From midnight on Christmas Day, grey nomads in the eastern states will be able to drive into WA without having to enter via the Northern Territory.
The border with South Australia was slammed shut in mid-November after a coronavirus outbreak in Adelaide. However, SA reaches 28 days with no community cases on December 25, and WA Premier Mark McGowan has confirmed people will then be able travel west without the need to quarantine from that date.
However, anyone who arrives from SA in WA before Friday will still be required to serve 14 days in self-quarantine.
Businesses on the Nullarbor are naturally thrilled … especially after the short-lived border re-opening in November.
“We’re really excited to see the return of travellers after a quiet year,” Brooke Littlewood from Eucla Motel told the ABC. “We had the bushfires at the start and then Covid hit, so we’re really pumped.”
Ms Littlewood said the motel had been quite busy this week with WA travellers heading east, but she now expected greater interest from travellers seeking to enter WA.
“We definitely expect an increase in travellers, we’re still working on a skeleton crew, so it’s definitely going to feel a lot busier than it has,” she said.
While WA is soon to open its border with South Australia, travellers who have recently been in NSW will remain barred due to the recent outbreak in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Mr McGowan said NSW would have to go 28 days with no community spread of the virus for quarantine-free travel with WA to resume.
“We have to be very careful and you just don’t know if it got out anywhere else at this point in time,” he said. “They’ve had a lot of testing, not many cases which is a great sign but we just will be careful.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if Mark McGowan is going to keep the borders closed until after the March elections? It worked for ‘AnnaChook’ didn’t it? The virus has got nothing to do with it.
Just be careful and if you are feeling crook, go and get checked.
The virus has EVERTHING to do with Mark McGowan’s decisions regarding Western Australia’s border issues. And yes, he will more than likely be re elected next March. And in addition, it is my view (and that of the majority of Western Australians) that he well deserves to be re elected having done a stirling job protecting our well being and at the same time keeping our Western Austrlian economy on track to assist ALL Australians. Anyhow, he will get my vote even though I have, all my voting life, been a Liberal voter.
“The virus has nothing to do with it”…. interesting commentary on politics.
Well, my view is the exact opposite, the virus has everything to do with border closures. Thank goodness we have had border control. you only have to look at nearly all other countries to see the results of an inability or no desire to control borders adequately.