Travel into Cape York has now been restricted by the Queensland Government effectively stopping any non-essential travel into the Cape.
The Cook Shire Council has closed off non-essential travel into the Cape York Peninsula.
The statement from the Cook Shire Council said, “Council’s Mayor and CEO have been advised this morning that from 5pm today (Sunday 22 March 2020) the State Government is implementing restricted access to the Cape.
“Police will be stationed at various access points to the Shire, in particular on the Mulligan Highway potentially near Mt Carbine or Lakeland to advise on travel restrictions on all non-essential travel to Cape York and Torres Strait. There are currently no restrictions on travel between any communities within Wujal Wujal, Hope Vale and Cook shires,” it said.
“At this stage Council has no further information, but will continue to be in communication with the State Government agencies and other Councils throughout today and the next few days to develop appropriate procedures.
The implementation is under the control of the State Government and key messaging will be coming from the State.”
The Cook Shire covers an area from Bloomfield on the east coast across to Lakelands and to Weipa in the west and north to the Northern Peninsula Area. This effectively closes off the Mulligan Highway, with the Queensland Government to station police officers at either Lakeland or Mount Carbine to advise travellers of the restrictions on non-essential travel. This comes after the Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council closed off travel north of the Jardine River last week.
As you can imagine, this situation is fluid and changing with health-related information being received by the Queensland Government. We will continue to keep you updated as more information comes to hand. No timeframe has been put on travel to Cape York being restricted, however, after the press conference today, led by Scott Morrison, he has stated that “…non-essential travel should be avoided and particularly when we’re talking about interstate travel and longer distances, the sort of travel that would not be normally part of your normal life”.
