Coronavirus: Anxious residents all of one mind in this tale of Albury and Wodonga

Residents in Albury and Wodonga are angry at copping the brunt of a Covid outbreak hours away in Dan Andrews’s Melbourne.

From midnight on Tuesday the border at NSW and Victoria will close, leaving residents and businesses in the area angry. Picture: Sharon Warman

Twin cities Albury and Wodonga have been cleaved in two.

The Murray River separates them into NSW and Victoria on a map but they effectively operate as one. Many people who live in Wodonga work in Albury, and vice versa. Businesses service all 100,000 odd residents.

The two cities even share a public health system run by ­Victoria.

But from just before midnight on Tuesday, they will be divided into us and them as hard border restrictions kick in.

Just as the country will be divided into Victoria and the rest, so too are they and other sibling towns along the Murray, Yarrawonga and Mulwala, Echuca and Moama.

Neighbours will need written permits to visit neighbours. Paperwork will have to be produced to go to work, to get medical treatment or, in some cases, to take their children to school.

Residents are confused about their rights and responsibilities as the lockdown begins, worried about the impact on their lives and businesses and angry at having to bear the brunt of a COVID-19 outbreak that is almost exclusively 3½ hours down the Hume.

They will be even more ­anxious after Wodonga had its first confirmed positive corona­virus case since March on Monday; Albury also has two suspected new cases.

A Victorian health department official confirmed the new Wodonga case, and two possible cases are being investigated by the Murrumbidgee Local Health District.

One of the Albury cases had recently travelled to Melbourne and returned before the hotspot travel restrictions were put in place. Close contacts have been identified and told to quarantine.

Albury resident Emma Reid with her daughter Poppy on the Murray River, the border between NSW and Victoria. Picture: Aaron Francis

The twin towns are on tenterhooks as new restrictions loom, unsure how the border will be controlled and permits regulated.

Medical oncologist Craig Under­hill, clinical director of cancer services at Albury Wodonga Health, is worried about maintaining continuity of treatment for cancer patients on the other side of the border.

“My major concern is the impact on Victorian residents who are cancer patients not being able to cross the border for treatment in the coming days as this permit system beds down,” he said.

“Some are having life-saving treatment that needs continuity, yet there have been concerns raised about disruptions over the first 72 hours. This raises serious concerns for both patients and staff. It would make much more sense to put the border just outside the city so we don’t disrupt the health service.”

Businesses along the border are also anxious. They have been through a shocking start to the year as bushfires burned, and were just starting to bounce back after COVID wreaked havoc in April.

Now it all threatens to grind to a new halt.

Business Wodonga chief executive Neil Aird said he was concerned about the lack of information on how local businesses would be able to continue to operate on both sides of the border.

“We simply haven’t got the detail, and I’m not sure there’s been enough thought given to how this is going to affect people on the ground,” Mr Aird said.

“There are businesses in Albury with employees who live in Wodonga, and the other way as well. There are people who make deliveries who cross that border many times a day.

“We are being penalised for what is going on in Melbourne,” he said.

The Hume Freeway in Albury near the NSW Border. Picture: Simon Dallinger

Kade O’Keefe has an IT ser­vices business operating out of Wodonga with about 40 per cent of his clients situated in Albury. Already he has been in contact with clients worried about how they are going to have computer problems fixed in lockdown.

“Albury and Wodonga definitely function as one big city, but they will be divided for the foreseeable future; that will impose yet more challenges on businesses.

“A lot of people are saying block off Melbourne from the rest of the state before you block off Victoria from other states.”