Wilcannia residents fear a second wave of COVID-19 will hit their community as travel restrictions to regional NSW ease on Monday.
The town endured the country's worst per capita outbreak of the Delta strain of the virus, with 20 per cent of the population contracting the disease.
Having recovered from the crisis, Barkindji community leader Monica Kerwin said the state government should do more to keep the town safe from travellers.
“We just got through the worst of the pandemic… it’s very scary,” Ms Kerwin told NITV News.
“My request is to let the locals be free to roam inside (the) community and comply with the laws, but not have travellers come in and out..."
Ms Kerwin said residents have only just started to enjoy each other’s company again.
“A lot of the families are together with one another for the first time in a long time,” she said.
“The fact that a second wave could potentially start killing people here, that’s what I’m fearing.”
Resident Melissa Kennedy is one of the 148 Aboriginal people who tested positive in Wilcannia.
“I had quite a bad experience… I was one of the sicker ones,” Ms Kennedy said.
Ms Kennedy said she got through the worst of it with the support of the community.
She’s now enjoying returning to normalcy and her kids are glad to be back at school.
“My little fella got up without even having a wash, ready to fly on the bus this morning,” Ms Kennedy said.
“He said I don’t need a wash... I’m going. I miss school! I like school.”
Ms Kennedy and her family are fully vaccinated.
“I’d like to see all of Wilcannia get vaccinated just to protect (the community) and not go through that bad pandemic again.”
But most of all, she also hopes the government will stop visitors from bringing Covid-19 into her town.
“We’re on the main highway from Sydney to Darwin… If they would have done that the first time, we wouldn’t have had this situation.”
“We got a lot of children and Elderly here who they should have taken notice and listened to.”
Ms Kerwin expressed frustration that the government had not listened to people on the ground when COVID first hit Wilcannia, hoping that it will be different this time around.
“It made me angry because having the pandemic in our community was avoidable if they just listened to the grassroots people.”
“I don’t feel like anyone heard (us), we just had to comply with what was forced in front of us.”
When NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard visited Wilcannia in September, he admitted the government could have responded to the community’s concerns about the lack of housing before the outbreak.
The remote New South Wales town of Wilcannia is hoping to stay COVID free. Source: NITV News
“What was the point of his visit just to stand up and say that we actually do need housing here, which was a cry in this community years before a pandemic in the country," she said.
“Until we see that actually happening, I don’t believe a single word the man says and nor does the community.”
Ms Kerwin said the town’s standard three-to four-bedroom houses don’t cater for the needs of the local Aboriginal community.
“There aren’t four people in a family,” Ms Kerwin said.
“We care for extended families; that’s the reason we have overcrowding issues, because we look after one another.”
Ms Kerwin said the communities unaddressed needs had been put under a global spotlight which showed the Australian government hadn’t lived up to its pre-pandemic promises of better healthcare, housing and education.
“Something as terrible as a pandemic had to put them on show… because that's what they do. They mistreat us and they have been for years.”
“I hope to see some of the promises the government made brought back in the community and we see housing and better health cater better for the Aboriginal community.”
