Covid, NSW: Ulladulla businesses pool staff to keep the doors open amid Covid surge

After struggling through bushfires, floods and lockdowns, south coast businesses are now banding together to keep their doors open despite severe staff shortages, with one owner describing it as being “on a knife’s edge” daily.

Hospitality venues on the south coast have been forced to pool staff to keep the region’s cafes, bars and bistros open as surging Covid cases threaten to derail what many hoped would be the “light at the end of tunnel” after a difficult two years.

Many staff are currently in self isolation after coming into contact with the virus, according to businesses owners who have had to tap into an ever-shrinking pool of workers whose services have been shared around venues in a Facebook group.

Seeking Serendipity bar owner, Sarah Smith, is one of many owners to have used the South Coast Hospitality Exchange, offering her own services to the more than 250 members.

Seeking Serendipity staff Jorjah Drysdale, left, with Courtney Jones, Claire Chapman, and owner Sarah Smith.

After closing her own bar on New Year’s Eve, Ms Smith went to assist a local restaurant before tending bar herself at another local establishment the following day.

Ms Smith said for many businesses, the end of lockdowns late last year had been a “false euphoria”, with swathes of staff being furloughed, restrictions being reinstated and a highly-infectious public becoming wary of dining in.

While many of her own staff have since returned to work after a surge in cases over the holiday period, Ms Smith said new infections throughout the Shoalhaven area are continuing to force many businesses to close or shutter services, while also taking a mental toll on owners.

“It’s like waking up each day like you were in the Hunger Games,” Ms Smith said.

“You literally don’t know what is going to unfold on any given day, whether someone will walk into your venue and you become a super spreader event, or your staff have attended something.

“Everyone is incredibly exhausted.”

Despite the support and solidarity among business owners, Ms Smith said they were still missing out on crucial revenue during the peak period.

“It was the time of year when all of us should have been making some money to put in reserve,” she said.

“A lot of businesses are actually going backwards, or just treading water.

“The sector has been damaged, local business has been damaged, and that’s going to be a long term recovery.”

While pooling staff has helped keep some businesses open, Business Milton-Ulladulla president Matt Dell said it also brought increased risks.

“If people are going to multiple locations, that's problematic if one of them ends up testing positive,” he said.

Business Milton-Ulladulla president Matt Dell said the future is bright for local businesses after a difficult two years. Picture: Elders Insurance Ulladulla

“If you’ve been to three places, then you triple your chance of being infected.”

Mr Dell was still supportive of the move by businesses, and said there would have been a time when there would have been a rivalry between businesses – but not any longer.

“(The owners) aren’t doing it for themselves, and maybe not even for the other business, but for their staff.

“It means the staff stay employed or working for the week or two the certain businesses is out of action.”

The online group was first formed in 2020 by business owner Ben Blair as a way of developing collaboration between local owners.

“We hadn’t done much with it, but it became a good place to push everyone together,” he said.

“After the fires, we saw everyone pull together, so we thought we’d see what the response was, and its been really good.

“If nothing else, I’m proud to live and work down here.”

Mr Blair owns and operates The Ruse Ulladulla with wife Erin Blair.

He said the last few weeks have been stressful for the young couple, who have had to shut the restaurant multiple times since New Year’s Eve due to staffing issues, often at short notice.

“We could see the storm brewing,” he said.

“We had to pull the pin on New Year’s Eve celebrations even though we had everything prepaid, and (had to) refund everyone,” he said.

“Our DJ had Covid, our head chef had Covid, everyone had Covid.

“Last last week, we had three in the kitchen and three front of house as opposed to the five and seven that we’d normally run with.”

GWYLO bar and Legom Bakers owner Matt Upson lent a hand at The Ruse Ulladulla during the holiday period when many of Ms Blair’s staff were assisting venues elsewhere in the city.

Both his businesses were shut down over the Christmas period when almost half Mr Upson’s staff contracted Covid.

He said businesses were now operating on a “knife’s edge’.

“It was a ticking time bomb down here until (Covid) actually took off,” he said.

“We understood when the floodgates opened, that it was definitely going to produce opportunities for a lockdown, or to have to shut business.

“When it did happen, it was like we’d been waiting every day for it.”

Mr Upson was hopeful that the situation would improve in coming months, but after contracting the virus himself, said many businesses were waiting for the call that they or a member of their staff were positive, and they would have to shut.

“Everyone would have thought (the pandemic) can’t go on longer than a year, but now you sort of get that feeling: Oh, great, we have another year,” he said.

"We’re not naive to the fact that anything could happen," GWYLO bar and Legom Bakers owner Matt Upson said after contracting Covid.

“We’d had the fires and then two years of Covid, you just don’t know what’s around the corner.

“Now we’re not naive to the fact that anything could happen, so you just don’t plan too far ahead.”

With many hotels, motels and AirBnbs booked out for weeks still, Mr Dell was optimistic for the future of the south coast’s hospitality scene.

“The future is bright,” he said.

“As difficult as it is for the individuals and business owners at that time, once you get past (shut downs), which, frankly, some of them have, because they‘ve experienced their illness and they’ve shut down and they’re back open, now that they’re past that, over that hurdle, there’s only positivity going forward.

“I think it‘s a pretty positive place to be, but for those that haven’t yet suffered some sort of omicron shutdown, they may still have that hurdle to go over which is the only blip on the radar.”