Australia will reopen its international border from November, giving long-awaited freedoms to vaccinated citizens and their relatives.
Since March 2020, Australia has had some of the world's strictest border rules - even banning its own people from leaving the country.
The policy has been praised for helping to suppress Covid, but it has also controversially separated families.
"It's time to give Australians their lives back," PM Scott Morrison said.
People would be eligible to travel when their state's vaccination rate hit 80%, Mr Morrison told a press briefing on Friday.
Travel would not immediately be open to foreigners, but the government said it was working "towards welcoming tourists back to our shores".
Amy Hayes, who lives in the English town of Reading, Berkshire, and has not been back to Queensland in nearly three years, said it was "encouraging to see things moving in the right direction".
"But I'll believe the borders have reopened when I see it and hear the stories of stranded Aussies being able to get home uninhibited," she told News.
"Also, all my family and friends are in Brisbane and so although I might be able to fly to Sydney or Melbourne, what would be the point when the Queensland border is still closed with no indication of when it'll open"
"I'm just one of thousands of stranded Aussies," Ms Hayes added. "My story is not unique at all. I'm fortunate in that I have not been subjected to the cruelty of having to grieve for a loved one overseas or in quarantine, or had any emergency to travel back for. I'm grateful every day for that.
"For me, and many like me it's the everyday moments we are missing out on, having extended time away from friends and family and grappling with the erosion of our Australian identity."
Ian Jasper, who lived for many years in Australia before returning to England, is hoping to travel to Perth, Australia, in December to see three of his children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Welcoming news of the border reopening in November, he told: "I'm 82 and not in the best of health - I'm getting a bit worried I might not make it."
He said he hoped to be spend three months in Australia to celebrate Christmas and attend his granddaughter's wedding in February.
At present, people can leave Australia - which has recorded more than 107,000 cases of Covid-19 and just over 1,300 deaths - only for exceptional reasons such as essential work or visiting a dying relative.
Entry is permitted for citizens and others with exemptions, but there are tight caps on arrival numbers. This has left tens of thousands stranded overseas.
Copyright © Times of London © 2021