Will the Queensland border be open by school holidays?

Thousands of east coast families who have already booked trips to coincide with the start of the school holidays are on tenterhooks.

The Whitsundays - an extremely popular holiday destination in Australia. Picture: Istock

Families hoping to follow through on travel booked for the start of the school holidays have been left on tenterhooks after today’s announcement following national cabinet.

Despite airlines and struggling tourism operators accepting bookings to Queensland throughout December, the state known for its tropical climate and paradisal locations remains firmly closed off from Sydneysiders and Victorians.

While national cabinet has today recommitted to opening domestic borders “by Christmas”, it is unclear whether borders will be open by the start of school holidays. Some private schools finish as early as December 10, while most state schools finish the year on December 18.

As of November 3, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk threw open her state to residents from all of NSW apart from 32 local government areas of greater Sydney.

Residents of SA, WA, Tasmania and the Northern Territory have been able to travel to Queensland for months, provided they could present a general border declaration pass. Victorians remain banned from entering the sunshine state.

Despite the ongoing restrictions, thousands of NSW and Victorian residents are believed to have already booked flights and accommodation for popular holiday destinations in the hope the border will open fully for the start of summer.

Thousands are believed to have already booked flights and accommodation for popular holiday destinations on the Gold Coast, Noosa and the islands.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“There is obviously a big question mark over both the consumers’ heads as well as the tourism operators, who are looking nervously over their bookings in case they have to make deposit returns instead of seeing customers come through,” said Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind.

The Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and further north in the Whitsundays were “very big stand alone destinations that are extremely popular among travellers,” Mr Gschwind said.

When announcing that Queensland could reopen to Victoria before New South Wales, Ms Palaszczuk said the ban over Greater Sydney could continue owing to community transmission concerns.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in turn accused the Palaszczuk government of being “cruel” and “spiteful”.

“I’m just mortified by that notion,” the Premier said. “I think it’s cruel. I think it’s unjustified and I think it’s spiteful. And there’s no health or scientific basis to it.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Ms Palaszczuk has said only that she would review border policy at the end of the month and has not said what the criteria would be for reopening.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said this week she was “hopeful” the border with Victoria would re-open at the start of December.

It has been 13 days since a case of locally acquired COVID-19 was registered in Victoria, and five for NSW.

NSW Health did this week urge around 20,000 people in Sydney’s west and northwest to test for COVID after fragments of the potentially deadly virus were traced in sewerage, sparking concerns over undetected mystery cases circulating within the community.

Dr Young said any changes to border rules would be effective from December 1.

Mr Gschwind said he was “certainly hoping” Ms Palaszczuk would make further announcements on the state’s borders in the coming weeks “and we are certainly hoping that on the basis of health reports and infection rate that the decision will be to open the borders to both New South Wales and Victoria almost immediately,” he said.