Remote APY Lands residents in limbo as borders shut after SA records new coronavirus cases

‘Movement will be restricted’

The APY Lands management board met on Monday afternoon, deciding on a three-week lockdown starting from Tuesday evening.

“Movement will be restricted to everyone coming in,” APY Lands general manager Richard King told ABC Radio Alice Springs.

“People can still leave the lands if they need to go, but coming back in we need to be very cautious and make sure they’re not importing the disease in.”

The APY lands were previously closed between March and July this year, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Australia.

Similar to the last lockdown, the only people allowed into the communities over the next three weeks will be essential workers with approved exemptions and COVID-safe plans.

Management said around 200 residents of the APY lands were visiting Adelaide to receive healthcare at any one time, which meant the lockdown could leave vulnerable people stranded.

Mr King said they would monitor the outbreak in Adelaide and review the length of the lockdown if necessary.

“The last time we locked down there was a mechanism put in place by Nganampa Health and Territory Health to manage the risks,” he said.

“We’ll still work with health in the NT to make sure that anyone that’s stranded, we can repatriate them safely.”

On Monday, NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said health authorities would be monitoring the situation in SA closely, and could narrow the hotspot declaration to Adelaide “once we know more”.

Stranded across the border

The owner of the bus service that ferries people between the APY Lands and Alice Springs was hopeful a solution would be found quickly, after the route was forced to shut down.

“There [were] a lot of people brought from the lands to Alice Springs on Sunday who cannot return home, there’s also passengers who were taken from Alice Springs to the lands who are now stuck there,” said Grant Jaine, who operates the Bush Bee service.

“They’re not very happy, they all want to go home.”

While South Australia’s borders are open to the Northern Territory, the Bush Bee bus is unable to enter the APY Lands to return passengers home.

Drivers would also then be forced to quarantine for two weeks upon their return to the Northern Territory.

“We cannot send a driver down there and have him need to be quarantined when he gets back,” said Mr Jaine.

During the last border closure, Mr Jaine said getting an exemption for his business took so long to be approved, restrictions were lifted by the time it came through.

He wants the NT Government to speed up an exemption process for what he sees as his essential service.

For Ms Miller and other APY Lands residents stuck in Alice Springs, the next few weeks look uncertain.

“We just came for the funeral and now we’re stuck … there’s no way to get home, I’m a bit stranded,” Ms Miller said.