A popular holiday town is concerned the decision to close South Australia's borders will lead to an influx of travellers, some of which older travellers who live on the road.
The District Council of Robe met on Sunday, before the state's decision to close borders and enforce a two-week self-isolation period for anyone entering or re-entering South Australia from Tuesday afternoon.
The town's Mayor, Alison Nunan, said an influx at this time was something they were likely not prepared to deal with.
Robe — a town of 1,000 residents — has one doctor, one clinic, and one chemist. The ambulance is run on skeleton staff and the resident doctor has had trouble accessing personal protection equipment.
While no legal barriers are in place to stop visitors entering the township yet, the council is one of the first in the state to strongly encourage people not to visit.
Travellers making a beeline for Robe to self-isolate
Ms Nunan said she observed a number of visitors on the weekend who were there to distance themselves.
"It was very clear that people had made a beeline for Robe, and I can't blame them for that. If I was going to self-isolate I'd like to self-isolate at Robe," she said.
"It was very evident that people were not observing social distancing."
While a popular destination for travellers, including grey nomads without a permanent base, the Mayor urged them to stay elsewhere given the current climate.
"The impact on us [if someone does have coronavirus] is going to be far greater than if they turn up to a place like Mount Gambier, which has a large hospital and can deal with these problems in comparison to us," Ms Nunan said.
Concerning for the high number of older locals
Ms Nunan was especially concerned for the town's older residents.
"Somebody [visiting] will bring that virus with them. It won't be intentional, but chances are it will happen," she said.
She said a positive case in the community would put a serious strain on Robe's already limited health services.
"Where that may take us may cause us no end of personal grief," Ms Nunan.
"We have a significant number of older people in our community and we just feel as though the economic pain that we're going to experience will be short-lived [in comparison to health threats]."
Economically, April is one of Robe's biggest times of the year and one they rely on financially between Easter and the school holidays.
Holiday park happy to host self-isolators
Meanwhile the owner of the Robe Holiday Park, Keryn Moore, said she was happy to offer nomads a place to self-isolate on their 30 acres of land.
"If they're fully self-contained and they're willing to keep to themselves we can accommodate that," Ms Moore said.
"They should feel safe to come into a town to self-isolate."
While she said she fully understood where council was coming from, Ms Moore said she was also OK with the visitors that were at the holiday park to "sit it out" for a couple of weeks.
The Mayor said it was crucial that any visitors still opting to self-isolate in Robe should have local support to protect others in the community.
"If they're not supported by people who can maybe do some grocery shopping for them, they will have to go out into the community to get supplies," she said.
The District Council of Robe will meet again Tuesday night to reassess the situation.
