By Dominique Tassell
A border resident has spoken out about the struggles those on the border face, stating they can more easily go and see their daughter and grandchildren in London than they can family in Queensland.
With the Christmas period coming up, locals have raised concerns over the impacts mandates and border rules will have on locals.
Christine Peterson lives in Old Koreelah but works in Warwick, and travels across the border pretty much every day.
“We’ve been dealing with this since March last year,” she says.
Christine says they’ve had to negotiate a sort of half-system.
“Most of the police on the border are very good,” she says. “But it’s the constant wondering if when you get to the border you’re going to get the one who’s going to be hard.”
“Lots of other locals have really struggled with the stress of getting to the border and not knowing if you’re going to get back over.”
She says it feels like they’re being required to jump through more and more hoops.
When the border rules changed recently, Christine says she had an hour and a half of notice.
“Teachers weren’t classed as essential workers then,” she says.
So for six or seven weeks, she stayed in Warwick.
She couldn’t get home to Old Koreelah, because she’d need her vaccinations to get over.
Now she has her vaccinations, they’re being asked to get tested every time they want to cross the border for non-essential purposes.
Christine says it feels like they haven’t been given the choice, and have to jump through whatever hoops the State Government creates.
“We have no real voice because we’re not Queensland voters, even though we basically function as a Queensland community,” she says.
Travelling to towns outside of the border community is pretty much out of the question normally due to the distance, and all the emergency services areas like Old Koreelah use are Queensland ones.
Christine says the process of crossing the border is also incredibly hard on the elderly, who have to do applications online when they may not have access to the required technology.
Christine says the big issue is that nobody knows what the plan is.
Border residents face constant stress over whether they can cross the border, to do essential tasks or otherwise.
“We’re just trying to live,” Christine emphasises.
The new testing mandate is a source of stress, as locals don’t know where to even get the test.
They can’t come into Queensland to get tested, and they don’t know where else to go.
“It’s just not viable for us to travel an hour and a half,” Christine says. “It’s ten or fifteen minutes into Queensland.”
She says the hardest part is not being able to cross the border to see family.
Christine says that, frankly, it doesn’t make sense to her that she can go to school and see 200-300 people but not see her family.
She says one of the biggest causes of unrest in our border communities is the spotlight on areas such as Tweed.
“It’s frustrating for us,” she says.
“Koreelah is just farms and a church, we don’t have shops.”
While residents of areas such as Tweed are undoubtedly impacted by border restrictions, they can still do many things that border residents out here cannot.
Christine says kids can’t cross the border to go to sport, and locals can’t attend any sort of recreational activity.
“We’re not meant to do anything but what is classed essential,” she says.
“It’s the social part of it that’s been really difficult.”.
But more than that, it’s what exactly the State Government classifies as essential.
“We can’t go to funerals, can’t go to weddings,” Christine says.
Christine says mental health is a real concern for border residents.
“It is a stress on people; it’s the constant stress that is impacting people.”
Christine says she feels like the Queensland State Government is totally disconnected from life out here.
“They have no concept of what it’s like out here,” she says. “What country border communities actually need by coming into Queensland.”
She says maybe they think we live in a more built-up, more populated area than we do.
But it’s clear they don’t understand that these border communities are relatively isolated in terms of services.
Christine says she’s not sure why they can’t use rapid antigen tests like they do elsewhere in the world.
Other locals have raised that this could even be set up at the border and administered by police.
Christine says people want to do the right thing and don’t want to break the rules, “but they don’t see that the rules make sense”.
