Too many roads cross the southern border of the state of Queensland for police to patrol them all. Instead, the authorities have been setting up waist-high plastic barricades to block small streets that lead to neighbouring New South Wales near the sprawling city of Gold Coast. The intention is to prevent people entering Queensland from avoiding police checkpoints. The state, which has only a few active cases of covid-19, is closing itself off to the 15m residents of Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, in an effort to prevent more from being imported.
