AN ALMOND grower in a small Victorian community just east of the Riverland faces the prospect of losing business and some of his workers due to cross-border travel restrictions between Victoria and South Australia.
Tim Preusker, who manages a 500ha almond orchard in Lindsay Point, said the restrictions had made things “very confusing” and had “added a lot of challenges to running a business”.
“It’s been very challenging and it seems to be changing day by day,” he said.
Lindsay Point is a small locality in the north-western corner of Victoria, located about 5km east of the South Australian border and about a 20-minute drive from Murtho.
Mr Preusker said his business employed eight workers who lived in Renmark and Loxton, who each perform similar roles but have different cross-border travel exemptions.
“Some are allowed to have a 50km restriction on their travel in South Australia, and then some of them have to self-isolate when they are home,” he said.
“Those guys are allowed to come to work but when they go home they have to isolate unless it is to do with their work.
“We have the potential to start losing workers if this isn’t sorted out quickly.”
Mr Preusker, who lives on the property at Lindsay Point with his family, said his business previously had an exemption that allowed travel between the two states, but authorities had made travelling “pretty tough” following the tightening of border restrictions on July 9.
“We’re meant to be coming into the Riverland to live our day-to-day life, but then there’s been other restrictions put on to do with sport and things like that as well,” Mr Preusker said.
“We’ve got a couple of lads out here who are pretty involved with the Renmark Hockey Club, but have now been told that they’re not to be involved with any sport.
“It’s interesting because our kids are allowed to go to school with about 300 kids, but aren’t allowed to play sports on the weekends.
“Even from a medical point of view, we’ve had two guys here who both have partners trying to get medical stuff done in Adelaide.
“One of the guys who lives on the property hasn’t been able to travel down there yet to see his wife.
“Another one had his wife’s surgery cancelled because of the whole situation.
“With my family, I’m managing a 500ha almond orchard and my wife is running our business in Renmark 10-12 hours a day, but we can’t even get someone to look after the kids in Renmark.
“We feel like we’ve done nothing wrong but now we are being isolated from South Australia.”
Mr Preusker said the restrictions could potentially affect pollination when it begins in a couple of weeks.
“We’re starting to have contractors refuse to come out here from Renmark because they’re being told that potentially when they go back they will have to self-isolate,” he said.
“We’ve got pollination coming up in the next two to three weeks, and about 80 or 90 per cent of the bees for all the orchards out here come from South Australia.
“If they don’t allow them to come across, drop the bees and go back without having to isolate, then potentially those guys may say they’re not coming over, and obviously that would have a massive impact.”
Mr Preusker said he hoped to see the Victorian and South Australian governments work together to find a solution.
“We’ve only got one main road that comes in from Victoria and we’d be quite happy for that road to be closed and blocked off to prevent anyone trying to come in from that way,” he said.
“I’ve been in contact with (Member for Chaffey) Tim Whetstone’s office a fair bit, and we’ve submitted a pretty lengthy letter on our situation out here from a family point of view.
“We’ve had a bit of correspondence from SAPOL but nothing is really changing and the process of the exemptions hasn’t changed. Hopefully they’re working their way through it.”
Mr Whetstone said cross-border community members and South Australians who cross the border for work are able to travel 50km into SA for essential purposes, and that the State Government was aware of the situation at Lindsay Point.
“The transition committee meet twice a week and both the committee and the Premier are aware of the position of Lindsay Point residents,” he said.
“We need to be mindful of the situation in other states and the growing numbers of cases in Victoria and New South Wales.
“We must continue to be vigilant and monitor the situation as the scenario is changing daily.
“I am focused on keeping the economy moving, however my priority is the health and safety of the Riverland community.”