WA will be locking down its borders from tonight, so what does that mean for you?

West Australians have long joked about succession – some not so jokingly. The argument being, we’re so far removed from everyone in distance and sometimes outlook that we should break off from the rest.

Well, tonight that prospect is becoming a reality. The toughest restrictions WA or country has ever seen will be applied to anyone entering the State – even West Australians.

What a “hard border closure” means

You may be thinking that WA enforced border restrictions about a week back. You’d be half right. People from over east were discouraged from travelling to WA and would need to undergo a strict-two week quarantine if they did.

But last week, the Premier announced a “hard border closure”, that is, totally preventing anyone from outside of WA coming in without a good reason.

While initially flagging that the circumstance of West Australians wanting to come back into their home State was “complex”, Mark McGowan announced the harsh rules would apply to everyone.

“There will be rules and if you are not within the rules you can’t come,” he said.

“This will apply to Eastern Staters who we don’t want at all and to West Australians who want to come home.”

How it will work

WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson revealed domestic air travel would be the main target, with the announcement meaning next to no airlines would be flying into WA from other States anyway.

Police will also man the borders on the ground with mobile checkpoints on the main roads.

The enforcement of such strict conditions has already been taking place for the last few days, as intrastate restrictions took hold and numerous West Australians were stopped on major highways and roads into regional areas, asked where they intended to travel and why.

When doe it starts

The closure will officially begin at 11.59pm tonight, Sunday April 5.

How long will it last

Mr McGowan has given an estimate of “about a month or so” for this hard border closure, stressing it was not a measure he especially wanted to take but deemed it necessary to save lives.

Why WA is doing it

It’s the phrase the rest of Australia and the world have teased Perth with for decades  – the most isolated city in the world.

In a lot of cases, it can be a disadvantage, like the difficulty of travel, the prices of certain products and services (including said travel) and being generally left out of a lot of things important to the “nation” i.e. Sydney and Melbourne.

But, in the context of coronavirus, Mr McGowan has identified WA’s isolation as a distinct advantage, and one he decided to make use of.

“We have an advantage here in Western Australia, it is our isolation from the rest of Australia, and it would be irresponsible of me as Premier not to use our best advantage in this fight,” he said.

WA currently has just 436 coronavirus cases, not as good as Tasmania (82) or the ACT (91), but certainly better than NSW (2,493) or Victoria (1,115).

The hope is that by enforcing the temporary measure, WA will weather the worst of the storm as it inevitably rages around the rest of the country.

Who can and can’t get in

It really was a shock when Mr McGowan said West Australians without a good reason would be restricted just like people from other States from entering.

But the line in the sand means the tightest border control the State can enforce.

So who actually can enter WA? Really just two groups of people.

One, those who must travel into the State as part of “essential services”, this refers, particularly to freight.

Two, compassionate grounds. Obviously, this will be a grey area and will be managed on a case-by-case basis. Typically though, circumstances like needing to see or care for a sick or dying relative would be one example of where compassion could be exercised by the Government for someone to be let into WA.

For those that need to enter WA will need to fill out a WA Government Border Arrivals Form via wa.gov.au.

Stay up to date with Mark McGowan on Twitter.

More Perth coronavirus updates on SoPerth.com.au:

• 14 New Cases of COVID-19 Confirmed Overnight
• CSIRO Reaches Milestone & Officially Started Testing Potential COVID-19 Vaccines
• Wider Community Coronavirus Testing In Perth

Watch: Premier Mark McGowan is giving an update on the COVID-19 situation in Western Australia