BORDER COLLAPSE MAN RON FENWICK NOW OK AND BACK ON MACLEAY ISLAND
Relatively new Macleay Island resident Ron Fenwick was the centre of Australia’s attention a few week ago when he headlined news around the country because of an ‘incident’ at the Queensland border.
Never was the crisis at the border so confusing and contradictory when Ron tried to cross the Queensland border on the 13th of September.
Ron and his wife Christine had been through a difficult few months.
They had purchased a new home on Macleay Island in March of this year and Christine had been setting up the home.
Ron was forced to stay in NSW at Lake Macquarie because of a health condition and he was scheduled for a regulation heart procedure at a Newcastle hospital.
The border situation was so contradictory at the time, that Ron had been told by Queensland Health that he could only re-enter his new home state by plane before going into hotel quarantine.
However, because of his heart condition, his doctors would not allow him to fly.
So Ron had to confront the border crisis at Tweed Heads.
By the time he got there, he was told his ‘paperwork’ was not correct and was kept at the border for several days, still trying to get to ‘home’ on Macleay Island.
On the 13th of September he again approached the border and, whilst there, was approached by a reporter from the Channel 7 Sunrise show, Bianca Stone.
Just minutes after sitting down with reporter Bianca Stone for a heart-wrenching interview, Ron Fenwick “became unsteady on his feet” and fell to the ground in and out of consciousness and in pain”, the reporter said.
She continued:“What happened here yesterday was traumatic to witness,” Stone said after sharing the story on the Channel Seven breakfast show.
She was also joined by a reporter from Nine and the dramatic footage shows the reporters sitting on the grass supporting Ron while waiting for paramedics to arrive and transport him to hospital.
Stone explained that the man was under incredible stress as he was stuck in a motel on the border with no likelihood of a resolution.
Reporter Stone said, too: “There’s no doubt the exemptions team is working really hard on this guys, but there needs to be more done, these are human lives and it’s not just a simple tick and flick.”
As it turned out, it was far from the case.
Ron received great care and attention from the nearby John Flynn Hospital where he was rushed to after he collapsed.
During what was to be a 14 day period, literally ‘nothing was done’ by Queensland Health to provide an exemption.
Ron said he had been tested for Covid-19 on ‘multiple occasions’ in NSW and whilst at the John Flynn Hospital, with no positive outcomes.
In the end he stayed at the hospital for the ‘required 14 days’ and was then allowed to return to his new home on Macleay Island, with no sign of any ‘exemption paperwwork’
He says the contradictory position of Queensland Health is something he will never agree with.
“If you are a Queensland resident and you don’t have the virus and you need to return home, why could not people quarantine in their own homes.
“It was harmful, contradictory, ridiculous and shaming for many.
“And it was not just for me, but countless of others as well,” he said.
Since the incident, Ron and Christine are now firmly settled in their Macleay Island home and are enjoying a peaceful ‘island life’.
Ron and Christine are now looking happier and Ron is definitely healthy and in great spirits.
He is now about to establish a new business here involving his profession of holistic medicine, homeopathy, iridology and scienology.
It is called The Eyes Never Lie!
• Ron at the border being comforted by the journalists