Regional travel bans split family members

Narrogin residents are grappling with unprecedented travel restrictions which have spilt families in half and left them wondering when they will be able to see loved ones again. Last week, Police Commissioner Chris Dawson signed off on a document which laid out the details of the restrictions under the Emergency Management Act. Travel has been banned between WA’s nine regions including the combined Perth-Peel region, the Wheatbelt, the Great Southern, the South West, the Goldfields-Esperance, the Mid West, the Gascoyne, the Kimberley and the Pilbara. Exemptions include people travelling to work, attending medical appointments, transporting freight, returning to a place of residence, attending school or an educational institution where necessary, caring for family members, and some compassionate grounds. Narrogin resident and first-time mother Lauren Screech has struggled with the ban that has stopped her family in Perth from seeing her three-week-old baby Amelia. “I only moved to Narrogin in December last year so all my family’s in Perth,” Ms Screech said. “It’s just my partner’s family here and so we can’t visit them and they can’t visit us. “It’s been hard emotionally — the fact my family won’t be around to see Amelia grow up for now and we don't know how long the ban is. “It’s not the first couple of months of my baby’s life that I imagined, but I would rather do this for her to have a better future.” Ms Screech said she realised the importance of the restrictions. “I understand this ban is for everyone’s safety, but it still sucks,” she said. Ms Screech and her partner are keeping in touch with her family via video calls and photo updates. Across town, Natalie Malumbres is also dealing with the uncertainty of not knowing when she will see her family in Perth again. “I’ve got two children, one living in Bakers Hill and one in Perth. I’ve got grandchildren, nieces who are only babies, and I also won’t get to see my mum and siblings, so it is a struggle,” Ms Malumbres said. “My partner has children in Tom Price so he won’t be seeing them this school holidays, and that’s affected him quite a bit.” Ms Malumbres said the travel ban would have an impact on almost everyone. “There is a greater good as to the reasons why it’s in place and if it’s six months before we get to see our family, so be it,” she said. “It’s six months, but at least on the other side we will still see them.” The Narrogin resident of two years said she had never expect something like this in her lifetime. “I had plans to go away for Easter ... it would have been my first holiday in 27 years,” she said. “Most of my life I’ve being a single mum and it’s all been about working and bringing in income for my family, but this year we would have had enough money to go on holiday and take the kids out, but now all of a sudden we’re stuck. “As much as we are all finding it difficult and struggling, we need to do this for our community because it’s not only ourselves suffering, it’s the community too.”