lockdown for at least two weeks, saying it's time to "squeeze the brake pedal".
The number of infections in England is now rising for the first time since May. The Office for National Statistics says new daily cases have climbed from 2000 a month ago to about 4900 now.
This is a different situation to living with the Covid-19 pandemic at its height. Instead it is a twilight time of semi-normality and constant wariness. A regular regime of social distancing and mask-wearing.
For the scientists and politicians it is a juggling act, knowing that easing restrictions gives the virus more room to spread and makes suppressing it harder.
Here, it is a matter of working out the best ways to take advantage of our unusual coronavirus-free zone in the community - and the attention we regularly attract overseas for it.
We are lucky that our normality is the best kind anywhere at the moment.
