SA border shuts to all Victoria, 70km cross-border ‘corridor’ in place

SA has extended its hard border closure to all of Victoria, but Prof Nicola Spurrier says it’s not because of two teen hitchhikers who crossed the border, before being sent back on Friday night.

South Australia has slammed shut its border with Victoria only hours after two teen girls were charged over a major Covid-19 scare and lying to checkpoint officers.

In a dramatic escalation of SA coronavirus laws, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens expanded the border ban from Greater Melbourne and two country districts to the entire state. The only exception are cross-border residents living in a 70km “corridor” of Victoria.

Mr Stevens, the state Covid co-ordinator, said he approved the more stringent changes after advice from chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier.

Both denied the crackdown was linked in any way with the border incident involving girls aged 15 and 16, who were deported late on Friday night.

The pair, who were reported missing on Monday, are accused of illegally travelling by public transport, possibly by train from Ballarat, before hitchhiking from Adelaide to Goolwa.

They were flown to Mt Gambier and picked up by their parents at their expense.

They had been held in police custody in Victor Harbor on Friday after being charged with breaking emergency management laws and giving false declarations.

Condemning their actions, Mr Stevens said they lied at the border.

The pair returned negative Covid tests but were not cooperating with police.

It came as it was announced Adelaide’s Covid testing site at Victoria Park will open around-the-clock to combat surging demand.

Police outside the school bus full at Victor Harbor. Picture: Gary Juleff

SA Health was also tracking at least 175 people who are believed to have visited at least one “high-risk” exposure site among a list of more than 150 Melbourne locations, including the MCG.

Announcing the latest legal direction changes on Friday alongside Prof Spurrier, Mr Stevens said the shutdown was to protect the public.

The new legal directions,signed by Mr Stevens at 7.45pm Friday, states travellers who arrived in SA from Victoria after 7pm on May 26 must get tested on day one, 5 and 13, and quarantine until they receive a negative test.

They are also banned for two weeks from locations approved for more than 1000 patrons, such as Adelaide Oval.

Along with the cross-border bubble, the directions allow essential travellers, returning residents, relocating people or those fleeing domestic violence to enter SA.

The closure came after the teenage girls, who cannot be named, were discovered on the Fleurieu Peninsula, two days after Mr Stevens shut the Greater Melbourne border, which caused travel chaos and placed elite sport games at risk.

“Clearly we’re operating at a heightened sense,” he said.

“This type of activity has the potential to undermine all of the efforts we’re putting in place to protect South Australian from the spread of Covid-19.

“It’s been good these two young girls have been found, it’s very good they provided negative tests but these sorts of activities … do put us at risk.”

The girls, who posted their exploits on social media, were reported missing on Monday but Victoria Police alerted local officers to the girl’s activities just after 7am Friday.

Detectives are investigating if they travelled by train to Adelaide, before hitchhiking in several different vehicles 82km from Adelaide to Goolwa, where they visited another girl.

After the meeting the trio travelled on a school bus with other students bound for Victor Harbor High School.

Officers stopped the bus, and its 37 passengers at the school carpark.

Students remained on the bus for several hours, where they were handed masks, while the school was placed into lockdown.

Mr Stevens appealed for anyone who drove the pair to contact police and said it was very hard for officers when people lie at checkpoints.

The teenagers will likely face an SA Youth Court at a later date.

Prof Spurrier said she was pleased the teenagers’ negative results meant there was no public risk. Last July, four Victorian freight-train stowaways broke strict border rules.

SA Health is scrambling to track more than 50,000 travellers who crossed the Victorian border over the past three weeks since May 6.

Melbourne’s Whittlesea cluster of 30 cases, which originated from Adelaide’s Playford Hotel, includes a man who attended Port Adelaide’s match with Collingwood at the MCG last Sunday afternoon.

Prof Spurrier said SA Health had carried out 8297 Covid tests on Thursday and received at least 21,000 replies from text alerts.

She said her advice was based on ensuring cross border communities were not “disproportionately” affected, better supporting the Victorian statewide lockdown and amid concerns about poor wastewater testing in that state’s regional areas.

“I do feel that I’m probably at this point in time for protecting the health and safety of South Australia, to extend the hard border … would be the right thing to do,” she said.

“We understand that this will have an impact on people, but it is actually supporting the requirements Victoria already has for its citizens.”

Prof Spurrier, who has been attending daily meetings of the country’s emergency medical panel, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, denied SA Health was slow to respond to surging test demands.