Gunbower family makes mad dash from Queensland to beat border closure

And a mad dash to cross the NSW border from Queensland before lockdown.

It sounds like a script from the mega-successful National Lampoon's Vacation movie franchise, not a relaxing family holiday.

But for Gunbower dairy farmers Brooke and Stephen Brown and their children Harry, Joe, Ava and Eliza, their week-long family trip to the Gold Coast was thrown into disarray when a COVID-19 outbreak hit the state on Tuesday, June 29.

The family members were all enjoying the pool, spa and sauna facilities of their accommodation on the Tuesday morning, oblivious to the impending disaster, when they were approached and told the Gold Coast had been declared a ‘red zone’ and was going into lockdown at 6 pm that afternoon.

“That was when all hell broke loose and chaos erupted,” Brooke said.

Brooke rushed up to their room to call the airline to assess their flight options because they weren’t due to fly home until Friday.

While she was on hold, Harry just happened to mention there was a seven-seat, 1997 Mercedes Benz station wagon with 300,000 km on the clock for sale, only half-an-hour away from where they were staying.

As the time Brooke spent on hold to the airline dragged on and on (two hours and still no answer), and their efforts to contact any type of car hire company became more and more futile, Stephen turned to Harry and said "give us a look at that car, it's only $1500".

By this time it was close to 2.50 pm and their plan to leave the state was put in motion.

“We were a bit like a deer in the headlights but we had to make a decision,” Brooke said.

“It would have been an absolute nightmare if we got stuck in Queensland and couldn’t make it home because we only had a milker booked until Sunday.”

The kids began madly charging their phones because they knew there wouldn’t be any ports in a 1997 car and Brooke rushed down to reception to see if they could get any of their money back on their accommodation.

They told her if they were out by 3 pm they would even refund Tuesday night's accommodation.

Consequently their stuff was hurled into any available bag while Stephen and Harry called an Uber and set off to purchase their 1997 chariot to take them home.

“The Uber driver said it was a pretty rough area and she never normally went out there but she was a great sport and waited while Stephen and Harry got the rundown on the car and then safely followed her back to the apartment,” Brooke said.

Obviously there was no time for a roadworthy check, but Brooke knew a 28-day timeframe applied, so with three kids sandwiched in the back and one in the dickie seat in the boot, surrounded by bags and luggage, the family left the hotel at 5.50 pm, following the trusty Uber driver across the border.

“Thankfully they extended the timeframe to 1 am Wednesday morning and we were well and truly out of Queensland by then,” she said.

The Mercedes didn’t skip a beat and delivered them back home to the farm by 11 pm Wednesday night.

“We were told when we bought it, it had a transmission issue and it did stall a couple of times, but we just had to put it in park, turn it off and it started again every time,” Brooke said.

“It was bloody squashy but the kids were all really good considering they had never even been on a 20-hour car trip, let alone do it squashed into a 24-year-old car.”

On the Thursday morning the family were all tested for COVID-19 and isolated on the farm until their tests came back negative.

“I said to the kids before we left the worst thing that can happen is we go into lockdown, but I won’t be testing that theory out again in a hurry,” Brooke said.

And in a strange twist of fate, two days after they bought the Merc, they were able to sell it on to someone who was looking for the exact same model.