Episode V. The Empire Strikes Back …

It didn’t happen in a galaxy far, far away but in outback New South Wales, somewhere between Bingara and Narrabri. On reflection, it may as well have been in a distant galaxy because there was no mobile coverage. Cath was testing the cornering ability of my VW on a twisty mountain pass when my phone pinged as we hit a hint of cellular coverage. It was a message from the G2GPass desk in Tasmania. I opened the app and watched in dismay as the previously granted permission to travel pass shredded in front of my eyes like a multi-million dollar piece of Banksy’s art. It seems that the changed circumstances in Queensland meant we now had to submit a new application to provide further evidence of not being from newly designated high-risk locations in Queensland.

 

This we did. The wheels of bureaucracy being what they are, however, our new applications have been rejected - not on grounds of the new information we were asked to provide, but on grounds that we thought had already been established when the first permission was granted …

 

We are now in intergalactic limbo in Yerong Creek, NSW, submitting yet another application …