Three people who travelled from South-Western Sydney to camp at Killalea State Park during the Easter weekend were each fined $1000 under the state's COVID-19 Public Health Order.
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The Sydneysiders - who had previously been warned about breaching the COVID-19 rules - were the only people in the Lake Illawarra police district to receive fines across the long-weekend, local police said.
Between Friday and Monday, Lake Illawarra police attended to 150 reports of people breaching the health directions. and issued 45 official warnings for people who were not obeying distancing rules or who had left their home without good reason.
In Wollongong local area command, five fines and 16 warnings were issued, following 122 reports of possible breaches.
These includes a fine for a man who was having a barbecue and drinking at Stuart Park on Monday.
Police said the 30-year-old was at the park with one other man about 5.40pm, and had been given a warning he previous day for failing to comply with the Public Health Order at Central Railway Station.
Lake Illawarra police district commander, Detective Superintendent Dean Smith said it was pleasing to see that the vast majority of residents across the region had done the right thing.
"But we did manage to see a group of four individuals from Sydney who travelled down the to Killalea State Park [on Monday] and three of those four had been issued warnings previously in Sydney for breaching the health directions, and as a result those three individual were issued with fines... and the fourth was issued with a warning," he said.
Supt Smith said his police would, in most instances, issue warnings before handing out fines as the pandemic continues.
"Each circumstance is different, but the approach that we have taken in this district is compassion before compliance," he said.
"We want to make sure that we are issuing people with warnings to make sure they understand why they are in breach of those health directions and orders, and make sure we give them the opportunity to do the right thing.
"These are unique times for all of us across the state... and it is not the role of police to just continually enforce by the issuing of fines."
Across NSW over easter, police issued more than $300,000 worth of fines relating to COVID-19. More than 450 fines have been issued since the Public Health Order came into effect on March 17.
Over easter, $1000 fines were issued to people for travelling to a regional areas to go fishing, drinking in public parks, visiting houses to purchase drugs, and parking at Bondi Beach "to exercise" at 11.15pm while wearing thongs.
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