Mount Tamborine business operators under financial stress call for immediate border opening as restrictions take toll

Vacancies are popping up "every other day" in the Gold Coast hinterland as more and more business owners struggle to stay afloat and the Queensland border remains closed. 

LEASE vacancy signs are “popping up every other day” along what should be a busy tourism hub, Gallery Walk, at Mount Tamborine as businesses suffer a devastating midweek impact from the COVID-19 border shutdown.

“Hurry up and open the borders now,” says Witches Chase Cheese owner Meredith Morris.

“We’ve got a good healthcare system and as long as those who are at risk are taken care of, then the risk for the rest of us is very low.”

Ms Morris said the mountain was “heaving” on weekends but weekdays were another story.

“No one is here. Most of the visitors previously have been internationals or interstate, foodies from Sydney and Melbourne, as well as families, but that’s all stopped,” she said.

Quiet footpaths along Gallery Walk midweek. Local operators are hoping for support, but know it's going to be hard as all regions are competing for tourists. Picture Glenn Hampson

“Seriously, the borders need to open up. About half of the shops on this one corner opposite to us, there’s at least half a dozen shops for lease and they’re popping up every other day at Gallery Walk.”

Tamborine Dreaming owner Abigail Chaloupka said drought, bushfires and now COVID-19 had made life tough for locally owned Gallery Walk businesses such as hers.

“We had no Christmas, no New Year and no proper Easter, and sales from this period usually set me up for the rest of the year,” she said.

MORE NEWS

Glitter Strip nightclub with strict ‘not normal’ rules

Luxury Coast apartments selling for $2

‘It didn’t feel real’: Family crushed by midnight door knock

“We focus more on the cultural aspects of the mountain and Australia’s Indigenous artists. The drop-off of international visitors has been hard. We rely on buses.”

Ms Chaloupka shut down for eight weeks and now opens a few days a week.

But she said that even on Mother’s Day – “the biggest day of the year on Tamborine Mountain’’ – it had been quiet.

Abigail Chaloupka, of Tamborine Dreaming on Gallery Walk, whose business is for lease for health reasons, said she wants visitors to the mountain to remain respectful as retailers struggle with new COVID restrictions. Picture Glenn Hampson

“Moving forward, most retailers have nothing in the bag. We just didn't get our season and even before COVID we were on the bones of our bum.”

As restrictions eased there had been an influx of people at weekends, but this had led to people walking “shoulder to shoulder”, lack of carparking, long queues, a shortage of food and heated tempers, she said.

“We just ask visitors to our mountain to be patient and courteous.”

Granny Mac owner Mendy French said her income was about 20 per cent of what it usually was and she was only opening 11am-3pm, with seven staff put on JobKeeper.

She had applied for funding so she could set up an online shop for her homemade fudge and confection “of yesteryear” because otherwise sales would remain low.

Mandy French at Granny Mac fudge on Gallery Walk. She’s hoping to get a grant so she can sell her homemade fudge and old school confectionary items online. Picture Glenn Hampson

“Weekends are busier than a weekend pre-COVID but that’s balanced by the week days where we’re still trading about half what we used to,” she said.

Avocado Sunset B&B owner Clive Lucas said after no visitors for nearly three months, on June 1 the “floodgates opened” with people clambering to visit the mountain. He said he was now booked out until late July.

Locals had taken the place of  English and Asian tourists, with one elderly couple destined for France choosing his accommodation instead.

Quiet footpaths along Gallery Walk midweek as border closures keep away interstate tourists. Picture Glenn Hampson

But for the local distillery things were very different.

Gordon Chalmers of Tamborine Mountain Distillery said business had boomed during shutdowns, with a 300 per cent spike in sales. He said people were acting “like they’d been in prison for the year” with midweek sales surpassing his Sunday trade.

He had not had a day off since the pandemic started, with online sales and memberships taking off, but he knew that this “sadly” was not the case for all businesses.