CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Since 1am on August 8, the Queensland border has been closed to anyone who has been in a COVID-19 hotspot in the last 14 days unless they receive an exemption.
Residents living in the declared ‘border zone’ will are able to apply for a new declaration border pass but will only be permitted to travel within the border zone in Queensland and New South Wales.
Defining this specific border zone has been a difficult process for the Queensland government, as they work tirelessly to not let a Crossroads Hotel-sized COVID-19 cluster into their transmission-free state.
Some regions like the bordertown of Mungindi or the stretch of bitumen between Boggabilla and Goondiwindi, are fairly laxed on letting Queensland plates back across the border without forcing the passengers into a two week hotel quarantine at their own cost.
However, in the Tweed region between Cabarita Beach and the Gold Coast, the closed border is much more heavily policed.
Local Southport man, Jed Smyth (33), says he really wishes he had looked into this a bit more before deciding to pop on down to Fingal yesterday to check the swell.
“Surf was shit, anyway” he says, while rubbing he cracked and dehydrated cuticles that haven’t seen sunlight for three days.
“One of the oyzies told me there were a few good sets pumping off shore in the group chat”
“But he was talking shit”
Jed says after thirteen billies and a couple tallies of Coopers, he’s susceptible to almost any stitch up.
But he didn’t expect to land himself in two week quarantine in a serviced hotel.
“I don’t even know what they did with my car” he says.
“I’d done a grocery run at Tweed Mall on the way home, that was before I got waved over by the coppers”
With three litres of full cream milk, a hot chook and a carton of eggs currently sweltering in the book of his Subaru Forrester, Jed now finds himself stuck in a 5 x metre hotel with a single bed, for the next fortnight.
“I left my phone in the car as well” he sighs.
“Anyway, are you guys done with this interview? Studio 10 is about to start”
“I’m really starting to get into it”
