Tight knit Killarney community torn apart by QLD-NSW hard border closure

‘Our whole community is in Queensland’: Dozens of residents and students are locked out of their beloved town under hard border closures, with NSW’s spiralling Covid crisis leaving no end in sight.

Killarney businesses and schools say they’ve lost dozens of residents due to the border closures. Picture: file

The small and tight-knit Killarney community has been split in half by this week’s snap border closures, with dozens of students and business people stranded only minutes into NSW with no end in sight.

The Queensland Government enforced the hard border shutdown on Saturday as a measure against the spiralling Covid crisis in NSW, which will remain in lockdown until at least August 28 after recording staggering virus case numbers.

For residents in towns such as Legume who have been almost completely shut-out from the other half of their community in Killarney, the renewed border closure has been described as “traumatic”.

Forced to work from home in NSW while co-ordinating exemption passes to get supplies to their regular customers over the border, Killarney Co-op general manager Marissa Costello said the indefinite hard closure was a major concern.

The State Government has now sent military personnel to reinforce police at border checkpoints, and at least one dose of the vaccine will be mandatory for all interstate essential workers from Friday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“We’re working through the issues, but it’s pretty tricky. We’ve got our admin manager as well who’s stuck on this side – we’re pretty lucky we don’t have many, but it’s a few key people,” she said.

“It’s a whole new set of challenges this time, but on the NSW people really. Last time was traumatic, but it felt like it was traumatic for everybody – now it feels like everything is business as usual in Queensland.”

Beyond the struggles of trying to manage such a big supplier from several kilometres away, Mrs Costello said it was tougher still to be isolated from the rest of their beloved community in Killarney.

“I thought last year they conceded that these border communities don’t do well without some kind of free-flow, but I guess I was wrong,” she said.

“For somewhere like Killarney, it’s just the norm – the same as Stanthorpe, Wallangarra, all those places.

“I’m totally happy to be in lockdown and all the rest if that’s what it takes, but our whole community is in Queensland. We just go to our house in NSW, there’s absolutely nothing else that we do here.”

(clockwise from left) Kaci Kay, Marissa Costello, Charlane McKinney, and Vanessa Taylor were thrilled to reopen to Killarney Co-operative when lockdown was lifted last year. Picture: Bianca Hrovat / Warwick Daily News

The strain of the border closure is being felt across all sectors of the community, with Killarney P-10 State School acting principal Traecy Bartz confirming both students and staff were stuck in NSW.

“We have 29 students who are currently affected by the border restrictions. Staff have been in contact and are supporting families by supplying learning from home packs through the post and by email to ensure no child will be disadvantaged,” she said.

“We have two affected staff members who have been supported to access appropriate leave, and as the principal, I am working from home to continue to support my school.”

Member for Southern Downs James Lister released on Wednesday his second letter this week calling on the Palaszczuk government to include agribusiness in the definition of “essential work” and take better care of border communities.

“My electorate includes approximately 500km of Queensland-NSW territory, around which extensive agribusiness and associated activities are undertaken. Cross-border travel … is essential for economic, animal welfare, and food security reasons,” he wrote.

“I further request that any proscribed measures such as mandatory vaccinations and Covid tests be devised in such a way as to minimise interruption to agribusiness.

“I do not oppose the decision to close the borders, however as the representative of an electorate which is suffering the brunt of adverse economic consequences stemming from border closures, I respectfully ask that all matters I have raised be given full attention.”