Australian state border restrictions

[SydneySwan]

Queensland's new Travel Declaration is live: Travelling to Queensland | Health and wellbeing | Queensland Government (www.qld.gov.au)

Not permanent, just only during pandemic.

I am wondering if it is now easier to enter NZ than Queensland, especially if you are not a Queenslander.

 

[Lynda2475]

This family didn't check the entry criteria for flying from MEL closely enough before departure - a costly mistake:

Airport shuttle bus ride lands family in Queensland quarantine

The Rutter family from regional Victoria arrived in Cairns on Wednesday, only to be told that unlike Melbourne Airport itself, the shuttle bus they used to arrive there counted as entering a COVID hotspot.

www.abc.net.au

Would the same rule apply if you took an uber or taxi directly to the airport? If so only option is to drive and pay the high airport parking prices.

 

[dajop]

This family didn't check the entry criteria for flying from MEL closely enough before departure - a costly mistake:

I can't think of a polite way to put this. So here's the impolite way .... This is getting @**#(*@#-ing ridiculous. Risk management be damned.

And people think international travel will be available in 2022. HAHAHAHAHA

 

[MelMel]

So could you drive to the off-site parking and call a taxi or Uber to take you to the terminal?

 

[Lynda2475]

I can't think of a polite way to put this. So here's the impolite way .... This is getting @**#(*@#-ing ridiculous. Risk management be damned.

I agree, but since this is currently the crazy state of affairs one has to keep abreast of all the minute details to not get caught out.

 

[Pushka]

I agree, but since this is currently the crazy state of affairs one has to keep abreast of all the minute details to not get caught out.

Interestingly on FB today, SA Health corrected me by stating that SA Residents were not banned from entering SA if they had been in NSW hotspot but only had to isolate for 14 days and do three tests. My reply to them was to check their own website and read their PDF explanation sheet and provided the link.

https://www.covid-19.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/400408/Entry-into-SA-Requirements-NSW-17-June-2021.pdf

Even SA Health don't know their own restrictions.

 

[JessicaTam]

I am wondering if it is now easier to enter NZ than Queensland, especially if you are not a Queenslander.

Yes it is.

Written in AKL after spending enough time here before flying to Qld tomorrow.

 

[dajop]

I agree, but since this is currently the crazy state of affairs one has to keep abreast of all the minute details to not get caught out.

Yes, even the minute details rely on knowing exactly how to interpret. For example:

You can transit through a hotspot and not be required to quarantine or get tested when you return to Queensland if you: ..

-transited through a COVID-19 hotspot by road using private transport to enter an airport in the hotspot and fly to Queensland.
For example, if you drove to an airport carpark and then took private transport to the airport and flew home to Queensland

I think some would consider a private shuttle operating between a privately owned carpark and the airport to be private transport, I can understand how you could miss the fact that it is considered public transport (which tends to be buses, trains etc). This rule is an cough, you can't spend at most 10 mins on a shuttle, but you can mingle for hours in the airport with people from all over Melbourne.

 

[Lynda2475]

This rule is an cough,

Yep.

In Covid times I will only do direct flights, it might usually be a AFF sin to not try and maximize SCs but who wants to complicate things.

Do we know if Uber/Taxi is private transport?

 

[ric_melb]

I must admit that I was astounded by this story and situation. I always park at an off airport parking building and catch the shuttle bus some 4km on a direct road to the airport. Until this family was stopped in Cairns I would not have thought the car park shuttle bus would disqualify me from entering Queensland. Also I do check the various states' advices on my interstate travel which so far luckily have not been of a nature where I disqualified myself from entry. So we all learn as we go along.

 

[SydneySwan]

I agree, but since this is currently the crazy state of affairs one has to keep abreast of all the minute details to not get caught out.

You can still get caught out even if you are on top of the rules. Last year I remember NT closing to visitors from Sydney whilst flights were in the air. WA may have done the same as well. I don’t remember exactly.

 

[Lynda2475]

You can still get caught out even if you are on top of the rules. Last year I remember NT closing to visitors from Sydney whilst flights were in the air. WA may have done the same as well. I don’t remember exactly.

True.

However, if this happened to me on arrival, Id stay in the airport and arrange to get on the next flight back home, rather than go into 2 weeks of HQ which would likely be longer than my intended stay in the state.

 

[kpc]

I can't think of a polite way to put this. So here's the impolite way .... This is getting @**#(*@#-ing ridiculous. Risk management be damned.

And people think international travel will be available in 2022. HAHAHAHAHA

The Qld CHO is a laughable joke...she should retire asap!

 

[Unuuusual]

If this family had parked in long term parking at Melbourne Airport and caught the carpark shuttle bus they still would have been in the same situation as this would still be classed as public transport. No-one would have been able to predict that one would they? The only way they could have done this is to be dropped off at departures in a private vehicle. I really feel for them, they were in a no win situation.

 

[Pushka]

True.

However, if this happened to me on arrival, Id stay in the airport and arrange to get on the next flight back home, rather than go into 2 weeks of HQ which would likely be longer than my intended stay in the state.

Assuming there is accommodation at the airport where your flight lands and which meets standards. I don't think that plan would fly to be honest as you've entered the state and mixed with others and not quarantined as required.

 

[justinbrett]

Assuming there is accommodation at the airport where your flight lands and which meets standards. I don't think that plan would fly to be honest as you've entered the state and mixed with others and not quarantined as required.

I could be wrong but I believe every state gives you the option of returning from whence you came rather than staying in HQ (though you might have to go there until the next flight)

 

[clifford]

Well, I arrived at OOL from SYD on Wednesday, showed my ACT Drivers Licence and was good to go within 30 seconds. Fair enough.

Then, I got on the 777 bus to Broadbeach South, and was subject to someone coughing, spluttering and wheezing (quite badly) close by for the whole journey. In normal times I'd have been worried for him. So how is he out and about on public transport in QLD?

So much for border checks. At least it'll give my fully vaccinated status a workout. Oh, and I've also had a couple of flu shots this year too....

 

[jb747]

I agree, but since this is currently the crazy state of affairs one has to keep abreast of all the minute details to not get caught out.

Living on a border, trying to keep abreast of the rules is a total nightmare. They're mostly written in bureaucratese, which is indecipherable to most people, and not meant to be helpful at all.

 

[clifford]

Living on a border

Well at least you'll get special consideration.

 

[drron]

The Qld CHO is a laughable joke...she should retire asap!

I've been racking my brains to see if I can come up with a reason to report her to the QLD Medical Board.Any doctor that treated their patients like this causing gross psychological pain would stand a very high chance of being struck off.