Bowen Mountain resident 'stranded' by passenger caps extension

In June, Ms de Koning, who owns and runs Natural Ingredients in Kurmond, applied for an exemption on the overseas travel ban to be able to visit her elderly parents in The Netherlands - in particular her terminally-ill mother.

She was granted approval on July 29, leaving Australia for Amsterdam on August 10 with a return ticket to Australia leaving on August 31 and arriving in Sydney on September 1 - to be followed by 14 days hotel quarantine at her own expense.

However, on August 20, National Cabinet decided to extend their inbound passenger cap from the original end date of August 31 to October 24, which resulted in the airline cancelling Ms de Koning's ticket and reissuing it for October 24 - almost two months later than she had initially planned to return home.

Ms de Koning said the extension of the inbound travel ban - which was put in place to relieve pressure on the hotel quarantine system - has left her and approximately 23,000 other Australian citizens and permanent residents who are stuck overseas left feeling "stranded" by the government.

"I understand and agree to the strict quarantine rules and also understand and agree I have to pay for it myself. But to be allowed/approved to leave the country and then not being able to return home ... " Ms de Koning told the Gazette via email from The Netherlands.

"Of course I'm trying to get on a flight home as soon as I can; have looked into other cities to fly into; availability of business class and first class etc, but so far, no luck."

Ms de Koning said the situation had caused the few airlines still flying to Australia to be facing "a logistical and commercial nightmare and bumping people off flights left, right and centre".

She said the extension of the cap measures came "suddenly" and "without warning", and she is now desperate to get back home to Bowen Mountain to be with her husband and two daughters, and get back to running her business, which employs people from five Hawkesbury families.

Ms de Koning is a Group Leader at 1st Glossodia Scout Group, leading 60 youth members aged 5 to 18.

Her husband, Piet Roebers, is active with the Grose Vale and Kurrajong Rural Fire Brigades and, as the fire season approaches, Ms de Koning hopes she will be allowed to return home to look after her family when her husband is called-out to perform important brigade work.

Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman said she was pleased to see National Cabinet on Friday recognise that more people needed to be allowed back into the country, and she hoped we would start to see "residents from Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains being included in those numbers."

"It's appalling that people haven't even been given timeframes to return, with their lives and that of their families in limbo," Ms Templeman said.

"I have been disappointed to hear that when we are all meant to be in this together, airlines have arbitrarily bumped ticket holders with no reasonable explanation.

"Both citizens and long-term Australian residents need to see that just because they've left Australia, usually for urgent family health issues, that they will not be barred from returning home in a reasonably timely way."

There is a cap of 350 passenger arrivals per day into Sydney.

The government has announced one-off loans to assist with living expenses for people stuck overseas.