Detained but ‘I did it right’

A NURSE has been separated from her young son and put in quarantine at the Victorian border – for living a street away from the Queensland border.

Tweed nurse and model Gemma Mai flew into Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport on Sunday, when she was “pulled aside” by health and border security officers.

The ex-Miss Supercars finalist said: “My ID said a NSW address. I live on Bay St, it’s so close. I literally have a bollard at the end of my street indicating you can’t drive up it.

“I work in health care, I got out of NSW to Queensland by midnight on January 1. I did everything right, I’ve come to Victoria and because my residency is NSW, one street from the border, I’ve been detained.

“If I’d said my address was C o o l a n g a t t a and lied, which I wouldn’t do, I’d have been fine.

“I flew in (Sunday) and they pulled me aside, asked for my ID. I provided all documentation, I had a letter from my employer showing I work at South Coast Radiology. The documentation wasn’t good enough. They said, ‘You’re in hotel quarantine for 14 days’.”

She had stayed in Rydges Hotel on the Gold Coast since Saturday in an effort to comply with border restrictions.

But at Tullamarine Airport she was told because she had been in NSW in the past 14 days she would go into quarantine – leaving her cut off from her job and unable to get home to her son, 11. Her quarantine stay is costing her $3000, she said.

“The flight was all booked, I did the travel requirements and (the information I found said) I can travel from Queensland,” she said. “I couldn’t find anywhere, and neither could anyone else, that you couldn’t come if you’ve been to NSW. I haven’t gone to Sydney, haven’t been in a COVID hotspot. I never would have gone if I’d known.”

The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services on January 1 said: “Victoria’s border with NSW will close this evening at 11.59pm” and anyone without exemption would be turned away.