Meet the Aussies banned from their own home states due to Covid border closures

A number of Australians who can’t head home due to hard border closures during lockdown are fed up, with one even declaring she feels like a ‘refugee in her own country.’

Katrina and Dennis are stuck at Albury on the NSW and Victorian border where they are forced to live in a caravan.

It is the same story for fellow Victorian residents Anita and Vince, holed up at Port Macquarie on the NSW north coast and Queensland’s Dorothy Gomez, who is stuck in Tenterfield in regional NSW.

Western Australia and Queensland have both suggested some border restrictions will remain until case numbers in states such as NSW and Victoria are under control and vaccination rates are at least 80 percent, including those aged under 12. 

‘We are both double vaccinated, we just want to come home,’ Katrina, who along with her husband has chalked up five negative Covid tests in 15 days, told A Current Affair on Wednesday night.

Her husband Dennis added he ‘feels disappointed as they have done everything right’ before pointing out he and his wife are of ‘no danger to any communities in Victoria as they are Covid free’.

Some residents like Katrina and Dennis are living in caravans interstate (pictured) due to hard border closures in Australia

He fumed that it is the ‘most frustrating time of his life’ and after getting a series of recent permits to enter Victoria denied by the Andrews government, the couple are running out of patience. 

Dorothy Gomez went a step further, stating she feels ‘like a refugee in her own country’ as she continues to be incensed at the Covid delays that ensure she won’t be opening her front door anytime soon. 

Mrs Gomez lives roughly 30 minutes from the state border in Queensland, and she revealed life in Tenterfield is beginning to feel like a ‘camp for the forsaken.’

‘We feel we have been totally abandoned by the (Queensland) government and are being treated like refugees,’ she said.

Anita and Vince are experiencing similar challenges in Port Macquarie, with Vince struggling even more with anxiety and depression due to having Parkinson’s Disease.

A frustrated Anita agreed with the refugee notion, stating ‘all we want to do is travel home, which is our right’ before adding ‘it is incredible to think’ governments can close borders, leaving people with no rights.

Others have seen the upside of their unique fashion playing 'State of Origin' table tennis matches on the NSW / Queensland border at Coolangatta

Others have seen the upside of their unique fashion playing ‘State of Origin’ table tennis matches on the NSW / Queensland border at Coolangatta

She then spoke for many when she asked why it is so difficult for people to currently travel in their own country freely, even if they can prove they don’t have the virus.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews insisted on Wednesday he is working hard to get stranded people home ‘as soon as possible.’

He was quick to add it ‘won’t be tomorrow, but it will happen.’

Katrina later described her current situation as ‘inhumane’, with her husband questioning why Australian states are ‘forbidding their own residents from returning home.’

Other residents in limbo have found a novel way to pass the time on the border for Queensland and NSW at Coolangatta – a ‘State of Origin’ style game of table tennis.

Players from each state battled it out while staying behind the state line, and apparently within the rules, on Wednesday.

Victorian residents Katrina and Dennis (left) as well as fellow Victorians Anita and Vince and Queensland's Dorothy Gomez are all stuck interstate due to hard border closures

Victorian residents Katrina and Dennis (left) as well as fellow Victorians Anita and Vince and Queensland’s Dorothy Gomez are all stuck interstate due to hard border closures

Earlier on Wednesday, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk exploded at her political opponents in parliament after being asked whether the state’s hard border closures would continue ‘until 100 per cent of the population was vaccinated’.

The premier reacted to a question from LNP frontbencher and former Opposition leader Deb Frecklington, who asked whether lockdowns and closed borders would continue until all of the Queensland population have had their jabs.

‘You open up this state and you let the virus in here, every child under 12 is vulnerable, every single child,’ thundered Ms Palaszczuk.

'You open up this state and you let the virus in here, every child under 12 is vulnerable, every single child,' thundered Ms Palaszczuk in state parliament on Wednesday

‘You open up this state and you let the virus in here, every child under 12 is vulnerable, every single child,’ thundered Ms Palaszczuk in state parliament on Wednesday

‘Anyone who has a child under 12 to zero is vulnerable because they are the unvaccinated.’

With rogue premiers threatening to derail the national reopening plan, the Morrison government is pushing back.   

‘Australian should open up as one, whether you’re in Western Australia, whether you’re in Queensland, whether you’re in the southern states, you should follow the plan,’ Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said.

‘It’s not realistic you can keep your borders closed indefinitely.’ 

Border restrictions at the NSW-Queensland border have caused a backlash of protests and blockades in the past two weeks (pictured, the border on August 25)

Border restrictions at the NSW-Queensland border have caused a backlash of protests and blockades in the past two weeks (pictured, the border on August 25)

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