NSW/Victorian border towns call for help as Covid ‘hoops’ cause chaos

Border towns are sick of being “treated like we’re Melbourne” with some communities facing restrictions despite not having a Covid case of 14 months.

Cars travelling across the border between Albury and Wodonga. Picture: Simon Dallinger

Communities on the border of Victoria and NSW are feeling the pinch as Covid restrictions leave them in the lurch.

From 11.59pm on Thursday, restrictions will ease for regional Victorian towns, including caps on hospitality business rising from 50 to 150 patrons, with up to 75 people allowed to be seated indoors.

Victorian border residents can enter the designated “border region” in NSW, provided they don’t travel to the rest of the state and haven’t recently been elsewhere in Victoria.

But Victorians from outside the border region cannot enter NSW.

Owner of the Church St Hotel in Wodonga Michael Beattie said being a business was challenging.

There has not been a Covid case in Albury or Wodonga for more than 300 days.

Mr Beattie said the hotel often lost business across the border to Albury, where there were no restrictions in place.

“We suffered a cancellation for tonight because people don’t want to wear masks,” Mr Beattie said.

“They were people from Albury who were coming over to support us, but they changed their minds and decided they’re going to go out in Albury instead.

“With all the hoops people have to jump through, with masks and check-ins, to go out in Wodonga when they don’t have to up the road in Albury, we really appreciate people coming here to support us.”

Mildura is 550km from Melbourne and its last community Covid case was 14 months ago.

But even after the end of lockdown and the announcement of eased restrictions, border issues continue to hamper recovery efforts.

Mildura Plaza Motor Inn managing director Sandy Bock said Broken Hill not being included in the NSW border region prevented those residents from visiting and spending money.

South Australian border residents also weren’t able to visit as they normally would.

“People are looking at Victoria as being Melbourne – you couldn’t get any further away from Melbourne than Mildura,” Ms Bock said.

“We’re right on the tri-state (boundaries) yet we’re being treated like we’re Melbourne.”

To escape crowd limits in Victoria, a circus and this weekend’s Sunraysia Football Netball League round were moved from Victoria to NSW.

Mallee federal Nationals MP Anne Webster said state governments had opted for the “rinse and repeat” of past lockdowns, ignoring the pleas for a more measured response.

Dr Webster said she had been trying to help a woman from Horsham who was being denied entry to Queensland to visit her husband in intensive care.

Another constituent had been booked for surgery in Adelaide this week but was told it wouldn’t be possible because she hadn’t isolated for 14 days, despite living in a Covid-free region.

“I just can’t put into words the level of frustration,” Dr Webster said.

“People are coming to me and saying, ‘What are we? Are we seven countries?’ Instead of one nation who by this time should have been able to work through this.”

Murray River Council said it wasn’t only businesses on the Victorian side of the border who were suffering.

It said the NSW Government had shown total disregard for border communities in previous weeks with its decision making, including keeping non-border regional Victorians out.

MRC mayor Chris Bilkey said the decisions essentially wiped out key business for NSW operators in towns including Moama, with travellers from towns such as Bendigo unable to cross the border.

“All decisions surrounding these outbreaks seem to disregard that border NSW and its nearby towns are greatly affected every time there is an outbreak in Victoria,” he said.

“Our NSW border region services a Victorian market, and has done for a long time, so it baffles belief that our region is just lumped in with the rest of NSW in the government’s approach to each new health alert.

“We hear about the unenviable situation the Victorian businesses have been plunged into, but who is considering the enormous impact these restrictions have on the businesses just north of the border?

“Federally, JobKeeper kept local businesses afloat, but now they are sinking.”

MRC is calling on the NSW Government to offer a relief package to border communities.

Cr Bilkey said it had written to a number of representatives including NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to highlight the issue. He has not received a response.