THE ban on Sunraysia residents crossing the New South Wales border without a valid exemption is likely to last a matter of weeks.
However, police say they will make travelling between Victoria and New South Wales as easy as possible for people living in “border bubbles”.
The George Chaffey Bridge between Mildura and Buronga was going into lockdown at midnight Tuesday night following a “concerning spread” of COVID-19 in Melbourne.
The Abbotsford Bridge will be closed to all vehicles except emergency services, while the Robinvale-Euston bridge will also be manned by police as a checkpoint.
Australian Defence Force personnel have been deployed to assist NSW Police to shut down 55 border crossings into Victoria amid warnings anyone trying to flout the rules would face hefty fines and potential imprisonment.
NSW Police said aerial surveillance would also be used to monitor border crossings and conceded the next 72 hours would be a challenge.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said he accepted that border communities would be upset and businesses disrupted, but urged residents to “work within the spirit” of trying to bring COVID-19 under control.
About 650 police were on Tuesday en route to monitor border crossings while 100 members of the Australian Defence Force will assist the operation from tomorrow with a further 250 at the weekend.
“From the NSW Police perspective it is an enormous operation and an enormous task, nevertheless we will be ready to go,” Mr Fuller said.
“We are trying to strike a good balance with those local communities knowing full well people cross the borders every day for health, employment, education and many, many other reasons,” he said.
“That bubble or those postcodes will be seen differently to other Victorians, so we will make it certainly easier for those who travel across.
“They will need an exemption — it will more than likely just need to apply for a single exemption and that will see them through this crisis.”
Mr Fuller said that while Victorians would be banned from entering NSW without an exemption, NSW residents would be allowed into Victoria, but would need to self-isolate at home for 14 days on return.
“From midnight there will be challenges. We would ask that if you don’t have to cross the border, please don’t because it will be the most challenging phase of the operation,” he said.
“We’re not stopping people from NSW going into Victoria, but we’re asking people not to travel there.
“It is also about those local communities can co-exist … there’s a whole range of reasons why there needs to be a sensible bubble around those border towns.”
Mr Fuller said he expected Service NSW would be in a position to begin issuing exemption permits from late on Tuesday.
He said trucks and other heavy haulage transport would be “green-lighted” through the road blocks with an exemption.
‘Dire consequences’ for border-hoppers
NSW Minister for Police David Elliott has warned there will be “dire consequences” for Victorians who try to border-hop into NSW without a proper exemption.
Mr Elliott said the border lockdown would be provided with as much support as was needed and anyone who tried to do the wrong thing would be caught.
“What we are going to observe over the next couple of days is the raising of one of the largest joint operations the police in NSW and emergency services and the Australian Defence Force have ever made,” Mr Elliott said.
“The border between NSW and Victoria relies on about 55 crossings … people shouldn’t assume that it is all going to be focused on Albury-Wodonga.
“There will certainly be police and defence personnel on those other crossings and I am going to make sure everybody knows that we are serious when it comes to issuing these fines.
“It’s also important for the people in NSW to know that there are going to be dire consequences for anybody who wants to endanger the health and wellbeing of our citizens.
“That’s unfortunate, but it’s the best thing we can do to ensure that those who want to push the envelope know that we’re serious.”
Mr Elliott said he was confident that everything that could be done in support of the operation was being done.
“In the initial deployment with the ADF there will be something like 300, but I can easily forecast the fact that we will probably see more troops on the ground,” he said.
“It’s also important for the people in NSW to know that there are going to be dire consequences for anybody who wants to endanger the health and wellbeing of our citizens.”
Mr Elliott said he wanted to reassure the community the operation was “nothing untoward”.
“This is a normal joint operation between police, the defence force and any other emergency services combat agencies,” he said.
“I think we’re talking weeks rather than a couple of days, I think we could probably assume that with the effort being put into a deployment like this it will be a couple of weeks.”
He said the joint operation was expected to be reviewed daily.
