"When summer comes my dad and I have a habit of, once they finish work for the day, we'll sit out on the back patio and have a couple of beers together and that'll be our time together to just talk."
A cold beer on the back verandah with her dad was top priority for Lisha Collis on the eve of Western Australia opening its borders to ACT residents this weekend.
That and her grandma's cooking.
Ms Collis will touch down in Perth on Sunday for the first time since last Christmas. She is among the Canberrans the western state's hard coronavirus lockdown has prevented from seeing loved ones.
WA significantly relaxed its border restrictions at midnight on Friday, allowing residents of most other states and territories to enter without self-quarantining.
The first flight arrived at Canberra Airport at 6.25pm on Saturday evening, taking the first batch of WA expats home an hour later.
Using credit from trips cancelled due to COVID-19 to cover the cost, Ms Collis said she'd booked in quick because the situation was too tenuous to trust borders would still be open for the holidays.
"I've been talking to a lot of my Western Australian friends who live in Canberra and we've been joking about how we might need passports to go visit our family next year," she said.
While the state opened up to most this weekend, NSW residents and Victorians are still banned from entering, despite Victoria's 15-day streak of no recorded cases.
Following a national cabinet meeting on Friday, Australians will be able to travel between all states and territories by Christmas, except WA.
The cautious approach started in March, when the WA government introduced a policy which required all visitors to isolate for 14 days after crossing the border.
Premier Mark McGowan introduced even tougher restrictions in early April when he announced the state would become "an island within an island" effectively shutting out anyone without a special exemption.
Ms Collins said as one of the many shut out it had been difficult not to see the decision as politically geared towards winning favour with WA residents.
"I think the hard border has been a good example of the Western Australia mentality of 'WA versus the rest of the country'," she said.
With her mum's birthday in December, Ms Collis had paid more than $800 for a one-way ticket to spend Christmas with her family should COVID-19 cases continue to decline. She said the tickets would've been unattainable if she'd been purchasing them for children or a partner.
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Lewis Richards was on the first flight out of Canberra at 7.15pm on Saturday evening.
He paid around $950 for the return journey to spend a week with family in Perth he hadn't seen for a year.
"I understand why they closed the borders, but it has been hard as I've missed some important moments such as the birth of my brother's first child - especially as we haven't had a community transmission case in a long time," he said.
"It was actually my birthday on Saturday so the borders opening to us has been a great birthday present for me."
About 2000 people were expected to arrive at Perth Airport this weekend, including passengers from international flights, prompting WA Health Minister Roger Cook to warn against complacency.
Mr Richards said friends had told him WA residents acted as if COVID-19 was no longer an issue and were less serious with social distancing. "I'm a little apprehensive about that," he said.
"But with the minimal community transmission in WA, I'm not too worried."
