The Brown family was four days into a Gold Coast holiday when a nightmare announcement hit.
In just a few hours, their holiday destination would become a red zone.
The Gunbower farming family of six snapped into action, starting a desperate ringaround to airlines and car-hire companies.
However, as no-one answered, making it home in time looked more and more like a hopeless cause.
Until Stephen and Brooke Brown's oldest son, Harry, had a bright idea.
An hour later, the family piled into their new, $1,500 impulse-buy — an ancient Mercedes Benz with more than 300,000 kilometres on its odometer.
It was their only hope of getting home.
Desperate dash
The Browns made it to the New South Wales border just before 6pm.
"It actually turned out, retrospectively, that they did extend that [lockdown start] to 1am," Stephen said.
At that stage, New South Wales had not been declared a red zone.
The family stayed in Casino overnight before driving almost 16 hours to their home, arriving at midnight, just in time for Stephen's birthday.
"We were so relieved," Stephen said.
As for the trusty Mercedes — which did not miss a beat the entire drive home — it has already moved on to another home.
"A friend of mine, his mate … has the same Mercedes wagon. We sent him over a video of it and he thought it was cheap at $1,500," Stephen said. "We had it sold within 48 hours."
More notice needed before lockdowns
The Browns were among countless Victorians forced to make last-minute dashes to beat looming lockdowns and border closures.
City of Wangaratta Mayor Dean Rees was holidaying in Queensland with his family when Victoria announced New South Wales would become a red zone at midnight.
Unable to drive home in time, the family was forced to place their car and caravan in storage and fly back to Melbourne.
Cr Rees said such sudden imposition of restrictions, especially when people are far from their home state, was an issue.
He knows, eventually, he'll have to head back up north.
