Queensland residents return to start home quarantine

A woman who is one of only 270 Queenslanders out of 2000 displaced residents approved to return to the state and quarantine at home has revealed just what it took to get back.

Queensland Health has sent 2000 displaced residents invitations to trial home quarantine, but currently just over 270 recipients have had their application approved.

Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said on Monday the only way for residents to be prioritised in the system was to have an exemption.

For those without an exemption, officials were sorting through a backlog of applicants from September 5, he said.

Queensland residents taking part in Home Quarantine arrive home from Melbourne before being put into a taxi and taken home to start their 14 days of quarantine. Picture: David Clark

A Queensland mother who spoke to The Courier-Mail was one of the lucky recipients of the trial who flew into Brisbane’s Domestic Airport on Monday morning after being stuck in Victoria for seven weeks.

The woman said her eldest daughter had recently moved down south and needed her support, but the trip was never expected to last longer than a week.

“I flew down on a Thursday and was meant to leave the following week, but I had to wait until 72 hours before my flight to book a border pass,” she said.

“It was at that point that I was told I did not meet the exemption criteria and would have to wait another 10 working days for an update – that’s when the whole nightmare started.”

Queensland residents arrive back in Brisbane ahead of starting a 14-day stint in home quarantine. Picture: David Clark

She received no more correspondence from Health until last Thursday when she was asked to provide more information on her eligibility to home quarantine.

She received the go-ahead from Queensland Health on Saturday at 9am.

“I was in tears all day because it’s just been such a long time,” she said.

“I am very lucky because I live at home with my youngest daughter, who is able to move out to a friend’s house.”

The mother-of-two said Queensland Health should have been more transparent with residents on how many hotel rooms were available and what the processes were so that people could have made “their own decisions”

“Queensland Health did not give me an opportunity to find my own solution,

“I got more answers out of the Facebook group ‘Homeless outside QLD due to Border Restrictions’ than I did out of Queensland Health or Queensland Police.”