At 12.01am July 8, 2020, NSW Police established checkpoints to stop Victorians crossing into the state.

At the time there were 2942 active cases of COVID-19 in Victoria.

On day two of the closure, NSW's top cop Mick Fuller warned Border residents the closure would last at least six weeks.

In reality the checkpoints were in place for 137 days until 12.01am on November 23.

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After months of checkpoints, divisions and queues, residents celebrated the border reopening by parading across the border in cars, horns blaring and police sirens sounding while Steve Bowen acted as DJ for the occasion.

Unbeknownst to them the celebration wouldn't last - with checkpoints returning just over a month later when Victoria closed its border to residents from NSW hotspots at 11.59pm on December 20.

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Days later the Victorian government closed its border with NSW entirely from 11.59pm on January 1.

For Wassim Saliba, whose Wodonga restaurant La Maison sits just 300 metres from NSW, the July 8 border closure was the first of many headaches.

Long queues along the Lincoln Causeway and the tightening border crossing restrictions eventually force him to close his business temporarily.

A year on, Mr Saliba struggles to differentiate between the many lockdowns and closures he's endured.

Mr Saliba's business was also caught in the cross-hairs of the second border closure, when the Victoria Police checkpoint initially cut off access to his business entirely.

"Like everyone else we were devastated," he said of the initial closure.

"It was a tricky situation and we're in a tricky location. We survived more lockdowns than anyone else... because we faced them on both sides.

"We survived all this because of the support we had from the community, and it's continual support, people want us to survive and we hear it everyday, they come in and said 'I'm here to support you'...

"I hope other businesses are getting the same treatment because it's tough."

Mr Saliba said the restaurant was actually recovering faster than anticipated because of that support.

But psychologically, he said, "everyone is a bit fed up" with having to endure lockdowns and border closure when there are no local cases of COVID.

"I wonder if we ever have a breakout in the region whether they'll close cities," he said.

"Fingers crossed that we never get a breakout but I often wonder if the treatment works in reverse."

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