It was the sucker punch to end a sucker of year. Victorians were told to get back over the border in less time than it takes to organise Christmas dinner or face two more weeks in quarantine.
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Any wonder the roads were choked, the trail of brake lights longer than the queue for the loo at a concert and frustration levels were going through the roof.
Victorians mobilised in significant numbers late yesterday after border closure plans were revealed. They did their best to hot-foot it home before the 11:59pm cut-off - some reportedly turning around from the holiday spots barely hours after they'd arrived.
Those scenes may well be repeated tonight as Victoria and South Australia slam shut their borders to NSW at midnight. Oh yes, and Western Australia will extend its hard border with NSW to Victoria, too.
Victoria's glimpse into NSW's backyard lasted just over a month and, according to one civic leader, it may be the last look over the fence before summer ends.
"People on these roadblocks they talk, what can I say. They've been told that this is how long you'll be there, this is what to expect and so on and so forth," Albury mayor Kevin Mack told The Border Mail.
"Two months (of closure) is about where I see it being right now because of the changes that are happening, but who knows."
Well, you'd like to hope someone knows - or maybe there's a plan drifting about on an email chain somewhere ... or maybe even a health-based, science-driven strategy. Who knows?
In Victoria there were eight new cases reported overnight and today. Two of those people stopped off at venues on the NSW South Coast so the usual contact tracing and testing is now in full swing.
There were just three new cases found in NSW in the 24 hours, all of them in Western Sydney, detected amid more than 32,000 tests. And health investigations had revealed the "Croydon cluster" and Wollongong's two cases had now been linked to the Avalon cluster from a genetic perspective.
If you're stuck in a car trying to beat a border lockdown why not discuss the merits of the Australia's newly-tweaked national anthem?
"It is time to ensure this great unity is reflected more fully in our national anthem," PM Scott Morrison said.
Changing the second line from "for we are young and free" to "for we are one and free" is how the PM is doing that. But not everyone has agreed that's the best way forward.
"It's just ridiculous that they think this makes it okay. Changing one word to think that will make us all feel together is tokenism," Six Rivers Aboriginal Corporation chairman Dave Gough said.
The gang at The Chaser was a little more blunt - as you might expect. If you're not familiar with the group's work, be warned of some "graphic messaging" in there.
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