Coronavirus: Bordering on farce for those far from West Australian home

Expats say the stubbornly closed WA border is creating unnecessary grief for the diaspora.

From left, West Australians Leisha Freebury, Olivia Lowe, Sarah Aitken and Paige Murphy with their children at Milk Beach in Sydney. Picture: Nikki Short

I am, you are, we are all Australians. Then, of course, there are the West Australians, who tend towards “west-is-best”, and who can honestly blame them?

It’s quite the state.

But it’s still part of Australia, and expats say the stubbornly closed border is creating unnecessary grief for the diaspora, who need — that’s their word — to get to WA in time for Christmas. Because what do you really want from Santa in 2020? Nothing he can shove in your stocking.

You want to be with family. With your widowed Mum, or your poorly Dad. With your east-coast kids on Pop’s west-coast lap.

So, come on, Mark McGowan. What’s stopping you from making a few Christmas dreams come true?

The plea comes from WA ­expats, tens of thousands of whom call the eastern states home. They are young professionals, mostly, who came across the Nullarbor in search of jobs; who ended up married to poor saps from the inferior states; who don’t want to break the solemn promise made to their now-ageing parents: we’ll come back for Christmas.

Sarah Aitken’s story will be familiar to anyone in the diaspora: she studied commerce in WA; came east for work; and married a bloke — Angus Aitken, the stockbroker — and had three kids, now aged nine, eight and five.

Her father died in January and they were able to attend the ­funeral. She hasn’t been able to see her widowed mother since.

“I could understand in the ­beginning there were health concerns,” Sarah says. “But now, it’s political. And parochial. Even some of my friends on social media are anti the rest of the country, like, keep those east-coasters out, but it really bugs me that in times of crisis, that we have people willing to stoke those divisions, pitting one state against the others, when we are all Australians.

Mr McGowan on Friday said his state would keep its borders closed to Victoria — despite it having no community transmissions for 28 days — against earlier health advice. Instead, the WA Premier will decide next week whether Victorians, and later, people from NSW, can come.

Leisha Freebury is in a similar spot: she married Matthew ­Freebury, who is Sydney-born but happened to be working in Perth as state manager for Streets ice-cream (he later moved to Arnott’s, and became her “Tim Tam genie”).

Together with their children, Austin, 10, and Scarlett, 6, they are deeply attached to a “big Italian family in WA, including my Nonna, who is 92. And the ­arrangement we have is, we will be there for the big celebrations.

“But I even have friends who say, look, we miss you, but we support Mark McGowan, we want to be kept safe, and I absolutely agree with that, up until it felt like it was no longer a health issue, and it’s not. It’s a political issue now, and Mark McGowan is using this as a way to create a bigger divide, like it’s them and us, and you don’t have to look very far — the US, for example — when you start feeding that idea, between states.”

Lucy and Ryan d’Almeida are two more sandgropers in Sydney, who with children — Madeline, 15, Oscar, 13, and Lincoln, 10 — are facing Christmas without her Mum. “The ludicrous thing is, we could go to Gold Coast and meet my Mum there,” says Ms d’Almeida. ‘But we can’t be where we want to be, which is home in WA for Christmas, and it doesn’t seem logical.”

Paige Murphy and her husband James have been in Sydney for 13 years. They have a son, Monte, 7, and daughter, Annabelle, 3, and they have decided to fly to the Northern Territory for two weeks’ quarantine, and then hop to Perth, rather than miss out on the family Christmas.

“Usually what happens is everyone sort of comes in from overseas, but that’s not going to go ahead. But Mum’s having a hip replacement and she is going to need some help. It’s a long road for us to get there, and we don’t really understand it, but that’s what we’re having to do.”

Olivia and Nathan Lowe and their kids — Fred, 10, Jude, 8, and Ruby, almost six — likewise want to get back to be with Olivia’s Mum, who lives there with Olivia’s grandparents, who are 89 and 91.

“It’s this strange reality, we’re not financially stuck, but we’re in this limbo where Mum hasn’t been able to see us and we haven’t been able to see her,” says Olivia. “My sister also has three kids in NSW, so it’s all six grandkids over here, and that’s not uncommon with Perth families. And it’s all because there’s this weird, parochial West Australian thing going on, when all the logic says the border should be open.”