This paper examines the lived experiences of contact tracers in the governance of COVID-19 in Australia. As COVID-19 spread throughout Australia, tracking and tracing individuals infected with the virus became a way to mitigate the spread of the disease. The policing of this movement fell on contact tracers, a rapidly-assembled group of professionals tasked with tracking and tracing the movements of citizens. While some contact tracers were medically-trained and drawn from health backgrounds, there is little academic scholarship about this workforce, and the lessons that can be learned from this moment of crisis in Australian history. Addressing this gap, this project draws on interviews with contract tracers to examine how contact tracers experienced and made sense of this work, and the impact it had on their lives. This paper reveals the spatial and bodily aspects of the contract tracing work – musculo-skeletal aching from hours spent at the desk, the atmosphere of the call centre, or the sounds of housemates when working from home – and draw a vivid picture of how care and control were experienced and enacted by contact tracers.