Cross border residents call for change to travel restrictions

Cross border residents said the travel restrictions are unnecessarily harsh, despite the two states emerging from lockdowns in the past week.

Cross Border Call Out founder and Apsley resident Paula Gust said the current restrictions had been some of the worst for border residents in recent memory.

"It is almost like we are in a ring of steel of our own," she said.

"For cross border community members that want to go back and forth, they have to have weekly testing.

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"Victorians going into SA can only be there for certain purposes. There are a lot of Victorians who can't go and play sports or train, but they can go and work in SA."

Under rules implemented on July 19, travellers into South Australia from the cross border travel zone must provide a negative COVID-19 test from the past week.

The travel zone, formerly 70km on either side of the border and included towns such as Nhill and Harrow, has since been reduced to a 40km radius.

Anyone who leaves the 40km travel zone will fall under the same restrictions as Victorians living outside the zone.

Ms Gust said the mandatory proof of testing was a source and anxiety for many cross border residents.

She said the few testing clinics available were inaccessible to many in the community.

"The testing clinics are only open a certain amount of hours in the day, so people are making special trips over the weekend because they can't go between nine and four," she said.

"I think the amount of testing has reduced because it is back to just cross border people now and those fulfilling their 14-day quarantines.

"It is touch and go. Sometimes you can get there and line up for an hour, and sometimes you can get through.

"As we have said all along, never a positive case and we are the most tested community in Australia."

Ms Gust said the border travel zone was another issue with the cross border travel situation, with the 30km reduction separating families.

"It is so restrictive, for the cross border community members we can't associate with someone who has been outside of the 40km radius," she said.

"I know Steven Marshall said he would be looking at the border situation over the next couple of days. But there are children who can't see their parents, especially in some of those shared situations when they live outside the 40km but inside the 70km.

"This is probably the worst set of restrictions that cross border community members have had, and it is just layered.

"Closing the cross border zone to 40km, weekly COVID testing, restricting activities that Victorians can do in SA. Just when we thought that it couldn't get worse it did."

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Ms Gust said she had been in weekly communication with Victorian cross border commissioner Luke Wilson and was looking to have an audience with South Australian government officials to make the situation known.

"It is impossible to be heard sometimes. I am definitely very active on it. The people I do talk to within law enforcement are very understanding of how restrictive it is, but they have to enforce that law.

"We are all expecting to see or hear a massive amount of mental health decline from this.

"I understand that people go through that in all lockdowns, but at least it is assessed, addressed and changed promptly. The cross border situation isn't, we are last on the line and we suffer that whole time."

The Cross Border Call Out group has called for the border travel zone to be restored to 70km and end weekly COVID-19 testing.

Ms Gust said the changes would be the minimum to make the cross border situation tenable.

"We are caught up in things that are happening hours and hours away from us," she said.

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