The last three remote Aboriginal communities in South Australia to remain in coronavirus lockdown have reopened to the outside world.
Gerard in the Riverland, Yalata on the state's far-west coast and the APY Lands in the far north can now have visitors come and go without entering a 14-day quarantine.
All three had been locked down since March under the federal Biosecurity Act, which blocked entry to the communities unless approved by police.
People will still need a permit to enter the APY Lands and provide declarations regarding their health, travel history and contact with people who have travelled.
APY Lands general manager Richard King said while it was a relief to reopen, locals were not dropping their guard.
"I think South Australia in general has done a fantastic job, everyone's rallied," he said.
"While we're opening up, we're still aware that COVID-19 is there and we're ready to close down if we need to.
"As long as South Australia remains COVID-19 free, then we'll remain open, but as soon as we start getting active community transfer, in particular Adelaide, then we'll go to restrictive measures."
Mr King said some locals had begun leaving the Lands because they could now return without quarantining.
"We've had quite a few people head down south; we've also had cash restrictions on the Lands, so people have saved some money up and they want to go down and do their winter shopping," he said.
"We've had some service providers do the same, take this time to have a breath and recharge themselves in case we have to lock down again."
Shops remain stocked
Dennis Bate, the chief executive for Mai Wiru Regional Stores Council, which has stores in the APY Lands, said locals had cooperated with the restrictions.
"The customers have all been great and understood what's going on and worked very well with the store managers out in the Lands," he said.
"We were able to keep supply chains to a level that was very acceptable and compared very well with other remote locations.
"Fresh fruit and vegies were never in question, we always had the truck coming through every week, straight from the Adelaide market to the APY Lands.
"The only issue we had was like everyone else — flour and rice were the main two — but we maintained our toilet paper."
