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Last bus to Byron: service cancelled as towns urge backpackers to stay away amid coronavirus

Greyhound bus services from Sydney to Brisbane have been suspended, as regional leaders across Australia plead with backpackers and city residents to stay away from coastal and country towns to slow the spread of coronavirus.

The Greens state MP for Ballina, Tamara Smith, and the Byron Bay mayor, Simon Richardson, who have been lobbying the New South Wales government to stop long-haul buses ferrying backpackers into regional areas, welcomed news that Wednesday’s Greyhound bus from Sydney was the last into Byron Bay for the foreseeable future. It arrived just after midday with more backpackers on board.

“I was prepared to go in hard,” Richardson said. He had spoken to Byron’s police about meeting the buses and stopping backpackers breaching the Covid-19 movement restrictions. Under the latest measures, travelling for a holiday is an offence in New South Wales and Victoria, but it is not clear how the restrictions apply to backpackers who have no fixed address.

Six passengers got off Wednesday’s bus, including 18-year-old Finnish backpackers Lles Shign and Lynn Maendartsma, who in the past fortnight since leaving Sydney have visited Newcastle, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour.

“We are not frightened,” Maendartsma said. “Our greatest fear is getting stuck in one place, giving all our money out and doing nothing.”

The pair, who recently finished high school in Finland, are staying in a backpacker hostel and plan to visit Byron’s beaches.

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“We are just going to relax in Byron and chill a little bit,” Shign said. “We wanted to go to Brisbane but that’s not an option any more.” On Wednesday the Queensland government announced that only people with permits for essential travel would be allowed to cross the state border from Friday.

The two Finnish travellers hope to spend at least another month in Australia and are planning “day to day”.

Boarding the bus, which was travelling on to Brisbane, was English backpacker Danny Wright. He spent the night in a Byron hostel after leaving Sydney on Tuesday morning. In the past three weeks he has been to Tasmania and Melbourne and is on his way to Airlie Beach in north Queensland, where he will live with friends who own a house. He plans to bunker down there for the corona crisis and is optimistic of finding work.

“It’s tough for backpackers, hostels are closing, but the ones I’ve been staying in are doing everything they can, making sure there’s that 1.5 metres and only 50% capacity in a room. We have no other options.”

Wright said he did not want to return to the UK because he would need to stay with elderly family members, and feared making them sick.

“From all the news I’ve been watching, Australia seems to be one of the safest places in the world.”

German backpacker Julian Luss, 18, is living in a Byron hostel with about 30 other people – two to three people per dorm room. He wants to go home but can’t get a flight until 10 April.

“We’re staying calm and enjoying the rest of our time in Australia,” he said. “There isn’t as much partying as there used to be. Some people are still staying out and having a few drinks with their friends, but with social distancing.”

Smith wants all holidaymakers to stay away from regional areas.

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“Our hospital system in terms of numbers of intensive care beds is minimal, meagre, so in a pandemic will be stressed for our communities,” she said. “We can’t look after visitors.”

She has called on online holiday booking websites such as Airbnb and Stayz to stop marketing regional properties as ideal places for self-isolation.

“People think that if they are going to be in lockdown, they should be in a beautiful area, and that is understandable, but we do not have the capacity to support them. It’s not fair on regional communities.”

Richardson said he was in talks with Byron celebrities to create a social media campaign to persuade visitors to stay away from regional areas. Chris Hemsworth, Bernard Fanning and Tex Perkins led Byron Bay’s fundraiser after northern NSW was hit by bushfires.

In the past week the Rural Doctors Association of Australia has called on grey nomads to stop visiting outback towns.

In Queensland, caravan vendors told Guardian Australia queries for vans were strong, as city residents head for more remote areas and what they perceive as safety from coronavirus. The federal Nationals MP David Littleproud has described touring caravans as potential “cruise ships of the outback”.