The map was made public for the first time at 6.30pm by member for Albury Justin Clancy via social media and has been warmly welcomed by mayors north and south of the border.

Towns such as Henty, Culcairn and Urana north of the border and Beechworth, Yackandandah, Rutherglen and Wangaratta had been out of the border bubble.

"It's the first time we've had some positive news in several weeks," Mr Clancy said.

"It's credit to the community for continuing to be COVID-safe.

"The expanded area was directly influenced by the Premier's visit as obviously having the Deputy Premier down here on two occasions."

The area extends beyond the nominal 50-kilometre area first floated by NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro last week.

From the north Yerong Creek is 88 kilometres from the Murray River, while Myrrhee at its southern most point in the North East is 90 kilometres from the border as the crow flies.

Henty and Culcairn had inexplicably been left out of the border region for nearly a month, but their inclusion was warmly welcomed by Greater Hume mayor Heather Wilton.

"It does look a lot better," she said..

"I believe the line where it has been drawn pretty much goes along the northern boundary of our shire area and across to Berrigan and Deniliquin..

"Most of those places gravitate to the south, they go to Albury, Shepparton or Melbourne before going to Sydney or Wagga.

"It has been a hard slog and at stages we felt we were beating our heads against a brick wall.

"It's been tough going."

Federation mayor Pat Bourke's hometown of Urana has been included, but as late as Wednesday afternoon he was expecting for it to remain outside the bubble.

"These are really welcome changes and to extend the border bubble by that much is more than we could have hoped," he said.

"People can now get on with business and after the news today we are in recession how good is it to get a softening of the bubble so the economy can get going again.

"There is no doubt the mental health side of it has been massive.

"People are just busting to get out and live normal lives and to give them this freedom is just unreal.

"I take my hat off to the work Justin Clancy and James McTavish have done.

"They have been amazing."

The changes will take effect from Friday and existing permits will remain valid until they expire.

Indigo Shire mayor Jenny O'Connor, who has many residents who work in Albury in her council area, was thrilled to have confirmation of the area.

"I'm very pleased and very relieved because none of us had been certain, since the announcement, of what would be included," Cr O'Connor said.

"It's great news because it means people who have been impacted will be able to get on with a more normal life than what they have had."

Wangaratta mayor Dean Rees said the outcome was fantastic.

"It will be a huge relief for working people to be able to continue their lives with a lot more normality," Cr Rees said.

"It will free people up to travel and know they're doing the right thing without having to think 'is this right?'."

Both Cr Rees and Cr O'Connor hope the border zone change will be complemented by an easing of restrictions in Victoria to allow greater movement after a state of emergency ends on September 13.

Cr Rees said that would boost eateries which have been able to offer table service and beauty businesses.

Cr O'Connor said opening up the North East would bolster residents' optimism.

"It's looking much more positive for our community in terms of being able to start to recover from the last eight months of compounding impacts," Cr O'Connor said, noting summer bushfires.

"It's real boost to people's sense of hope for the future."

Already there has been some criticism of the extent of the new zone with those commenting on Mr Clancy's page that Benalla and Bright had missed out, though the overall sentiment was very welcoming of the changes.