Family forced to rent unit over border for daughter to finish her studies

Parents from the Tweed have been forced to separate from their daughter and shell out for an expensive Gold Coast unit so she can continue to attend school while the hard border continues.

A Gold Coast teacher and his student daughter who are both stranded either side of the border have had to share birthday cake across barricades at Coolangatta-Tweed Heads.

Palm Beach-Currumbin High industrial tech teacher Richard Babovic is among about 30 of the school’s staff who live on the Tweed and have been unable to get to work since last month when NSW imposed a statewide lockdown and Queensland hardened border restrictions.

His daughter Mia, 18, also goes to the school, and Mr Babovic and wife Mel have been forced to rent her a unit at Coolangatta so she can finish her HSC.

Stranded Palm Beach-Currumbin High School teacher Richard Babovic celebrates his 52nd birthday across border barricades with wife Mel, son Jet, 16, daughter Mia, 18 (rear left) and her friend Lola Sope. Mia and Lola are living in a rented unit at Coolangatta so they can finish Year 12.

The family reunited this week to celebrate Mr Babovic’s 52nd birthday, sharing cake and a kiss across the border barricades.

“It’s the strangest birthday I’ve had, that’s for sure,” he said.

“When the border was getting closed, we organised for Mia to stay in a unit in Cooly with two of her friends, who are also in Year 12 at PBC.

“It’s costing us $300 a week but it’s a big year for Mia and we wanted her to be able to finish her HSC as normally as possible.”

Mr Babovic, who is teaching classes via video with the help of relief teachers, said a number of PBC’s Year 12 students from south of the border were renting units on the southern Gold Coast.

“The school has been great, with offers of everything from lunches to mental health support for the kids,” he said.

He said the previous border ‘bubble’ which allowed Gold Coast and Tweed residents to criss-cross the state line needed to be urgently reinstated.

“We just need both the NSW and Queensland governments to communicate so we can have some sort of bubble to enable us to move forward and live our lives as normally as possible,” he said.

“I’m due to have my second Covid jab in the next week but I still won’t be able to cross the border to teach my students, and my daughter will continue to have to live out of home so she can go to school.”