Abandoned Queensland island resort floated as solution to quarantine risk

“The facilities are still there,” he said.

“The industrial kitchens are still there, and the places where the 200 staff lived are in good condition.”

Mr Katter pointed out the derelict resort was “naturally quarantined because it is an island”.

“We think it is an ideal location and an ideal outcome,” he said.

But Ms Palaszczuk said Dunk Island would not make her list of the options she would put forward to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to consider as an alternative to quarantine in Brisbane.

“Yeah, I don’t think that will work,” she said. “We are in cyclone season as well and the logistics of evacuating people from that [resort] if we had to would be incredible.”

The state government has hinted at plans to convert workers’ accommodation near the regional Queensland city of Gladstone into a quarantine hub.

Mr Katter said the state government was “rather stupidly and rather irresponsibly” considering mining camps, a move he believed would pose risk of virus exposure to the resources industry.

Ms Palaszczuk will spend the next two days compiling a list of possible remote quarantine options to put to the Prime Minister when the pair meet in Brisbane on Friday.

Her push comes after more than 2 million people were forced into a three-day lockdown this month when a highly infectious virus strain broke out of a Brisbane quarantine hotel.

Ms Palaszczuk said her government would investigate whether sending returning Australians to quarantine in mining camps “stacks up” before putting forward a model for other states to copy.

She would not say how many other sites were being considered.

“We’re working through a number of options,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“The reason we’re putting this proposal forward is that we’re trying to minimise the risk with this incredibly infectious UK strain.

“This is not a problem unique to Queensland, it is an issue for all of Australia.

“So I’m looking forward to speaking with the Prime Minister later on this week to put forward some suggestions and some ideas, and hopefully also we’ll be raising it at national cabinet.”

Ms Palaszczuk said people returning from overseas were a “very, very high risk” of sparking an outbreak.

“Our hotel quarantine is our last line of defence,” she said.