New South Wales

Just when we thought we were in the clear from the dreaded coronavirus, it reared its ugly head again in New South Wales and Victoria in late 2020 and in Queensland in early 2021, wreaking havoc on holiday plans across the country. Many people – including several CarAdvice team members – were forced to do a last-minute dash across the border in order to avoid being locked out of their home state when case numbers began to increase in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

The cross-state road trip is officially back in business! And it’s certainly true that you often don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. All those people who had been planning a journey from Victoria to New South Wales or vice versa will know this feeling all too well, after their travel plans were put on indefinite hold earlier this year with the re-introduction of Victoria’s coronavirus lockdowns.

There's a grand plan afoot to bring automotive manufacturing back to Australia, with the announcement of a new $700 million facility in New South Wales dedicated solely to the local production of electric cars. The facility will be owned and operated by Nexport, an electric bus company launched in 2018 that's currently working to assist the NSW government with its plans to electrify the state's 8000-strong public bus fleet.

Australia's Easter long weekend road toll has fallen in 2020 compared to 2019, as motorists stay home amid coronavirus lockdowns. According to provisional figures, six Australians lost their lives on the nation's roads over the five-day period from Thursday through to Easter Monday, compared with 19 during the same period last year. Six deaths is less than half of the five-year average of 15 deaths, with the lowest Easter road toll in recent years being eight people in 2016.

The tale of a Sydney driver being fined because her passenger was on FaceTime incited shock and outrage in June 2019, but drivers may be interested to know similar penalties are becoming commonplace on roads across the nation. Sheree Panetta took to Facebook to vent about the $337 fine she received from NSW Police, with her post quickly going viral.