I’ve spent nine weeks in exile - please, let me come home

After spending nine weeks trapped in an Australian state that is not her home, Victorian woman Kirrily Schwarz has had enough.

OPINION

I want to start by saying I strongly oppose domestic border closures.

I understand that location-specific lockdowns have been necessary at times in our fight against Covid-19, but we are supposed to be one nation, a Commonwealth, instead of the Divided States of Australia that we have become. Those thin marks on the map have become battle lines.

Why do I say that? Because like many Australians, I live across multiple borders. I have family interstate. I have friends interstate. I have work commitments interstate. And I love a road trip.

I never thought I would feel ashamed to say I’m Victorian, but here we are. I’m currently in exile from my own state, functionally homeless, and I’ve been forced to seek refuge with friends.

Kirrily has been trapped in regional NSW for nine weeks

Letter from exile

I’ve been trapped in NSW since July 22, which has so far been about nine weeks. I’m a freelance writer and I entered despite knowing the border between to Victoria was closed, because I had a work commitment at Jindabyne, writing about what looked like a bumper snow season.

As a sole trader, I can’t afford to miss out on paying jobs to rush home. I also don’t have the luxury of taking paid time off between bookings. I was aware of the risk that I could become trapped in NSW. All I could do was hope that it wouldn’t be for long.

I’ve emailed Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews about my situation. I’ve also emailed the Opposition Leader Matthew Guy. Today I lodged an official complaint with the Victorian Ombudsman, who has just launched an investigation into the state’s border management.

Because that’s the thing, even as a returning resident, I can’t get a permit. I’m not on the list of “specified workers” who can gain access, nor am I eligible for any exemptions or exceptions.

It’s not even worth filing an application. As many as 16,000 others have had their applications to return home denied. And at least 80 of those have also submitted complaints to the Ombudsman.

At this point, I’m seriously contemplating buying a cow and trying to pass as a farmer.

The trouble with ‘holidaying at home’ is you might not actually get home.

Road to lockdown

After I finished my job, I spent four weeks camping in the border bubble in the Snowy Mountains, hoping I would be allowed to cross that invisible line in the hills. Jindabyne is a small alpine town – a gorgeous spot – but temperatures routinely bottom out at -2 degrees Celsius.

I was prepared with all the right gear, but prolonged exposure to the cold is exhausting, especially when you can’t be active during the day. The frigid air almost instantly drained the batteries in my phone and laptop, forcing me to tuck them into bed with me overnight to save charge.

I’ve been living in a van, and while it’s my pride and joy, it’s basic at best.

Then NSW declared a statewide lockdown. I had nowhere to go, so a friend suggested I drive up to her hometown of Bowral, in the Southern Highlands, to stay with her parents. The lockdown was declared at 3pm and came into effect at 5pm.

These people kindly took me in, generously offering my home since I was forbidden from returning to mine. The two-week lockdown became five, and has since been extended indefinitely.

The cruel irony is that, with the recent change to the border bubble, I could have been home by now had I spent this time freezing and lonely in Jindabyne – following a mandatory quarantine, of course, which is another part of this mess that I think is absolutely ridiculous.

Don’t believe her van is tiny? Here’s a 747 for perspective.

The rules are unreasonable

There are a few reasons why Victoria’s hard border closure is bad policy.

First of all, I’m double-vaccinated with AstraZeneca. That should be enough – what’s the point of encouraging everyone to get the jab if we can’t move freely? At this point, vaccines are readily available for everyone who wishes to have them. We can’t all be held to ransom for the choices of anti-vaxxers, who by this point are well informed of the risks of contracting the virus.

On top of that, I’ve been in lockdown since August 14 and have had no contact with anyone outside the house where I’m staying, but for buying groceries. Since I’m currently on day 33, the risk of me spreading coronavirus is minimal. I believe that should give me the right to bypass yet another 14-day interstate quarantine, because it would be entirely redundant.

I had to do one in Sydney last year after travelling the opposite direction, surviving two weeks in a miserable hotel with no sunlight, no fresh air, and grim government-issued food.

My room faced a grey apartment block, where I could watch the residents coming and going as they went about their days, oblivious to my existence, in a kind of dystopian parallel universe.

It’s certainly not an experience I’m in a hurry to repeat.

Happier times, before making a one-way trip into NSW.

Second, it’s lazy to create a blanket rule saying all of NSW is an “extreme risk zone”.

However, I suspect that stems more from Mr Andrews’ petty pointscoring with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian than statistics, since the Delta strain seems to be spreading even faster in his state, despite the fact he cracked down sooner. What on earth are they doing? Why are the leaders of our two most populous states not working together proactively to find a solution?

It’s time to start living with Covid instead of sticking to the ridiculous goal of “Covid Zero”. Leading a state through a pandemic is a difficult job and I believe the premiers are doing the best they can. However, we can’t keep living like this, because this isn’t living. It’s a shell of a life.

We are all languishing

A friend recently sent me a meme based on a New York Times article by Adam Grant. (Yes, I am a millennial.) It was entitled, “There’s a name for the blah you’re feeling: It’s called languishing”.

Paraphrased, it said: this is not burnout, because we still have energy; it’s not depression, because we don’t feel hopeless. We just feel more joyless and aimless every day this drags on.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m committed to protecting my community. It’s why I’m vaccinated and why I’m obeying these stay at home orders, even though I can’t actually stay at home.

However, if we’re going to live with Covid, we need to be free from border closures and lockdowns that can be enacted by a small group of people with no oversight. We can’t shut down whole communities every time there is a single case, or a whiff of an exposure site, in an LGA.

This is especially true once the double-vax rate reaches 70 per cent, because we know it’s effective in minimising the severity of Covid and reducing the risk of death.

Kirrily has been trapped in NSW for more than two months.

No more extraordinary measures

The latest figures I can find show that 5,881,075 vaccinations have been administered in Victoria. Almost 67 per cent of people have had their first dose, while 41 per cent have had their second. This milestone means we are no longer living in a state of emergency. This is the new normal.

The time for extraordinary measures has ended, which means the Victorian Premier must relinquish his special powers. Give us back our freedoms. Let us live our lives.

And please let me come home.