Berejiklian urged to close NSW border after Queenslanders continue to visit state's north

Mayors and state MPs on the north coast of New South Wales are calling on the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, to immediately close the state’s border.

Queensland closed its borders to NSW residents at midnight Wednesday night but NSW hasn’t reciprocated – Queenslanders are still free to come and go. Yet there are only 21 coronavirus cases between Tweed Heads and Coffs Harbour, while in Queensland there are more than 440 Covid-19 diagnoses, with most of them in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Related: Long delays as Queensland-NSW border closed for first time since Spanish flu in 1919

Visitors continue to pour into coastal towns, including Byron Bay, and community leaders fear it could make any coronavirus outbreak harder to control.

Community leaders say if regional areas aren’t locked down, the virus will be harder to control across Australia. The Labor opposition leader, Jodi McKay, this morning backed their calls for a total lockdown across the state and for the closure of caravan parks and camping grounds.

At the weekend, with sunny weather in the high 20s, Byron’s beaches were crowded, and at nearby Brunswick Heads a caravan park was almost at capacity.

Byron Bay’s mayor, Simon Richardson, said the region was already feeling the strain of increasing visitor numbers.

“This is one of the main reasons Spain has gone berserk,” Richardson said. “The more things get tough in the metro areas the more alluring it is to migrate into regional areas.

“We don’t know the exact number of people coming out of Queensland, what we do know is that 3.6 million people are an hour and a half away from Byron.

“Over the past couple of weeks many Queenslanders have been coming to enjoy what we have to offer but right now we don’t want to offer anything. We don’t want people coming here and adding to what is already a very strained reality.”

Richardson said scores of backpackers were also still arriving in Byron Bay and often living in dorms and other shared accommodation. Coronavirus outbreaks in Sydney have been traced to two backpacking parties.

Janelle Saffin, the state Labor MP for Lismore which takes in parts of Tweed Heads and rural communities including Tabulam and Tenterfield, says northern NSW is especially vulnerable after being hit hard by bushfires, smoke, flood and drought.

“Lots of locals are calling me to say the situation is just ridiculous. Northern NSW has relatively few cases and yet we are locked out of Queensland, but Brisbane and Gold Coast are corona spots in Queensland and visitors from those cities are still coming in numbers into the north of the state.”

Saffin is backing NSW Labor’s call for a total lockdown of the state “the sooner the better”.

Queensland officially closed its borders to NSW at midnight on Wednesday for the first time in 101 years. The last time the border closed was in 1919 during the Spanish flu pandemic.

NSW motorists trying to enter Queensland on Thursday morning had to queue for kilometres at the Tweed border and faced questions at a police checkpoint as to why they wanted to enter the state.