Perth lockdown: Traffic chaos on Kwinana Freeway and Mitchell Freeway as drivers flee city before midnight

Traffic chaos has descended on the Mitchell and Kwinana freeways as people race against time in an apparent bid to escape Perth’s looming lockdown.

Despite Perth and Peel residents being banned from entering other WA regional areas throughout the lockdown, traffic was bumper-to-bumper heading south on the Kwinana Freeway ahead of the Anzac Day long weekend.

Country residents who have visited Perth or Peel since April 17 are required to wear a mask throughout the State.

Nearly 3000 people are also being kicked off Rottnest Island ahead of the lockdown.

Accommodation is being closed and holidaymakers have been stopped from checking into the island, according to a Rottnest Island Authority spokesman.

People already at the popular tourist destination are being instructed to return back to WA’s mainland.

The spokesman said extra ferry services are being scheduled to return “as many people as they can” before the lockdown comes into effect at 12.01am Saturday.

The lockdown will start at midnight tonight after a Victorian man became the third person to be infected with the highly transmissible UK strain while staying on the sixth floor of the Mercure Hotel Perth.

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Mr McGowan said the man spent up to five days in Perth and visited a string of tourist spots and venues.

“We now need to assume he was infectious,” he said.

The areas the man visited include Kings Park, Northbridge and St Catherine’s College. A friend, who is a close contact of the man, has already returned a positive result.