Covid restrictions ease in Wagga as regional NSW reopens

Punters have been given their first taste of freedom and everyone is rejoicing after a tough few weeks but businesses are still counting the losses.

The road to recovery for businesses has begun as residents had their first taste of freedom at 12.01am on Saturday morning, when restrictions were lifted and pubs and shops officially flung opened their doors.

After almost four weeks of lockdown, pubs, restaurants, retail stores, gyms and even art galleries were packed on Saturday with locals busting to get out of the house.

Just after Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the lifting of restrictions in regional NSW, at 1.30pm on Thursday, Romano’s Hotel was already booked out for Saturday.

Owner Mat Oates is one of the many publicans who was celebrating the return of customers.

“It was a fairly quick decision, I didn’t anticipate that we would be opening for another couple of weeks but we were quite relieved and feel pretty lucky to be coming out of lockdown,” Mr Oates said.

“We have been really quite blessed and fairly untouched by Covid cases here in Wagga, so we are all lucky you be able to reopen.”

“We suffered pretty heavily in the lockdown, we had an 80 per cent drop in business so we converted to doing home delivered food and takeaway food and drinks.

“Home-delivered cocktails were a hit, we were just trying to bring a little bit of Romano’s back to the locals, even while they were at home.”

Mr Oates said it was incredible to have everyone come in and support Romano’s over the weekend.

“We have to say a big thank you to the NSW community for supporting small business and hospitality during this time and supporting us all out of lockdown,” he said.

“It was such a crazy weekend, it felt like it was New Year’s Eve, we have to thank all of our returning patrons,” said Mr Oates.

“I’m really looking forward to everyone getting vaccinated, with all pubs reopening so we can all get back to normal.

“We are fully behind, whatever has to happen to keep us open and operating and to keep our staff and the community safe, we would rather be restricted a little bit and still be open,” said Mr Oates.

Pubs and restaurants weren’t the only venue packed on Saturday morning, with the mall filled with shoppers ready for some much-needed retail therapy.

Fashion boutique Texas Jane owner, Belle Armstrong, said she was overjoyed to be able to reopen the doors.

“It was amazing to be able to reopen, the support from the local community was absolutely incredible and it was total mayhem, but in the best way,” Ms Armstrong said.

“We stayed on top of our merchandising while we had the time over the four weeks, while it certainly was still a mad rush to get everything finalised before Saturday it was a more than welcome task to have to do.

“It feels so incredible to be out of lockdown, we have so much new stock that we are so excited to share with our local community and beyond.”

Texas Jane relied on social media and their online website to get them through the lockdown.

Ms Armstrong said her, along with most people in the retail sector, felt the sting of lockdown.

“It was definitely a tough four weeks, but we are so lucky to have such incredible support from our online community,” she said.

“We also had two features from the popular Instagram account ‘Buy from the bush’ which was instrumental to building a new audience for us.

“It was a silver lining watching our online presence grow and our sales develop in that capacity but obviously it doesn’t compare to the doors actually being open.

“It is just so good to be interacting with our community again, who have just shown us so much support over the last four weeks and it is amazing to be able to thank them in person and bring some beautiful fashions for spring.”

Soon to be renamed as ‘The Charles Boutique Hotel and Dining’, The Roundabout Restaurant is one of Wagga’s finest dining restaurants also opening its door on Saturday.

General manager of the venue, Jamie Pascoe, said it was a shock when the announcement came that business could reopen.

“I never thought that we would open so soon, as we expected them to extend lockdown for a bit longer, we weren’t quite ready in the restaurant as best as we would liked to be,” Mr Pascoe said.

“We were fully booked out on Saturday evening, we had people calling us to make a reservation, straight after the press conference on Thursday morning.

“There is definitely an adjustment period, so we are just taking it easy over the next week

“Even with the staff it just takes them a little bit of time to adjust especially when using the point of sale system (POS), looking for a particular alcohol or something, it takes a little bit to trig your memory.”

During the lockdown, the restaurant switched to takeaway food orders, however their hotel accomodation dramatically declined.

“Since Sydney has been shut down its been quite difficult for sales in our reservations area, last year we still have things moving, but this year we saw a major drop with the lockdown,” Mr Pascoe said.

Roundabout Restaurant was packed on Saturday. Picture: Facebook

“The government is saying if there is one case here, then they will shut us down again, and that is difficult for us; it is not like everyone can stay home, we have a cool-room full of fresh food.

“We did have to throw alot of the fresh fruit and vegetables out during the lockdown, we did try to repurpose what we could, I guess that is the cost of running a food business, we cant really do the shut down, open up model.
“We are looking forward to being open more, and for all the events coming back and people coming to explore our little city, we can’t to get back to some normality and some certainty around trading.”