Iron Mark
![Border Force officers and tanks are at the WA/SA border. A man and his family in a car show their passports. One officer says, 'Hmm... South Australia "passports' sir?' Border Force officers and tanks are at the WA/SA border. A man and his family in a car show their passports. One officer says, 'Hmm... South Australia "passports' sir?'](/sites/default/files/2024-11/2020_th06_10_iron-mark_alston.jpg)
Dean Alston
On 2 April Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan declared: ‘These new harder border closures essentially mean we will be turning Western Australia into its own island, within an island — our own country … Western Australia is in a unique position. Our isolation is now our best defence. We need to use it to the best of our advantage.’ Other states were critical of his stance, but — as in Queensland — hard borders proved extremely popular with those inside them.