Picky Packers won’t be packed this year

Popular youth hostel forced to take a stand ahead of fruit-picking season.

NO MORE ARRIVALS: Mundubbera’s Picky Packers with a full house during the picking season in 2019. Photo: File

A POPULAR backpacker hostel in the region has closed its doors to new arrivals in order to protect its current residents.

Picky Packers Hostel in Mundubbera has stopped accepting backpackers due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Throughout the picking season, the hostel on Lyons St has been the accommodation of choice for travelling rural workers.

Since opening in 2017, it is usually packed to the rafters every season, accommodating up to 70 people.

The growing concern about the coronavirus however, has forced owner Mark Postle to reduce occupancy to 40 residents.

Mr Postle believes it’s the only way to protect the community and the residents at the hostel.

“We’re trying not to completely isolate them, but they’re not allowed to have any friends here at the moment,” Mr Postle said.

“We’re trying to make life better for the kids in there.”

The current guests in the hostel have been in the country for quite some time, and Mr Postle said their safety, and that of the broader community was his highest priority.

“We’ve got in excess of 100 people wanting to come, and we’re doing ourselves out of a lot of money here, running at just over half the capacity,” he said.

“It’s certainly something we haven’t taken lightly.”

Mr Postle believes there needs to be more protocols put into place for visitors entering towns such as Mundubbera.

“We would have the highest concentration of people in the whole Burnett, and no one has been near us,” he said.

“There needs to be a protocol put into place, because at the moment, there isn’t any.

“We’re flying by the seat of our pants at the moment.”

There are currently 17 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Wide Bay region.

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