Torres Strait trade shut, Cape York townships self-isolate

With international flights heavily restricted or grounded altogether, Queensland has moved to lock its “backdoor” border in a bid to protect vulnerable communities from coronavirus.

Australia’s “backdoor” border with Papua New Guinea in the Torres Strait has been shut and indigenous communities on Cape York are in self-declared lockdown to protect against the spread of COVID-19.

The Torres Strait Island Regional Council has today banned all traditional travel and trade between Papua New Guinea and the Torres Strait usually allowable under the Torres Strait Treaty.

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With many vulnerable residents at high risk of coronavirus because of chronic disease and poor health, all of about 16 discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in far north Queensland plan to self-isolate, civic leaders said today.

The Torres Cape Indigenous Council Alliance (TCICA) said eight councils had already taken steps to immediately restrict non-essential travel with other councils expected to follow suit in a 1400km-long stretch north of Cairns to the PNG border.

“Uninvited visitors and tourists will not be permitted to enter communities,’’ the TCICA said, in a statement today.

Vulnerable Torres Strait communities are in lockdown.

“Local people travelling out of communities need to be aware of the risk of not being permitted back into community.”

Health workers, police, teachers, defence and emergency services personnel, critical infrastructure service workers and food security officials will be the only outsiders allowed in and out of the isolated townships.

“TCICA understands the impact travel restrictions to the tip of Cape York will have on the region’s drive tourism industry,” it said.

“However it is the lives of vulnerable Indigenous Australians that are at stake.

“Importantly, the Electoral Commission of Queensland must take steps now to ensure that election workers flying into communities in the coming fortnight are not bringing coronavirus with them.”

Villagers in dinghies travel between PNG and Queensland’s northernmost islands under the Torres Strait Treaty, with as many as 50 000 trips a year.

It is unconfirmed if there has been any outbreak of coronavirus in southern PNG, but it is home to the world’s worst infection rates of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and a high incidence of leprosy.

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