Coronavirus: Celebrations as WA border reopens

Western Australia opening itself back up to all states and territories except Victoria and NSW.

Emmanuelle Lamond and Rynhardt Dohse at Matilda Bay are happy about the opening of the borders. Picture: Colin Murty

The dismantling of the nation’s strictest border controls has begun, with Western Australia opening itself back up to all states and territories except Victoria and NSW.
From Saturday morning, people from Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory no longer need an exemption to enter WA and they no longer need to spend two weeks in quarantine when they arrive.
Western Australia could open up to Victoria by the end of November and to NSW by early December if those states continue their run of zero cases. WA premier Mark McGowan has repeatedly refused to commit to ease all domestic travel restrictions by Christmas but says the last of WA’s domestic borders will come down once all states achieve 28 days without a case of community transmission. Victoria has not recorded a locally-acquired case for 15 days and NSW has not recorded a locally-acquired case for a week.

WA‘s tough border controls created extra income for Perth nurse Emmanuelle Lamond - at the beginning of the pandemic she was stationed at Perth airport conducting Covid tests on fly-in, fly-out mine workers. But Ms Lamond, 21, was looking forward to her state effectively rejoining the rest of Australia. She and her friend Rynhardt Dohse, a 19-year-old medical student, welcomed the beginning of the end of a regime that has stoked separatist sentiment, hurt business and kept families apart for 223 days.

Ms Lamond’s grandfather Frankie turned 90 during the pandemic in Griffith, NSW.

“We had planned to be there for his birthday. We miss him,” she said.

While the easing of restrictions was expected to lead to a significant increase in travel in and out of WA, there were only three flights — one each from Brisbane, Sydney and Darwin — scheduled to arrive in Perth on Saturday.
Another two flights, to Sydney and Darwin, will depart Perth on Saturday.
WA police commissioner Chris Dawson said this week he expected passenger arrivals at Perth Airport — which had been operating at around 10 per cent of pre-COVID levels in recent months — would climb to between 20 and 30 per cent following the first easing of border restrictions. That, he said, would mean an extra 3,500 to 4,500 passengers each week.
The partial reopening of the border will be particularly welcome for the interstate-based workers in the state’s mining industry, some of whom have been compelled to temporarily relocate to WA.
Fortescue Metals Group chief executive Elizabeth Gaines said around 10 per cent of the mining company’s workforce did not reside in WA.
“It’s been many months since they’ve seen their families so there was no bigger cheer in Perth than in Fortescue when we heard the borders were going to be relaxed,” she said.
The acting chief executive of Rio Tinto’s iron ore operations, Ivan Vella, said the company was grateful for the “sacrifice and commitment” of its interstate fly-in fly-out workforce.
“With the easing of border restrictions in Western Australia it’s now a special time for those who have been away from home for so long, to reconnect with family and friends in their home states.”

WA premier Mark McGowan defended his decision at Federal cabinet on Friday to refuse to join other states in committing to no interstate border restrictions by Christmas.

“Christmas is important, but the health of Western Australians is more important, and setting up an artificial deadline for Christmas I don’t think is wise. And so that’s why we didn’t agree,” he said.