'This can't go on forever': Permit hotline struggles after exemption warning

He said that circumstances for those trying to return to Victoria now "will be unique", but the vast number of people who wanted to be back would have already arrived home.

"Anybody, any Victorian that finds themselves in NSW who believes they have an important reason to get back to Victoria is invited to apply for an exemption," Mr Weimar said at a press conference on Sunday.

"That does not mean you’ll be granted an exemption. You’ll only be granted an exemption for those who have a genuine medical emergency, family hardship reason to get back in, and there will be conditions applied to those individuals in terms of how they need to test and isolate … or whether they need to go into mandatory hotel quarantine.

"I sympathise with people who have found themselves possibly locked down in the northern beaches as part of the NSW lockdown, or people who would have left Sydney and been in rural NSW. But we have to take a view about what’s right for the entire community.

"Considering we’ve significantly inconvenienced 60,000 people who did the hard thing and got home on time and given we’ve got genuine concerns about the level of virus circulating … we need to ensure we don’t have the incursion of virus back into Victoria."

Residents stuck in NSW and trying to get information about the exemption permit system on Sunday afternoon were played an automated message saying that "due to a high volume of calls" no one could answer their phone call. The pre-recorded message then stopped and the call was ended.

"You have called the Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 mass gathering information line," the recorded message says. "Due to a high volume of calls, we are currently unable to take your call. Please try again later."

There is no hold queue attached to the phone line.

Clifton Hill man Chris Sanders said he had unsuccessfully called the Department of Health and Human Services number multiple times in his bid to return to Victoria from Suffolk Park, five kilometres south of Byron Bay.

Leaving Victoria on December 15 to visit his sister for the first time 12 months, the 68-year-old said he was "not aware of any warnings" to avoid travel to NSW.

When Mr Sanders found out he had just over a day to try and get back to Victoria from the NSW "green zone", he decided not to risk the 16-hour-drive, which he would have had to do alone.

"Suddenly on Thursday night, it became clear that the window of opportunity was shutting. I had the option of packing my car and driving for almost 17 hours," he said on Sunday.

"I wasn't prepared to do that, it was too risky. I'm 68, I'm also diabetic, so I'd fall asleep under that sort of duress. It's dangerous driving those sorts of distances."

Mr Sanders is hoping to get an exemption to return home to run his small business, but he said after repeated attempts he still couldn't get through to the DHHS phone hotline to get clear information on how to apply and what would be required.

"That's the treatment I got, so I will try to call again later, although there's probably not much point now," he said.

"There will be lots of people in this situation ... others like me that feel stranded. This can't go on forever."

The Department of Health and Human Services was contacted for comment. It is not yet clear when the phone service will be reinstated.

Mr Weimar said people who were knocked back from receiving an exemption could apply again if their situation changes.

About 170 people who returned to Victoria from "red zones" after the border to NSW closed are in mandatory hotel quarantine for 14 days.

Mr Weimar said that number was "largely" people arriving at Melbourne Airport without appropriate permits.