Qld set for cautious reopening of bubble with northern NSW

As another Covid-positive truckie spent time in South East Queensland, with new exposure sites revealed, the State Government has confirmed negotiations over border movements are under way with any agreement to be made public on Friday.

A Covid-positive NSW truck driver spent two days infectious in South East Queensland this week with a public health alert issued on Thursday night across dozens of locations including a Westfield shopping centre.

Contact tracing locations at Archerfield included a BP, while Grill’d and Cinnabon at Westfield Garden City at Upper Mount Gravatt were also identified as close contact venues.

It is the latest in a string of freight drivers to unintentionally bring Covid into Queensland, with a 10-year-old boy linked to another truckie testing positive on Thursday.

The boy was the brother of a four-year-old girl from Beenleigh who tested positive on the weekend.

Police checking trucks at the Queensland border on the Gold Coast Hwy, Coolangatta. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

It comes as residents stranded behind the Queensland-NSW border barricades remain in Covid-19 restriction limbo as authorities negotiate the easing of travel restrictions.

Queensland recorded one new locally-acquired case of Covid-19 on Thursday – the 10-year-old brother.

While NSW recorded more than 1400 daily cases, authorities in that state revealed its reopening plan, beginning with the end of the lockdown in areas which had recorded no Covid cases for at least 14 days from 12.01am on Saturday.

This includes the Tweed Shire, Kyogle, Tenterfield and Moree Plains across the river from Goondiwindi.

But Queensland has signalled border restrictions will remain in place until further notice.

Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski and NSW Cross Border Commissioner James McTavish were in deep discussions over “arrangements in northern NSW and the border community” on Thursday.

Scenes from the border wall in Dixon St, Coolangatta/Tweed where QML staff were forced to exchange samples over the Border Wall. Picture Glenn Hampson

An indication of what the border bubble will look like, if any, could be known as early as Friday.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate and his Tweed colleague Chris Cherry called for the border bubble to be re-established, saying residents and businesses were desperate.

“It is now time to end this madness and re-establish the border bubble,” Cr Tate said.

“We all accept that Sydney residents can’t cross into Queensland for now but the bubble would save millions of dollars in lost productivity, save family breakdowns and give the Tweed-Coolangatta people some hope.”

Mayor Tom Tate wants the bubble reopened. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Cr Cherry said hundreds of Tweed children went to school on the Gold Coast and vice versa but would not be able to return to school on Monday unless restrictions ease.

Tweed catering business owner Alisha Marshall said she had to meet a Gold Coast-based employee every day at the border to deliver food for her Deluxe Grazing business.

“We need the bubble back so badly so we can get back to a little bit of a normal life. Surely someone will think of us and do something,” she said

A total of 54.84 per cent of Queenslanders aged 16 and older had received at least one dose of the Covid-19 jab as of September 8, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk pushing for people to book in for their vaccine.