Queensland builds border wall to block checkpoint dodgers
A 700m wall is going up on the Gold Coast in a police push to stop illegal border crossings from NSW and keep “COVID out of Queensland”.
A 700m wall is going up on the Gold Coast in a police push to stop illegal border crossings from NSW and keep “COVID out of Queensland”.
The “robust barricading” was built on Thursday around Dixon and Florence Street in Coolangatta on the Gold Coast to prevent people from NSW entering Queensland.
Gold Coast Police chief superintendent Mark Wheeler said the wall reflected a “commitment to keeping COVID out of Queensland”.
“People were encroaching across the fencing that was there,” he said.
“They were coming into Queensland technically unlawfully, so we strengthened that up.
“We saw a similar situation a couple of months ago in Miles Street.”
He said he understood that people were “frustrated” but it was illegal to skirt border checkpoints.
He said the wall was taking “considerable resources and time and effort” and was constructed by the Gold Coast City Council after a police request.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said despite a spike of COVID-19 cases in NSW and Victoria, she would not close the border again.
“Look, we’re not factoring that in at the moment because we’re very happy with the checks that are happening at the border. There are delays. We are trying to make it easier for those border communities. We know how hard it is between the Tweed and southern part of the Gold Coast,” Ms Palaszczuk told the Nine Network.
The southwestern Sydney areas of Campbelltown and Liverpool were added to Queensland’s hotspot list and banned on Tuesday.
Anyone who travelled to those areas in the past 14 days cannot enter Queensland.
No one from the entire state of Victoria can enter Queensland either.
Anyone who has been in a COVID-19 hotspot within the past 14 days cannot quarantine in Queensland and will be turned away at the border.
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