For some, the pandemic border closures still feel like yesterday, while for others they are a distant memory that is better left forgotten.
But for the Tweed Heads-Coolangatta community, one year on, there has been a lingering effect of the border barricades that divided Queensland and New South Wales and the intertwined towns.
"There's a real sense of they've got a grudge," local cafe owner Bridget Clarke said.
"Only a few border communities felt the impact.
"People in NSW go, 'Oh, I wasn't able to go to my holidays in Surfers Paradise'. Big shit — we couldn't get to work, we couldn't get to the vet, kids weren't allowed to go school."
While the confusion of COVID restrictions has passed, 2023 brings a mix of ongoing hardship and renewed opportunity.
'It doesn't feel like 12 months ago'
Queensland border barricades were in place for 471 days from when restrictions were enforced in March 2020, with 3.7 million vehicles checked.
At their tightest, the restrictions prohibited essential workers like nurses and teachers from entering Queensland and caused hours-long traffic delays.
The Tweed Heads-Coolangatta border became the site for several major protests that ranged from objecting to the border restrictions themselves to vaccine mandates.
Bridget Clarke's cafe sits about 100 metres from the Griffith Street border checkpoint in Coolangatta that was eventually removed in January 2022.
"It doesn't feel like 12 months ago. It's just flown," she said.
"I was expecting pretty much dancing in the street. It just wasn't like what I was thinking it was going to be."
Ms Clarke said some residents left the area to avoid being affected by further border closures, if they were to eventuate.
"People were scared that before they knew it this could happen again — the [COVID case] numbers would spike and we're back," she said.
"People have got on and moved on and now they're doing totally different jobs in different areas."
While Ms Clarke's cafe has performed about 20 per cent better so far these summer holidays, she said labour market shortages had been hampering her business's recovery.
"That's something we just never thought we would have to think about … that post-COVID we wouldn't have hospitality staff," she said.
But the border has 'advantage'
Reid Wang took over a cafe in Coolangatta after the previous owner sold three months ago.
She said despite recent years, its close proximity to the border was an attractive feature.
"Near the border is actually really good, you know different states have different school holidays time," Ms Reid said.
"It's an advantage for us to enjoy the busy time with Queensland then New South Wales as well.
"People just lining up on the street to get coffee … you can hear a lot of laughing."
According to Destination Gold Coast, the city had an 83.5 per cent occupancy rate between Boxing Day and New Years, slightly below 84.8 per cent in 2019.
"International [tourism] is a slow burn coming back," head of strategy Rachel Hancock said.
"But we had record overnight expenditure which exceeded pre-COVID levels, $4.2 billion, that was about nine per cent up on 2019."
Ms Hancock said the businesses which persisted through the pandemic "had to think on their feet very quickly".
"It's made the local tourism industry think a little bit harder about marketing their products, offering new experiences," she said.
"The ones that have really succeeded are the ones that have taken risks."
'Back on their feet'
Tweed Shire Councillor and president of the Tweed Chamber of Commerce Warren Polglase said the border restrictions were something people would never get used to.
"Many times we had families on both sides on the border, and businesses on both sides of the border," he said.
"The inconvenience of going to the border and handing over documents to be signed or materials to be transferred to another job was just a drone and a demand, [creating] frustration and anger.
"All of a sudden we had freedom on both sides of the border, people could come and go, shop keepers could get back on their feet."
He said businesses could expect a "dramatic" slowdown at the end January but that these summer holidays had been the best in three years.
"There are still a few empty shops in the area but they're slowly being taken up," he said.
"Overall the spending for local businesses was very strong."
