POLICE patrolling the Victorian-NSW border are preparing to take a hardline stance on travellers sneaking south of the Murray River.
Some 260 officers have been stationed across Victoria’s road border since Saturday, with police using automatic number plate recognition to check vehicles.
Victoria has effectively shut its border to the current red zones of Sydney and surrounding areas as well as Greater Darwin over separate COVID-19 outbreaks that have leaked into other states.
It has led to Greater Brisbane, metropolitan Perth and the neighbouring Peel region, regional NSW and the ACT moving to orange zones under Victoria’s permit system.
Arrivals from those areas must be tested and isolate until they receive a negative result, while members of the Victorian-NSW border bubble can still cross freely.
Over the initial days of the road border operation, officers have turned away 53 people – most for coming from a red zone – with just a warning.
But Chief Commissioner Shane Patton indicated patience was running thin, with ineligible travellers set to face a $4957 on-the-spot fine.
“If there’s a need to escalate, we will escalate,” he said on Monday
That will include helicopters scanning the Hume Highway from Monday and fixed-wing aircraft patrolling the length of the border from mid-week.
Health Minister Martin Foley said 5000 red zone permit applications had been made since June 23, with more than 1000 processed on Sunday alone. Some 38 per cent have returned a negative test result.
Another 21,000 orange zone permits have been issued since June 11, and 31 per cent of holders have returned negative tests.
Mr Foley said border permit designations were not handed down on a whim, noting it was the first time Victoria had listed orange and red zones in most Australian states and territories.
It comes as Victoria reported a second straight day without a locally acquired case of coronavirus, after Sydney’s Bondi outbreak leaked into the state from an Oakleigh man who attended a superspreader birthday party.
The infected man in his 60s works at a Sandringham dry cleaners, where he passed on the virus to a colleague.
Victoria’s COVID commander Jeroen Weimar said all but two of the 67 shop customers identified as close contacts have returned negative tests so far. One has declined to take a test but will remain in self-isolation.
Of the 139 passengers and crew who shared a Jetstar flight from Sydney to Melbourne with the Oakleigh man, 85 per cent have also returned a negative test result.
New South Wales recorded 18 new cases on Monday.
