It has been announced this morning by Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Queensland Premier, that the state’s borders will close to ACT and New South Wales from Saturday, August 8, at 1am.
With a rapidly-changing situation in relation to COVID-19, the northern state has decided it’s too risky to allow freedom of access to visitors from these areas.
In the rare event that exemptions are granted, everyone else will be turned away and even returning Queenslanders will have to enter 14 days of quarantine, at their own expense. Whether that’s the touted $2500 quarantine has been billed at in other jurisdictions isn’t clear yet.
However, the situation with the roads is very clear. It’s a hard border closure, so you won’t get through without an exemption. As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles said all but a few vehicles such as freight and border residents would be allowed to enter.
“This is a hard closure,” he said. “This is all about keeping Queenslanders safe and catching anyone who tries to lie to get into our state.”
“If you’re a Queenslander in NSW, please come home. If you’re a Queenslander who has any travel plans to travel to NSW, please change those plans now,” Mr Miles said. The road border to the Northern Territory will remain open, and photo ID will be required as part of updated border passes.
Obviously, you will need to plan ahead, quite quickly, in this developing situation. More news, no doubt, likely soon!
A link to the Queensland border information is here
Pic credit: Sky News.