This time last year, Molly Costin was fleeing NSW to Victoria because of the bushfires.
Now, the 22-year-old Victorian is racing to get home because of a pandemic.
The student nurse packed up her gear from a camping ground in Eden and started driving within two hours of hearing the announcement that the border between NSW and Victoria would close.
Victorians have been told they have until 11:59pm on 1 January, 2021 to get home before a hard border with NSW takes effect.
There were reports of long delays at border crossings last night as holidaymakers rushed to get home.
Ms Costin spent three hours in a traffic jam while crossing the border at the Victorian town of Genoa on Thursday night.
“I was quite stressed just to actually get over the border in general because… there’s a bit of lack of communication towards the public regarding the rules and when they announced the regulations yesterday afternoon,” she told SBS News.
Ms Costin fled the bushfires from Eden last year and lost all her camping gear in the fire.
“It was actually the second of January last year when we had to leave; and it’s the first of January this year that we’ve had to leave. So I think we’ve got a bit of a curse going,” she said.
Like many healthcare workers working in a COVID-19 ward, Ms Costin said she felt burnt out and was hoping for a break from the pandemic gloom at the town of Eden on the New South Wales South Coast.
The queues at Genoa that Molly had to wait before on New Year’s Eve 2020, trying to flee before the border closed.
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She now has to take yet another COVID-19 test as part of the rules for returning home.
“This will be my seventh COVID test and I’ve had to isolate twice (already).”
Ms Costin says having worked in a COVID ward she understands the urgency of acting quick with measures to restrict the spread of the virus.
But she says authorities need to consider the practicalities on the ground before imposing such border closures at short-notice.
“In theory, it’s a great idea to lock the borders down. I’m all for it because I see it from the other side,” Ms Costin said.
“But you also need to think we had thousands of people in that area [South Coast] of New South Wales and they can’t all fit through like, one lane of bridge in Genoa in Victoria,” she said.
Blow for NSW South Coast tourism
For tourism operators, the mass exodus of Victorian holidaymakers has dealt a devastating blow to the local economy.
Chris Nicholls, Tourism Manager Merimbula, says Victorians made up 70 per cent of the tourist population this time of year.
“It has a huge impact on local businesses and particularly the hospitality industry and the hotels and so on,” he told SBS News.
“We hoped that this holiday period would be a better one for us, because we are now going through a second period of our peak tourism [period] to find we’ve lost all our Victorians.”
He said it was devastating to see rows of cars and caravans leave the area.
“It was pretty awful yesterday watching caravans and car after car after car. Moving down the highway and saying goodbye to us, very sad.”
‘Don’t rush’
The NRMA is also concerned about driver safety as motorists rush to meet the deadline.
“This is not their fault,” NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury told SBS News.
“The public has done nothing wrong. Unfortunately they weren’t given much time to get back to the border. They just have to do their best, but be patient, particularly as you get closer to the border and you will inevitably end up joining these long queues.”
Mr Khoury is pleading with drivers not to speed.
“Please do anything you wouldn’t normally do, particularly trying to get there quickly, and especially if you’re coming from long distances.”
“It’s a very narrow window to get back over the border so what we’re now seeing is hours upon hours of delay at the border, which isn’t great.”
