Coronavirus: interstate borders shut to halt spread

More than two-thirds of Australia will be in lockdown by Tuesday when WA joins other states in closing its borders.

Premier of Western Australia Mark McGowan said on Sunday, ‘Western Australia is now in a war. The type of war we have never seen before’. Picture: AAP

More than two-thirds of Australia’s land mass will be in lockdown by Tuesday when Western Australia joins the Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania in closing its borders.

WA Premier Mark McGowan on Sunday revealed plans to convert the holiday island of Rottnest, a former prison 22km off Perth now famous as the home of small native marsupials called quokkas, into a COVID-19 quarantine station. Mr McGowan said his Labor government was also acquiring Perth hotels where it would put people who were having difficulty self-isolating or who refused to.

“Western Australia is now in a war. The type of war we have never seen before,” he said. “These are extreme steps, but these are extreme days.”

Schools remained open in WA but Mr McGowan shut the state’s borders after the biggest spike in COVID-19 cases since the crisis began. Overnight on Saturday, it was confirmed the number of people in WA who had tested positive climbed from 90 to 120.

Seven people were in hospital, three in critical condition.

Any person who reaches the WA border after 1.30pm on Tuesday will be forced to self-isolate for 14 days. For people arriving by car, this could mean they are detained at border towns such as Eucla in the south or Kununurra in the north.

WA’s mining, oil and gas sector, which employs 120,000 Australians, has pledged to “massively” scale back to try to slow the spread of COVID-19. While plane travel inside WA is still allowed, resource companies will not be permitted to use commercial flights to transport their workers to sites. They will have to use charter planes.

Under rules The Australian understands were still being negotiated on Sunday, resource companies would still be able to fly workers from across Australia into WA but only if their roles were classified as critical.

WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy chief executive Paul Everingham said that meant the numbers of interstate resource sector workers allowed to move in and out of WA would be reduced by up to 75 per cent to about 2500.

“The mining and oil and gas sectors are critical, both to keeping the lights on in Western Australia from an electricity perspective and also to keep revenue coming in for government which pays for hospitals, schools and essential infrastructure that must stay open,” Mr Everingham said.

“In consultation with the Premier and his team we have agreed to massively reduce our footprint but keep open critical ­operations on mine sites and oil and gas facilities. We are taking extraordinary measures to ensure that our workforce and the communities in which we operate are not impacted.”

The lockdowns do not apply to cargo by air, rail or sea. A Qantas spokeswoman said airline crews were exempt from the new restrictions in the NT, Tasmania, SA and WA as transportation remains an essential service.

“We’ll continue to adjust Qantas and Jetstar services as needed in light of the latest advice and restrictions from the federal, state and territory governments on non-essential travel,” she said.

West Australian Police Commissioner Chris Dawson urged people in other states not to speed to get home or to try to sneak in via rat-runs through the desert.

“We’ve got to treat this as wartime and in wartime we’ve seen Australians bond together … and help each other,” he said.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall announced on Sunday the state’s borders would shut at 4pm on Tuesday. He revealed 12 stations along the state border would be manned 24 hours a day by police and the Department of Transport and Infrastructure.

Those entering SA must sign a declaration assuring the state they will adhere to self-isolation rules.

On Saturday, NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced the Top End would be closed to outsiders from Tuesday.