WHEN retired nurses Kaye Ricketts and Jan Harrington put their hand up to help with the region's huge vaccination drive, some people said they were "crazy".
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With cases climbing and uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus in south-west Victoria, the frontline of the pandemic response wasn't a place many wanted to be.
But when they received the call-up to help amid growing pressures on the health workforce, they couldn't say no.
"They all thought we were crazy, but why not?" Ms Harrington said.
"I you've got that expertise you should be able to use it to help."
Now over a year and almost 80,000 vaccinations later, the Warrnambool Vaccination Centre is being disbanded and the nurses will ease back into retirement.
They say they wouldn't hesitate to help again in the future.
"We registered for another year," Ms Ricketts said.
Ms Ricketts worked at the Warrnambool Base Hospital for 47 years, 35 of which were night duty in the emergency department.
She retired in 2017 and re-registered to help with the COVID-19 vaccination drive.
"After all those years it wasn't as though I'd forgotten how to give an injection," she said with a laugh.
"I thought it was a way of getting back to a sense of normality a little bit quicker. We did a pretty good job with vaccinating everybody but then again, the south-west is really good at vaccinations."
She started in June 2021 and has administered around 2500 jabs over roughly 320 days. Her record was 66 in one day.
Ms Harrington worked for about 25 years at St John of God and casually at the Base. In the early 2000s she was an immunisation specialist. She retired in 2018 and was volunteering at the Base, until the pandemic put a hold on volunteering services.
"I saw the staff here running around so busy so I re-registered and I've been working here since about October," she said.
"I've loved it, it's been terrific. Being one-to-one with people is lovely, that's what we miss now we're not nursing. After it's all finished I'll retire again and I'll go back to my volunteering."
Speaking to The Standard just days before the centre shut its doors, they said it had been a rewarding experience.
"You would come out and there would be a whole horde of people looking at you. You were just trying to be as quick as possible while passing on all the information to everyone," Ms Harrington said.
"You worked hard and you were tired by the end of the day, the feet were sore, but everyone was the same. You felt quite good about human nature in the end because people were pretty terrific."
Supply shortages plagued the roll-out in south-west Victoria, with Warrnambool residents frustrated by limited supply, seeing appointments in Warrnambool "snapped up in minutes", demand severely outstripping supply and calls for calm.
While staff were left to manage some difficult patients frustrated by waits or mandates, they said it was a positive experience overall.
"Some days you wouldn't know what was three days ahead of you, or even less than that."
On November 9, 2021 Warrnambool notched up 95 per cent double-dose COVID-19 vaccinated.
"It's actually quite an achievement really isn't it when you think about it, for the population here to be pretty much fully vaccinated," Ms Ricketts said.
"It makes you feel good.
"It was an interesting time, but something you hope you never have to see again."
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