Queensland will open its borders to five New South Wales shires from next weekend after recording no new cases on Tuesday.
Residents of Byron Shire, Ballina, Lismore, the Richmond Valley including Casino and Evans Head, Glen Innes and 41 other postcodes will be added to the Queensland-NSW border bubble from 1am on October 1.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says those 125,000 NSW residents will be able to travel freely in Queensland and residents of her state will also be able to travel in far northern NSW.
'These areas have a lot in common with Queensland,' she said on Tuesday morning.
Residents of Byron Shire, Ballina, Lismore, the Richmond Valley including Casino and Evans Head, Glen Innes and 41 other postcodes will be added to the Queensland-NSW border bubble from 1am on October 1
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says those 125,000 NSW residents will be able to travel freely in Queensland and residents of her state will also be able to travel in far northern NSW
NSW shires added to border bubble
Byron
Ballina
Lismore
Richmond Valley
Glenn Innes
'They usually do a lot of their business in Queensland so we believe that this is the right measure to take and we have also been in contact with the NSW authorities to advise them of this today as well.'
Queensland recorded no new COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 9am on Tuesday, with Deputy Premier Steven Miles pointing out that 12 days have passed since there was a case of community transmission.
The state has just 16 active on Tuesday, clustered around Ipswich in the state's southeast.
Aged care residents are in lockdown and there's a 10-person limit on home gatherings in eight local government areas, including Brisbane.
The announcement of border changes come as Queensland prepares to welcome ACT travellers back up north on Friday.
The border will open only to Canberrans who arrive by plane and anyone coming from NSW via the ACT will have to wait 14 days before being allowed to fly.
The announcement comes after weeks of criticism from Ms Palaszczuk's political counterparts and the public over her 'heartless' border closures.
Jayne Brown, 60, spent two weeks confined to a tiny hotel room in Brisbane following her recent return from Sydney, where renowned neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo removed two large tumours on her brain.
The grandmother-of-seven requested an exemption from hotel quarantine to self-isolate at home on the Sunshine Coast, but was rejected twice.
She blasted the premier, who allowed 400 AFL players and officials from coronavirus-riddled Victoria to swan into the state and quarantine in a luxury hotel.
Sarah Caisip, who lives in coronavirus-free Canberra, applied for an exemption last month to visit her sick father Bernard Prendergast in Brisbane - but it took 20 days to get approved and he died of liver cancer two days before her flight.
The young nurse was banned from attending her father's funeral because officials believed she was a COVID-19 risk even though the ACT has had no cases for 60 days.
Ms Caisip was only granted a private viewing of her father's body, surrounded by guards and forbidden from seeing her shattered mother and 11-year-old sister.
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott last week joined Ms Palaszczuk's long list of critics, blasting the premier's stance as 'heartless and mind-boggling'.
'We are now seeing the heartless and mind-boggling bureaucratic bloody-mindedness that goes with these border closures,' Mr Abbott told The Australian.
Queensland recorded no new COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 9am on Tuesday
'That New South Welshmen coming from a state with almost no cases and going into a state with almost no cases should be seen as somehow toxic to Queenslanders is simply crazy.'
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian also made a scathing review of her counterpart.
'Can I be absolutely frank, she has made a decision and isn't willing to talk about that decision and is refusing to budge,' Ms Berejiklian told 2GB radio earlier this month.
'It's not through want of trying. I've tried to establish a positive relationship but it's a bit difficult when decisions are made without them even telling us.
'And can I compare that to Labor's Victorian Dan Andrews and the Prime Minister, the three of us worked together on a very difficult decision on the Victoria-NSW border, and I'd like to see that applied to all borders.'
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg also criticised Ms Palaszczuk's major coup in securing the AFL grand final, accusing her of favouring sporting stars over desperate families needing to cross the border for medical reasons.