Australia rejoins the world: Country will FINALLY reopen its borders in November and allow vaccinated citizens to travel abroad and return home

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Australia has announced plans to rejoin the rest of the world by easing its strict Covid border quarantine next month, ending 18 months under some of the toughest restrictions on the planet.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that, from November 1, fully vaccinated Australians from states where more than 80 per cent of people are double-jabbed will be allowed to travel abroad freely - having been banned from leaving without a valid excuse since March 2020. 

Fully jabbed Australians and permanent residents returning from abroad will also be allowed to quarantine for just seven days at home rather than being locked up for 14 days in quarantine hotels at a cost of £1,600 each under current rules.

That means the cap on how many Australians can enter the country each week - currently limited by hotel capacity - will effectively be lifted, allowing some 30,000 people who have been stranded abroad since the pandemic began to go home. 

The rule-change comes just in time for Christmas, meaning thousands of families kept apart by Covid can now reunite in what are sure to be emotional scenes. 

But barrier to travel still remain. Qantas, the country's biggest airline, has said it will only resume international travel on November 14 - two weeks after borders open - and will only be flying to London and Lost Angeles, three times per week. 

The cheapest available return from Sydney to London the week of the 14th is currently more than £1,000, with prices over £2,000 on some days even for a basic 'saver' ticket. Saver tickets for sale in November 2019 cost around £700.

Other airlines have not-yet announced plans for when flights might return. 

The plans have also upset some 1.6million temporary visa holders in Australia - including large numbers of overseas students - who appear to have been left out of the new regime.

'The time has come to give Australians their life back. We're getting ready for that, and Australia will be ready for takeoff, very soon,' Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. The PM announced the nation's border restrictions will be relaxed next month as the country approaches an  80 percent vaccination rate

As things stand, it appears temporary visa holders hoping to be allowed out of the country for the festive season before returning to Australia will still need a valid excuse to go - such as the death of a loved one. 

Steph, originally from the UK and who is currently a graduate researcher in Australia, told MailOnline: 'I thought the announcement would include everyone double-vaxxed and currently living in Australia. It's devastating that this doesn’t seem to be the case. 

'I haven’t seen my family in the UK for two years and I am so upset that I won’t be able to travel back for Christmas to be with them. 

'My life and work is in Australia. I pay taxes, I contribute to the economy, I followed the COVID rules, I got vaccinated and yet it seems I’m not able to benefit from the border reopening. 

'My Australian friends can freely go and see my family in London but I can’t. It doesn’t make any sense.'

The rules will also upset un-jabbed Australians, who will be allowed to go abroad freely but must still undergo 14-day hotel quarantine upon return.  

Those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons and children aged under 12 will be exempt from the system. 

And those living in states which are lagging behind in the national vaccination drive will also be left waiting longer to travel, as Mr Morrison linked the reopening of borders to hitting an 80 per cent fully-jabbed target.

One of those who fears missing out is Amy Hayes, and Australian living in Reading in the UK, who wants to fly home to her native Queensland to see her grandfather.

But just 45 per cent of Queenslanders have been fully jabbed, compared to 65 per cent in neighbouring New South Wales, meaning it is unlikely that travel to the state will be allowed before Christmas.

Speaking to the BBC, Miss Hayes said: 'All my family and friends are in Brisbane and so although I might be able to fly to Sydney or Melbourne, what would be the point when the Queensland border is still closed with no indication of when it'll open? 

'I'm just one of thousands of stranded Aussies. I'm fortunate in that I have not been subjected to the cruelty of having to grieve for a loved one overseas or in quarantine, or had any emergency to travel back for. I'm grateful every day for that.

'For me, and many like me it's the everyday moments we are missing out on, having extended time away from friends and family and grappling with the erosion of our Australian identity.'

Mr Morrison said the plans will eventually be expanded to include foreigners - teeing up the return of tourism on which large sectors of Australia's economy relies - but did not give a date for when those rules will be announced. 

'The time has come to give Australians their life back. We're getting ready for that, and Australia will be ready for takeoff, very soon,' MR Morrison said. 

'We've saved lives. We've saved livelihoods, but we must work together to ensure that Australians can reclaim the lives that they once had in this country.' 

On March 20 last year Australia introduced some of the world's toughest border restrictions in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

For the last 560 days countless international flights have been grounded, and overseas travel has slowed to a trickle as only those in 'exceptional circumstances' such as essential work or visiting a dying relative could travel.

Families have been split across continents, an estimated 30,000 nationals were stranded overseas and foreign residents were stuck in the country unable to see friends or relatives.

More than 100,000 requests to enter or leave the country were denied in the first five months of this year alone, according to Department of Home Affairs data. 

Anti-lockdown protests have been held across the country, but Melbourne has been one of the main epicentres of discontent and anti-lockdown sentiment

Recent months have seen a wave of anti-lockdown protests in Australia as citizens rebel against the harsh lockdown rules (Pictured: protester arrested by Melbourne police on September 25)

Melbourne's citywide lockdown will remain in place until 70 per cent of Victorians aged over 16 are double-vaccinated, which is forecast for October 26

Friday's announcements could mean that within a month it is easier for those in Sydney or Melbourne to travel to London or New York than to go to Perth or Brisbane.

Australian flag carrier Qantas welcomed the decision, announcing it would restart flights to London and Los Angeles on November 14.

Expats and foreign residents gave the news a cautious welcome on social media forums. But experts say many Australians will remain cautious about booking travel for fear of snap lockdowns or other disruptions.

And the impact of the unprecedented period in the country's history could be felt for years to come.

'Australia has been a fortress nation with the drawbridge pulled up to the rest of the world,' Tim Soutphommasane, an academic and former Australian race discrimination commissioner told AFP.

Protestors take part in a Reclaim The Line rally at Parramatta, in Sydney, Friday, October 1, 2021. Protestors are rallying against mandatory Covid vaccinations in the workplace

Demonstrators gather during an anti-lockdown protest and police officers stand guard in Melbourne last week. Hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters clashed with police in Melbourne, leaving at least four people injured and more than five dozen in custody. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse more than 2,000

'What we're seeing now with this announcement of borders being reopened is akin to Australia re-entering the world, and it's long overdue,' he said.

A Lowy Institute poll in May showed that a plurality of Australians backed the tough border measures, with 41 percent of those in support.

Only 18 percent said fellow nationals should be free to leave.

'Australia in recent decades has been an emphatically open and multicultural and cosmopolitan country.

'It has been a trading nation. But Covid has seen the nation turn the clock back,' said Soutphommasane.

He added: 'There has been a sense of parochialism and insularity that has shaped the nation's response to Covid-19. The rest of the world may well be looking at this thinking that Australia has changed fundamentally as a country.'

Locked down Sydney left leaderless after corruption resignation 

The leader of Australia's most populous state resigned Friday amid a corruption investigation, leaving Sydneysiders - deep in months of lockdown - without a political leader.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she would leave parliament after an anti-corruption body announced an inquiry into allegations against her.

'My resignation as premier could not occur at a worse time, but the timing is completely outside of my control,' Berejiklian told media in Sydney.

'I do not want to be a distraction from what should be the focus of the state government during this pandemic, which is the wellbeing of our citizens. It always has been and always will be.'

Berejiklian has been one of the most prominent faces of Australia's pandemic response, fronting cameras daily as the federal government was largely sidelined.

A state corruption watchdog is investigating allegations including whether she favoured a former boyfriend, then a member of parliament, in the awarding of grants in his electorate.

The projects included funding for the Australian Clay Target Association in and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga, a small New South Wales town.

Berejiklian denied the allegations and said the inquiry into events that occurred between 2012 and 2018 had come 'in the most challenging weeks of the most challenging times in the state's history'.

Since late June, Sydney's over five million residents have been under stay-at-home orders, with plans to end the lockdown slated for October 11.

Daily case numbers have begun to decline from a peak earlier this year but the state is still reporting over 800 cases a day.

The conservative leader had helmed the state for seven years, including through Australia's worst bushfire season and the entirety of the pandemic.

Her approval ratings rocketed in late 2020 as the state managed to avoid the ravages of the first wave, but recent opinion polls had seen her support from voters dip after the arrival of the Delta variant and spiralling lockdowns.

Her replacement will be decided by members of the ruling Liberal party.

A tearful Gladys Berejiklian has resigned as NSW premier and slammed the state's corruption watchdog for investigating her