Victorian farmers have taken to social media to express their frustration at NSW coronavirus restrictions, which means they have to fly to Sydney and quarantine for 14 days, before travelling to their properties.
On Facebook, Warracknabeal's Chris Taylor said he'd been trying to get a load of hay, to his sheep, near Euston, for a fortnight.
He said he'd contacted the NSW authorities and told them what he intended to do.
"The rules have changes and farmers are no longer allowed to cross the border, when their residential address is central Victoria," Mr Taylor said.
"The department said I needed to take the 43 tonnes of hay to Melbourne, fly it to Sydney, then sit in quarantine.
"A fortnight later, the sheep would get some feed, and the hay would have a joy flight and sat in quarantine."
He asked if someone could tell him what it would cost to fly 43 tonnes of hay to Sydney.
Read more:
NSW has now announced it will loosen restrictions on agricultural workers, introducing a special permit.
Under the changes, individuals will be able to access a new Highly Specialised Critical Services (Agriculture) Permit if they:
- Provide a highly specialised critical agricultural service;
- Are moving and working anywhere within 100 kilometres of the NSW/Victorian border, on the NSW side;
- Comply with strict conditions if staying overnight; and,
- Adhere to other safety requirements, including self-isolating when not delivering the critical service.
The permit covers an area of only 100km, into NSW, although authorities have said they will look at applications to travel further, on a case-by-case basis.
NSW suddenly closed its border with Victoria, to contain the spread of COVID-19, a week and a half ago.
The border zone covers a strip on either side of the Victorian-NSW border, from South Australia to the Pacific Ocean.
Residents can apply for a NSW border entry permit, to cross from Victoria, under certain conditions.:
A border zone resident who lives in Victoria:
- is authorised to enter and remain in NSW only for work, education, medical or health care, or providing or receiving care to a vulnerable person, and
- must not travel to any part of NSW that is outside of the border zone and
- must not enter NSW if they have travelled in Victoria outside the border zone within the previous 14 days.
Agriculture is deemed a critical service under the public health order.
Police officers at the border have the power to refuse entry to non-NSW residents, who they believe present an unacceptable risk of transmitting COVID-19.
Police and public health officers will also be able to direct a person to leave NSW if he or she is not a NSW resident and is not authorised to enter NSW, under the public health order.
A person found breaching the Public Health (COVID-19 Border Control) Order 2020 faces an $11,000 fine and six months in prison.
Ram sales
Tom Briggs, Rutherglen, said ram sales were "firing up" all over the country, and he was keen to visit a specific Riverina, NSW stud to inspect the animals it was selling.
While his property was just inside the Victorian "border bubble", the stud he intended to visit, was outside it.
"If it had been in there, we would have fallen on our feet," Mr Briggs said.
"Because of that scenario, the authorities wanted us to travel to Melbourne, to fly to Sydney, to quarantine for 14 days, to drive five hours to the property and end up within an hour from home."
He said there appeared to be a lack of understanding of the complexity and dynamics of cross border travel.
"We rely on interstate travel," Mr Briggs said.
On social media, Mr Briggs likened it to buying a house, without looking at it.
Farmers picked out a stud that had the genetics they wanted or would complement their system, which was made all the harder if the rams could not be physically inspected.
He said Service NSW had been unhelpful, in its advice on how to enter the state.
One stud was putting up videos and comprehensive information about its rams, which was helpful.
"You are still putting a bit of faith into the presentation, without actually being able to see the rams."
On social media, Mr Briggs said there were always "diamonds in the rough," at every stud.
"There are also genetic trends within a stud's breeding values which can narrow the field and then further narrowed within breeds when there are certain criteria to meet," he said.
And Beaufort's Al Gabb said he was facing a similar situation.
He said he wanted to buy about 15 rams from LambPro, Holbrook, NSW, to put over his 3800 breeders.
He said he'd also been told he had to fly through Sydney, to get to Holbrook.
'He's going to run an online auction, but if you are spending a lot of money, you do want to see the rams in the flesh," Mr Gabb said.
"I'm not going to be able to attend a ram sale, unless things do change, or they relax the laws accordingly."
He said everyone who wanted to travel was willing to do the right thing, in terms of social distancing and wearing masks.
"If the internet was to go down, I have lost my opportunity to buy the best rams I want."
Cautious welcome
Albury-based auctioneer, Michael Glasser, GTSM, said the current restrictions meant he was being prevented from conducting sales, outside the "border bubble."
"Half our business is in regional NSW, so we are having to find other ways of servicing those sales, at the moment," Mr Glasser said.
Mr Glasser said self-isolation was second nature to most people in the agricultural sector.
"But businesses need to be run and famlies need to be fed," he said.
"Let agriculture do what it needs to do."
He said he was pleased the border bubble was going to be extended.
"The 100km is one thing, but it's a case-by-case basis, after that," Mr Glasser said.
GTSM staff often travelled up to 200km from Albury, into NSW.
'It would be better if we could get individual exemptions, that would make a big difference."
On the western side of the state, border communities have started a Facebook page called "Cross Border Call Out" to draw attention to the impending hard border, being imposed by South Australia.
The South Australian government has also instituted a "border bubble" of 40kilometres.
Read more:
Travellers from Victoria, other than approved categories of Essential Travellers, are not permitted to travel to South Australia.
Checkpoints or roadblocks will be set up at all border crossings between South Australia and Victoria.
As of 12:01 am on 21 August 21, cross-border community residents from Victoria are not permitted to enter SA unless you have an approval status, which grants entry of up to 40 km into South Australia for:
- Undertaking year 11 or year 12 high school education in SA; or
- Undertaking agricultural/primary industry work at a location in VIC which is situated at or near the SA border and that is accessible without entering any township or built-up area.
You must have had a COVID-19 test within the last seven days.
If you are entering from Victoria, you cannot travel further than 40 kilometres over the border into South Australia.
Tracie Dunstall, Cove Station Kaniva, said she was seven kilometres from the border.
"I've heard every permit that has been approved will be invalid, as of Thursday night, and we will all have to reapply on Friday," Ms Dunstall said.
"It's taking its toll on everyone, in the community."
She said the family's main property was in Victoria, but they also owned three farms in SA and leased a fourth.
"Most of them are just over the border, one is just north of Bordertown."
She said she was concerned that the authorities would not grant a permit.
"All of those properties have livestock on them, and they are all under crop - thats potentially millions of dollars that goes down the drain, if we can't check them."
"Sheep get ill, and we can't check them - they think someone can do it for us.
'There is just no common sense in all of this - there are hardly any cases in all our cross border communities, we are doing the right thing."
Ben Duxson, Glendemar Farm, Mount Mt Bolangum, said there had already been significant disruption from the border crossing closures.
"It becomes very frustrating that in agriculture, we cannot continue on and do our jobs," Mr Duxson said.
"Our ram sale will be affected by not allowing interstate clients back into their state if they come to buy rams.
"Part of our stud's business is to service our clients with sheep classing and advice."
Mr Duxson said he and his father had not been able to obtain permission to travel to NSW, SA or Western Australia, to complete classing jobs.
"On many occasions, these are clients that have been with us for over 20 years, rely on our services to help class sheep and get sale sheep ready.
"Agriculture and our regional areas are starting to be severely affected by the pandemic and the restrictions each state is putting in place.
"We need agriculture to lead us out of this pandemic, not be severely restricted in most areas."
Apsley contract harvester Hamish Kester said he didn't think the 100km limit would help anyone.
He had been stopped from travelling into northern NSW, to do jobs on the Queensland border and north-west of Condobolin.
"It's stupid, there have been a lot of acres sown, in NSW," he said.
NSW authorities had determined he was not "their idea of an essential worker.
"I got told there are already contractors in NSW and we are not needed - commonsense says there are a lot of acres of crops, in NSW, and not a hell of a lot of headers."
Victorian opposition Agriculture spokesman Peter Walsh said the new NSW permit was the first step in solving problems threatening the critical food supply chain.
"Removing the requirement for Victorian agriculture workers to quarantine or travel via Sydney airport to enter NSW fixes some of the barriers that had threatened to put the handbrake on our food supply chain," Mr Walsh said.
"These special permits were desperately needed to allow for free movement of our farmers, contractors and agriculture workforce."
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Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
