Hundreds relocating to NT from other jurisdictions each week amid pandemic border arrival data shows

NEARLY 1500 people from across Australia fled their home jurisdictions to move to the Northern Territory in a single month, with the NT Government pointing to the new data as evidence that backs up the COVID-19 refugee theory

NEARLY 1500 people from across Australia fled their home jurisdictions to move to the Northern Territory in a single month, with the NT Government pointing to the new data as evidence that backs up the COVID-19 refugee theory.

Data from a survey built into border forms filled out by all arrivals into the Territory, obtained by the NT News, revealed 1475 people who came here between the end of August and the September 21 said they were relocating.

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People fleeing other jurisdiction to live here made up 4.4 per cent of all border 33,910 border crossing in that time frame, with returning NT residents making up 16 per cent and holiday makers making up just under 50 per cent.

Analysis by the NT News shows that if the rate of people relocating to the NT remains constant, the Territory could welcome about 4425 new Territorians in three months, making it the best quarter for interstate migration to the NT the jurisdiction has seen since December 2002.

Mitch Dyson, left, from Melbourne, and his partner Desmond Campbell, fled Victorian for the sunny climes of Darwin amid the coronavirus pandemic because of the Northern Territory's relative safety. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Melburnian Mitch Dyson, 28, moved to the NT in June to be with his partner Desmond Campbell, who decided to leave Victoria and return home.

Mr Dyson, who has since landed a job, said he knew of a family and another person from Melbourne who had also relocated to the Territory since the pandemic.

“Being between the place in the world which has the strictest lockdown happening right now and a place in the world where you have the least amount of restrictions and most normal lifestyle … it’s so easy to forget how lucky we are to be in this position,” he said.

Having spent the first lockdown in Victoria and now watching his family and friends struggle through the harsher second wave of restrictions, Mr Dyson said he had been “understating” to them “just how good things are up here”.

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Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the Territory was the “safest place in Australia” and the rest of the country knew it.

“It’s publicity you can’t buy,” he said.