Rod Kiernan has spent his entire working life serving the Queensland and Australian governments.
After 21 years in the Army and another 21 years in the Queensland Police Force, Mr Kiernan retired last year and went travelling around Australia with his wife Louise.
But now the Noosa resident is locked out of his state.
"It's totally irresponsible. We are treated like criminals," he said.
"To not allow Queensland people to cross the border to go home, to their own homes to see loved ones, is a disgrace."
He said he and Louise had been staying in the "border bubble" for the past six weeks trying to get home.
They applied for an exemption to enter Queensland four weeks ago but are yet to receive a response.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Queensland Health said it acknowledged border closures were inconvenient and could cause disruption to people's lives and livelihoods.
"But the border zone continues to be a transmission risk to Queensland, so we need to balance these factors against the health risk to our whole state," the spokesperson said.
"The aim of the strict border is to limit the number of people entering Queensland who could potentially import COVID-19 into our state, which we know could be catastrophic leading to more lockdowns and even tighter control measures."
Mr Kiernan said he and his wife had navigated the "logistical nightmare" that was organising their caravan, car and dog to be transported across the border while they travelled to Sydney so they could fly to Queensland today and begin their two weeks of hotel quarantine.
But on Wednesday, those plans were dashed when Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced Queensland was putting a pause on interstate hotspot arrivals into hotel quarantine for two weeks.
He said it was heartbreaking not being able to tell his grandchildren when he could see them again.
"We FaceTimed them on Saturday and said we would be home in two weeks … but we had to FaceTime them last night and say no."
Ms Palaszczuk also announced people travelling to Queensland would need to reapply for a border pass and book their own hotel quarantine before arriving.
Mr Kiernan said he rang Queensland Health for clarification on Wednesday but the people he spoke to "had no idea" how the system was going to work.
He said he called a number of hotels on the Gold Coast in an attempt to book his own quarantine but that they were equally baffled by the new procedures.
"It was our choice to travel but we're Queensland residents. We've got a home, we pay rates and we are stuck here [in NSW]."
