Another eventful week in the North West and it seems to be all about the borders.

The borders of Queensland that is.

In the south-east the border focus is with New South Wales but in this part of the world, it is more to do with the Northern Territory, or if you are down Birdsville way, the South Australian one.

The road to Darwin past Camooweal looks likely to stay shut for "at least two more months" (which may keep caches of guns out of Queensland) while South Australia is prioritising the lifting of economic restrictions and getting people back to work over opening the state's borders.

Here, Pauline Hanson is giving the state government an ultimatum to reopen the state's borders by Thursday, or face legal action in the High Court.

For once the populist Hanson may have misread the mood of her public, with most feedback we've received behind the continued closure of the state borders though the Katter idea of a "north Queensland quarantine zone" has plenty of support.

However the shock news of Australia's youngest COVID-19 fatality in the mining town of Blackwater reminds us that we are still vulnerable to the virus and a vaccine remains a distant possibility.

In other non COVID news, Mount Isa Mines figured out a way of doing a tricky high roof job in high winds while the CSIRO have figured out a way of herding cattle from outer space. Go figure.

Also, don't forget our online paper. A subscriber only feature our digital print edition comes out every Thursday and Saturday and features the best local and national content of the past seven days. Just click on the link to 'today's paper' from the North West Star home page,

Have a great weekend,

Derek Barry,

Editor,

North West Star