Qld tourism leaders wary of impact of growing NSW COVID cluster

People crossing the Queensland border from NSW will again require a border pass as concern grows over a Sydney COVID outbreak grow.

Border passes will again be necessary for anyone crossing into Queensland from New South Wales as concern about a COVID outbreak on Sydney’s northern beaches.

The passes will be reinstated from 1am on Sunday, but the hard border barricades formerly in place will not.

Police say anyone who has been anywhere in New South Wales since December 11 will be required to complete the pass before entering the state. This includes Queenslanders returning from interstate.

As before, the passes should be displayed on their windscreen when crossing the border, with random police intercepts.

Providing false information on a border declaration pass or entering Queensland unlawfully could result in a $4000 fine.

The updated Queensland border declaration pass will be available online from 8pm on Saturday at www.qld.gov.au/border-pass and is valid for 14 days.

It comes as Gold Coast police have already begun pulling over NSW-registered cars at the border.

Officers are using automatic number plate recognition technology to intercept vehicles suspected of having come from the now-declared hotspot.

“Anyone entering from the northern beaches local government area will be turned around at the border,” Gold Coast police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said.

“People can expect some delays and a little bit of inconvenience because we are interfering with the usual traffic flow.”

Supt Wheeler said the interceptions were the only way of keeping people from the hotspot out of Queensland without a hard border closure ‘which we’re really trying to avoid’.

Border barricades will not go up again at this stage, but police will continue to make random checks on motorists. File picture: Scott Powick

He said 176 passengers who flew into Coolangatta from Sydney on Saturday morning were all screened by police but none were found to have come from the northern beaches.

However, 47 passengers who flew in from the northern beaches on Friday were issued with quarantine notices, with seven opting to return immediately

It comes as tourism leaders are praying the growing NSW coronavirus cluster can be contained to Sydney’s Northern Beaches as Queensland police vowed to ramp up random interceptions of travellers defying tough new restrictions.

With no move yet to re­introduce roadside border blockades, Gold Coast police are increasing traffic stops on drivers suspected of travelling from the new hot spot in Sydney’s north, which has so far seen 41 cases of the virus.

The southern surge has Queensland tourism operators on tenterhooks, with Tourism Whitsundays chief executive Tash Wheeler calling the outbreak a “kick in the guts” for an industry finally finding its feet after months of gloom.

“December-January was looking really strong, but if this situation spreads and greater Sydney is banned from travelling, we’re looking at a $4m impact,” she said.

“We were doing so well with bookings and people were getting the confidence to travel, so it’s a huge kick in the guts.”

She called for a more unified approach between the states and federal government, with different restrictions and health advice across the country.

“The health advice will be whatever the health advice is, but we need the states and the federal government working together,” she said.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind called the growth of the Sydney cluster “devastating”.

“It’s a grave concern,” he said. “We’re trying to rebuild but confidence is very fragile. Hopefully the measures being put in place can contain the situation.”

There was a rush to escape Sydney last night as travel restrictions were imposed. Picture: David Geraghty

While no call has been made to reintroduce the border barricades that dominated entry points to Queensland for more than six months, Gold Coast Police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said officers would be ready to respond at a moment’s notice.

He also said interceptions of vehicles would increase in a bid to catch out any travellers ignoring the new travel advice, forcing any arrivals from the hot spot zones into mandatory quarantine.

“There is an element of honesty that we rely on, but certainly we will be increasing our vehicle intercepts and devoting an increasing number of resources to that around the border areas,” he said.

“Anyone caught out runs the risk of not only being issued a $4003 fine, but also being turned around and sent packing.”

Already travellers have been forced into quarantine after arriving in Queensland since the entire Northern Beaches area was declared a hot spot on Thursday night.

Destination Gold Coast chairman Paul Donovan said he was hopeful the cluster would be contained, leaving more than five million other Sydneysiders free to venture to Queensland over summer.

“(If it’s contained) we will still do very well,” he said.

“NSW is the gold standard in contact tracing so we’ve just got to have faith that they can get on top of this quickly.”