After 677 days of waiting, Qld is finally throwing open its doors
Exactly 677 days after declaring a Public Health Emergency and following 251 days of hard border closures, Queenslanders are being officially reunited with the rest of the nation.
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Families will be reunited, grandchildren held for the first time and stranded Queenslanders allowed to return home when the state’s border wall falls on Monday after almost two years.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to surge across the reopened borders, 677 days since a Public Health Emergency was declared in response to Covid-19, including 251 days of hard border closures.
Premier Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday revealed the state’s tough measures would end four days early at 1am on December 13.
The announcement came as the state edged closer to the milestone 80 per cent vaccination rate, which currently sits at 78.6 per cent.
People from the southern state hot spots of New South Wales, Victoria and greater Adelaide will be permitted to enter Queensland without quarantine.
Ms Palaszczuk said authorities “can’t predict exactly when” the state would reach 80 per cent this week, but declared Monday’s opening milestone would provide certainty and give police time to prepare for the tens of thousands of people expected to flood across the border.
People crossing the border will need to have a negative Covid-19 test, be fully vaccinated at least one week before entry and obtain a border pass.
All arrivals from domestic hot spots will also need to get a test on day five of being in Queensland.
International arrivals must be fully vaccinated and return a negative Covid test within 72 hours of departure. They will be required to get a Covid test on arrival and go into 14 days home or hotel quarantine.
Day trips to Byron Bay and other towns in the border zone will also be permitted, with people permitted to re-enter Queensland without the need for a negative Covid test.
A border pass will be required.
But authorities have warned of border chaos from Monday with Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll saying there would be “extensive delays”.
She told travellers to “plan ahead and pack their patience”.
Ms Carroll said police would be conducting random to 100 per cent compliance checks with every vehicle coming into Queensland to be scanned.
“Those that blatantly disregard the directive, there are heavy, heavy fines of $4,135,” she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said Queensland’s two-year management of the virus had been “unprecedented” compared to the rest of the world.
“Our businesses have been able to function, our children have gone to school and we fought back and contained more than 50 separate outbreaks,” she said.
“The credit here belongs to every single Queenslander.”
Acting chief health officer Peter Aitken said it was likely masks would return once Covid spreads, but praised the state for hitting 80 per cent with a low number of cases.
“This is world leading, Queensland has done an amazing job,” he said.
University of Queensland infectious disease expert Paul Griffin said Covid was coming and it was time to “evolve” our thinking about the virus.
“We have to coexist with the virus,” he said.
“It’s not about letting it rip, but we need to accept that there will be cases while still striving for high rates of testing and vaccination.”
The border announcement was met with big smiles from three-year-old Raffi Rogers-Smith who will finally get to see her “favourite person in the world” after over a year apart.
Raffi’s mum, Shona Smith, said her daughter has flown on more planes in three years than most adults have in a lifetime just to see her Nanna.
“I’d fly to Noosa just to drop her off and then head to Sydney to go to work,” she said.
“Nana is just her favourite person in the world. She always asks now to go to Nana’s and we’ve had to tell her the planes are closed.”
Shona says although they’ve done plenty of Facetime since they last saw each other in November last year, it just isn’t the same as a warm hug.
“There’s going to be lots of excitement and probably tears on my part and my mum’s part. “I’ve been in Melbourne for 13 years and I still call Noosa my home.”
Wendy Riddoch, who has been camping with her dog for four and a half months, said she was happy to be given a date to come home, but was worried the borders could be slammed shut again.
“We’re happy while also knowing what (Ms Palaszczuk) is like and that she could change her mind any time and then once she opens it she can slam it shut again,” she said.
“We’re trying to be happy but we also shouldn’t have to be happy to be going home,” she said.
Ms Riddoch said around her Murwillumbah campground other stranded Queenslanders were happy to have a date to return home but were also worried restrictions would change quickly again.
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