LAST week’s border restrictions caused chaos and heartbreak for tourism operators in New South Wales, with visitors from Victoria forced to rush home before the border closed.
Willow Bend Caravan Park caretaker Ana Smith said it was an emotional day, as campers had to abandon their much-anticipated summer holidays and head home within hours.
“After the news started on New Year’s Eve, I looked out and there were lots of little group meetings,” Ms Smith said.
“I went into the laundry and when I came back out I could see people just dismantling annexes and pulling out tent pegs. There was lots of emotion. There were kids crying and there were angry parents as well.
“They realised ‘This is what we’ve got to do; we’ve got to get out.’ A lot of them have got their own businesses. So they, of course, thought ‘We can’t take the risk. We’ve got to go now.’
“Some of the younger ones had been drinking, so on New Year’s Eve the safest thing to do was to stay the night … they had to wait until they sobered up and then they made the trip home.
“There were two or three groups that decided to stay, but a good 80 people or more left the park. It was like a ghost town. It was the quietest New Year’s Eve we’ve ever had – everyone was sad and upset and trying to re-plan their route home.”
Ms Smith said many of the campers were summer regulars at Willow Bend – and that made seeing them leave even harder.
“Some of them have been coming up for about 12 years,” she said.
“The young kids are now teenagers bringing their partners and then the parents all come as well.
“Because they’re regulars we knew them and we knew how much they were looking forward to their annual holiday up at their favourite place.
“Most of them were booked in for 10 to 14 days. They ended up having four days of that holiday and then going home.
“There were lots of emotions, but we were just heartbroken for our campers.”
With a large number of holidaymakers hitting the highway to get back home before the border shut, Ms Smith said many of her guests had a tough time making their way home amid the chaos.
“We know that some families slept at the side of the road in the car with kids at two in the morning because the kangaroos were so bad,” she said.
“Some others found other accommodation halfway home.”
Others faced confusion trying to get to South Australia, with Wentworth within the 100km border zone, but not Buronga and Gol Gol.
“Some people went to the border, got turned around and had to come back to Wentworth,” Ms Smith said.
“There was a lot of confusion and indecision.”
But despite the debacle, Ms Smith said all the affected campers were keen to come back next summer – if they can.
“Fingers crossed for next year – they’re all booked in for the same site, same cabin that they have every year,” she said.
Bookings drop at Mungo Lodge
AT Mungo Lodge, the border closure has meant bookings for the next few months have dropped off.
“Tour companies that have booked for February, March, April, are starting to remove their bookings now because of the uncertainty with the border closures and the virus conditions, which will have an impact as we as we move forward into the year,” manager Hayley Farmer said.
She was also having issues with staff getting to work.
“The border closures are definitely impacting the movements of our staff in and out from Mildura,” Ms Farmer said.
“There’s a lot of confusion about the border permits that are required.
“Our staff are always double questioned and things like that. (Police) are just doing their job, but it’s not consistent at all.
“They’re telling our staff that they must isolate, when they’ve only been in the Wentworth Shire. So we’re having complications from that.
“We do currently have a staff member that’s not able to return to site because she got a message from the council advising that she must quarantine for 14 days when she hasn’t actually been outside the bubble.”
But Ms Farmer said the border closure hadn’t had much impact on visitor numbers in the short term – rather, people were keen to escape to the outback.
“The border closures are definitely impacting the movements of our staff in and out from Mildura, and any-day visitors coming out to the lodge, but the bulk of our bookings tend to be coming from NSW guests and they’re still wanting to travel,” she said.
“Our bookings holistically have been really flat out, which is unpredicted for this time of the year given that we’re usually in quite a high climate.”
For the time being, cleaning up after last week’s wild weather was her biggest problem.
“The weather has the national parks closed, and also road closures in the area,” she said on Monday.
“We’re actually still waiting on an update from the local shire councils as to whether or not the roads are accessible for guests to come out.
“But it’s pretty much business as usual. We’re just hoping that the restrictions and the border lift, but that Australia stays healthy and we can all get back on track and support the country and community the best we can.”
