Regional Victorians vent frustration at changing and inconsistent state border closures
State border closures and swiftly changing restrictions are causing headaches for regional Victorians, who say the different states' strict permit systems are confusing and flawed.
Key points:Dianne McKinnon and her husband Brian had to flee Queensland and drive 1,200 kilometres to cross the New South Wales border into Victoria.
"We were in Queensland in a green zone, hadn't been near any red zones because we wanted to keep ourselves safe," Ms McKimmon said.
"When you come back to Victoria on a green permit you have to cross New South Wales in 24 hours."
Mad dash homeMs McKinnon said their alarm went off at four o'clock in the morning on July 19 and the couple got on the road immediately.
"We drove just over sixteen hours, we only had a couple of stops and we didn't really have any contact with people unless we needed petrol.
"It's a big drive towing a big van, a lot of road works and it is quite tiring."
ABC Central Victoria: Tyrone Dalton
)The pair arrived back in Victoria at 9:00pm that night, crossing the border at Koondrook and parked their van to make a pit stop for the night before heading home to Casterton, in the state's south-west, the next morning.
"We've had our COVID-19 tests now and we'll just have to isolate until it's negative," Ms McKinnion said.
"We've got a little hobby farm so we can stay away from people, and we'll probably do that for two weeks to be courteous."
On Tuesday, when Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews extended the state's lockdown and tightened border restrictions with New South Wales, he said residents had been warned for four weeks to return to Victoria.
Shutting up shopSue and Mark Carrison live 3km east of the South Australian border in Nelson and have been frustrated with the SA government's approach to lockdowns and lock-outs for over a year.
The pair decided to permanently shut down their agricultural spraying business due to the ongoing disruptions of COVID-19 restrictions and border closures.
"You know how crops work â€" it's not like a shop where you get steady business every week â€" it's seasonal," Ms Carrison said.
ABC South East SA: Bec Whetham
)"So when the restrictions came in that we could only go 40 km into South Australia it was no longer viable.
"We would have gone backwards about eight grand a month, so we didn't have any choice but to close the business so we actually lost a lot of money over it."
LIVE UPDATES: Read our blog for the latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic.The Carrison's also run a cattle farm 15 kilometres away, across the SA border.
In order to visit their farm to check on livestock, Mr Carrison needs to travel to Mt Gambier to get a COVID-19 test, which is a three-hour round trip.
"When things are not good with COVID-19 we choose not to see people, but we're being forced to go into a city to get tested, when if you left it alone, we actually wouldn't have close contact with anybody," Ms Carrison said.
"It's very counterproductive â€" there is no common sense in the decision being made in border areas."
ABC Rural: Cassandra Steeth
)Last year when South Australia completely blocked Victorians from entering the state, Ms Carrison said her husband needed to 'sneak' across the border illegally to care for their livestock.
"It's just ridiculous to think we had to do this, but we actually snuck our caravan over to the farm, which we were told we could have gotten charged for, and Mark went over and didn't come back until he was allowed back."
"We weren't prepared to not look after the cattle."
"We wish we didn't have the farm in South Australia but we've got cattle, we don't want to sell them but we can't buy another property in Nelson yet."
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