New border checkpoint to ease delays on Gold Coast
Police have fined five Sydney residents $20,000 after they were busted in a brazen border breach. It comes as Queensland records two new cases and NSW’s northern beaches cluster grows by three.
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Five Sydneysiders have been hauled out of their Gold Coast holiday unit, marched into hotel quarantine and hit with more than $20,000 in fines after sneaking across the border.
It comes as Queensland recorded two new cases of COVID-19 overnight - both detected in hotel quarantine and acquired overseas.
Meanwhile, Sydney remains on alert with three new cases of COVID-19 revealed on Tuesday linked to the growing northern beaches cluster.
Another two were diagnosed after the 8pm reporting period, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed. One of those cases is a person from the Wollongong area.
In Queensland, police say the three men and two women, aged 24 to 33, crossed the border on Sunday using a G pass and checked into a resort in Surfers Paradise.
But subsequent police checks revealed they were from the declared COVID-19 hotspot of Greater Sydney.
Queensland Police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said police attended their accommodation at 11pm on Sunday, issued them each with a $4003 fine for making a false border declaration and escorted them straight into self-funded hotel quarantine not far from their holiday accommodation.
Supt Wheeler said the five told police they were on their way to Airlie Beach.
“It’s been a very expensive holiday for them,” he said.
“With the fines and hotel quarantine costs, they’ll be up for about $6500 each.
“This is why we have the border arrangements in place, because we have people like this trying to game the system.
“All it takes is one person to bring COVID into Queensland.”
Supt Wheeler said police had now turned back more than 300 vehicles containing more than 700 people at the border checkpoints since the state line closed to Greater Sydney a week ago.
Meanwhile, police have revealed that a new border checkpoint on the Gold Coast will open on New Year’s Eve as they slammed reports the hard border closure was putting lives at risk.
Supt Wheeler took aim at reports that ambulances were being stranded as he announced that a fourth Gold Coast checkpoint, on Miles St at Coolangatta, would open at 7am on Thursday.
Supt Wheeler said special access for ambulances was available at four border crossings, as well as the M1.
“There is no suggestion whatsoever that there’s been any additional pain caused to anyone in terms of not being able to get through an emergency patient transfer,” he said.
He said a dedicated checkpoint for emergency service vehicles during the first border closure was not established for four months and police resources needed to be prioritised to high-traffic areas
“We have up to 100,000 vehicles a day crossing just on the Gold Coast and we’re trying to prevent a cohort of about 5 million people from the Greater Sydney area from coming into our state.”
“There have been some delays for not only essential workers but people who are travelling and doing their day to day business.
“The opening of the fourth checkpoint will ease those congestions and so that’s what we’re working on.”
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