quarantine questioned for Qld maritime crew

Mr Thomas’s crew then sailed the trawler home in December, spending about 18 days at sea without stopping or being in contact with anyone else.

Mr Thomas said he contacted the Australian Border Force in Townsville for advice and said he was told it was unlikely the crew would need to quarantine again after their 18-day trip.

But when the trawler arrived at Cairns, the four-person crew were told they needed to go into 14-day mandatory quarantine, which they completed several days ago.

“That’s 32 days of isolation they’ve just done, it’s absolutely ridiculous,” Mr Thomas said.

Mr Thomas said he tried to speak to the health authorities in Queensland about the situation but had no success.

“We did put in some applications for home quarantine and…