The challenge of moving house and interstate amid the coronavirus pandemic

Moving house is stressful at the best of times, especially when relocating interstate. Throw in a pandemic, border closures, and some pets, and moving day can quickly turn into moving month.

That’s the unusual predicament NSW couple Vanessa and Mike Frey now find themselves in, as they move from Bangalow to their new Brisbane home, just two hours’ north.

Unable to travel into Queensland by road, the pair has to fly from nearby Ballina airport, down to Sydney, then back up to Brisbane, where they are required to spend two weeks in hotel quarantine.

And with two pet cats to look after, they have made the call to do this separately – one after the other – to try avoid leaving them in a cattery.

“It’s quite amusing when you think we could get in the car and drive to Brisbane which is less than two hours from where we live,” Mr Frey said.

“But [instead] it’s going to take us about five weeks and close to about $7000 [for hotel quarantine and the cost of relocating their vehicles] for the luxury of moving about 150 kilometres up the freeway.”

The cost, the frustration and time involved in moving have significantly blown out since the couple first put their Bangalow home on the market in February, with plans to relocate to Brisbane for work – Mr Frey is the owner of a sports photography agency and Mrs Frey is a freelance journalist.

“It’s been a very long process given the pandemic – it took us about four months to sell our house and then probably just as long if not a bit longer to find a property in Brisbane,” Mrs Frey said. 

By the time they sold in June, things were looking up. A few weeks later they bought in Brisbane and Queensland’s border was reopened to all interstate travellers, bar Victorians.

However, the borders soon closed again to those in NSW and the ACT, affecting access to healthcare and work for hundreds of thousands of people and leading to a political row between NSW and Queensland – with no change to the border policy expected until after the Queensland election in October.

It’s also presented a challenge for those moving interstate.

While people’s belongings can cross state borders when they move home, they cannot follow suit by road.

And while new Queensland residents are allowed into the sunshine state, you can only enter from a hotspot – which includes all of Victoria, NSW and the ACT – if you travel by air, and you must spend 14 days in hotel quarantine.

“It is one scenario that hasn’t been thought through,” Mrs Frey said.

“There’s been a lot of attention on border residents getting emergency health care, and business and farmers being affected, but [there’s also] all the people who are moving to Queensland and were caught off-guard by the border closure. It feels like we’re forgotten and very much like we’re trapped between two states.”

With their settlement for both properties scheduled for September 2, Mr and Mrs Frey had to move out of their Bangalow home and into a friend’s granny flat, and were unable to attend the pre-settlement inspection for their new home.

The bulk of their belongings await them in their new home, thanks to the help of their movers and real estate agent.

“We’re operating on a lot of trust here,” Mrs Frey said. 

Mr Frey sought an exemption from the government about three weeks ago for one of them to attend their pre-settlement property inspection. .

“It’s not just a case of us wanting to skip over the border, this is a legally binding contract,” Mrs Frey said.

They also hoped one or both could relocate with their pets and quarantine at their new home.With Mr Frey’s exemption request dismissed, and Mrs Frey still awaiting a reply to a subsequent request, they’ve begun their slow move to their new home – with Mr Frey in hotel quarantine in Brisbane, and Mrs Fey likely follow suit, unless border restrictions change in the coming weeks.

“The biggest frustration for me is that we are living in a COVID-free regional area,” Mrs Frey said.

“[The border closure restrictions are] very black and white, there is very little grey area. We would have been happy to negotiate some conditions … and be happy to be tracked and traced at home if allowed to self-isolate there, but these options aren’t available to normal people.”