So, what states can you now holiday in? A Canberran weighs in!
I went to Merimbula (NSW far south coast) for a week the week before last as a really cheap and crap replacement for the China trip I had to cancel in February. We did a pub crawl and commented on all the Victorians in Tathra, Merimbula and Bermagui, and when the positive case from the Tathra pub emerged, we high-fived and commended ourselves on dodging a bullet as we'd been there a week before....
Us Canberrans can now travel to (NZ and the rest of the world is obviously a no-go zone):
1. anywhere in NSW (they can't close their borders with us seeing we're right in the middle of NSW!)
2. QLD - really good news seeing most of my family lives there and I've missed them...
3. that's it, unless I want to quarantine for 14 days to go to SA, NT, and WA. I can't go anywhere else but NSW and QLD are full of things I'd want to see that it doesn't matter all that much...time to hire a motorhome that's pet friendly, load the doggo in and hit the road...
To all our Victorian DUers, I hope you're going okay. Going from things are starting to get back to normal to another lockdown is horrible 
= new reply since forum marked as read
Not even Australian citizens are guaranteed that they'll get a flight back, and hotel quarantine (at least in NSW) is now user-pays, and they're limiting how many people enter the country.
Unless a vaccine appears, I'd be estimating at late 2021-2022 for the international borders to open up again for the rest of the world apart from New Zealand and Pacific Islands, who'll be allowed in long before that. Even if you could get here in September, most state borders are closed*, and the Indian Pacific isn't running. Try and arrange for credits on your trip, because it'll be an amazing trip. I did the Indian Pacific from Perth to Sydney this time last year and it was the best trip ever. Don't expect much sleep when you're in NSW (the rails are rough because of all the freight trains), but I found drinking two glasses of port before bed knocked me out. And on the Nullabor, the tracks are smooth and it's easy to sleep, apart from them waking you up Way Too Early O'Clock to get out and have some sort of outback breakfast at Rawlinna.
* Just popped back to edit this and instead of starting a new thread in GD asking a stupid question, just asking you. Are there any state borders closed in the US? If the NSW-VIC border wasn't closed right now, I'd be sweating it a bit...
Here's some pics of my Sydney-Perth-via-Adelaide-and-back-to-Canberra-via-Sydney trip. I really hope you do get to come over when things have improved and you have a great holiday 
Sorry the pics are so big but I don't know how to make them small...
At a ghost town called Cook in the middle of the Nullabor. I was there in the 80's when it was a town that had a school and shops and a population, but with a poplation of about 4, it's only reason for existing now is to be an emergency base if there was a train disaster:
This is Perth before we got on the train:
And Rottnest Island. It was awesome. If you get a chance to go there, go. Do the trip from Perth and not Fremantle because the river is really pretty on the way out. Quokkas are flea-ridden and nasty animals, though. Don't let them trick you into feeding them..
And this is a random photo from Glenelg in Adelaide after a long day of trying to find my hotel
I heard the EU was opening up to tourists, and Australia is one of the countries, even though we're not reciprocating just yet. It's way too soon to be letting international tourists in, and while I detest ScoMo, at least he's being sensible about that...
When it comes to Australian citizens coming home, I'm so torn on it. I get that the hotel quarantine system can collapse with too much pressure, or go all-out stupid and dangerous like what happened in Melbourne, but being an Australian citizen means that there's the reassurance that we can enter Australia anytime we want or need to. To not have that reassurance is scary. I never realised there were so many expat Aussies overseas until this happened, and because I wasn't paying attention I assumed most came home in the first few weeks after the borders closed. The answer is that the Australian government has to sort out some sort of reliable quarantine that can cope with the influx. There's a finite number of Australians stranded overseas, so it's not like it'd last forever. But.....I do think it gets to a point where some returnees do need to help fund the costs of their quarantine. My sympathy levels are low after watching people staying in really expensive Sydney hotels whinging about the quality of their meals etc, and also the ones who escape and put the entire country at risk by going shopping while they're in quarantine....
Hope you stay safe. Spain's one of my must-see destinations once we can all start travelling again 
The 2nd homes around us are steadily filling up and there is no way I'd consider it safe to even do a supermarket trip. Why people feel the need to go to the beach or a bar in the middle of a global pandemic is lost on me.
Well that is the thing, the reassurance is rapidly diminishing and considering the government has publicly stated they are enacting preventative measures and making costs higher as a further preventative it doesn't feel one with confidence. So much for being a citizen.
They say about 70,000 of the 300,000 odd thousand Aussies living OS have returned. I think those numbers freaked them out until they realised they could make some coin out of it.
I'm guessing most of those who have not come back are like us and realistically can't. If we did we'd lose our jobs and possibly the house, our property and possessions would be in limbo and if we want to take the dog with us you need to start planning that 6 months in advance at a minimum. Basically we have decided to try and sort our affairs out and come back for good, it'll probably take 12 months or more though.
The quarantine thing is weird though, I'm happy for the government to continue funding it it'd be the first time in a long time tax dollars were used for good things. Nobody is really out of pocket because of it specifically. I think it is a ruse to cover up just how shoddily they have implemented it. From what I've read a lot depends on where you end up, one place you have no choice but to eat what they give you and at another you can get coles deliveries and uber eats.
Granted the 2 weeks is necessary though and I think most would be happy to contribute a fair amount but 5 grand for a family of 4 has the potential to be devastating for some.
But thanks, we'll do our best to stay safe considering the circumstances and same to you too. Do come to Spain when the time is right despite wishing to flee it right now it is a nice place to visit.
