Canberra residents stranded in Victoria due to coronavirus restrictions may get police escort home

Canberran Anne Cahill Lambert was stopped from crossing from Victoria into NSW on Friday.(Supplied)

Nearly 100 Canberrans are stranded in Victoria waiting to return to the ACT, after being prevented from crossing the border by New South Wales police.

Many were surprised to learn on Friday they would not be allowed to drive through NSW to the ACT, despite having permission from ACT Health to do so.

Under new hotel quarantine requirements in NSW, anyone entering the state from Victoria must pass through Sydney Airport.

Canberra residents are now waiting in Victoria to learn if some agreement can be made between ACT and NSW authorities to allow them to drive home.

It is understood the primary reason for NSW authorities’ reluctance to allow the ACT residents to drive home is the risk travellers with the virus may pass through regional towns along the route home.

The ACT Government has offered to send ACT police officers to escort the group directly back to Canberra, but that offer has not been taken up as yet.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr took to social media to warn those stuck at the border a resolution was still some time away.

“Extensive efforts [are] being made by the ACT to satisfy NSW concerns (police escorts etc),” he said.

The only immediate option available to those in Victoria trying to return to the ACT is to travel into Melbourne and fly directly to Canberra.

Just one flight is available today, leaving Melbourne at 4:00pm.

Flying is not an option for stranded Canberran Anne Cahill Lambert and her husband Rod Lambert.

Mr Lambert had been working as a locum doctor in north-east Victoria for the past four months.

His contract concluded last week, so the couple applied for permits to travel home and were given permission from both the ACT and NSW authorities to do so.

But when they arrived at the border on Friday “it all went to hell in a hand basket”.

After being told they could not cross, Ms Cahill Lambert contacted the NSW COVID-19 service centre and was told their only option was to travel to Melbourne and fly to Sydney for mandatory quarantine.

“Without my car, without my dog, and without all the things packed in my car,” she said.

Ms Cahill Lambert also works in the health system. While she said she was committed to the public health directives, she was angry the rules were changed “at a moment’s notice”.

“I can’t think in what realm you would instruct someone to go to Melbourne, which is the epicentre of the pandemic at the moment, and catch a flight in a confined space,” she said.

Ms Cahill Lambert urged the NSW Chief Health Officer to consider adapting rules to individual cases.

“We’re been isolated in north-east Victoria where there has been no cases [of COVID-19],” she said.

For now, Ms Cahill Lambert said she, her husband and dog were staying put and waiting for “common sense to prevail.”

Source: ABC