COVID Lockdown: Businesses reveal the impact in Regional Victoria
From festivals being cancelled to Valentine’s Day heartbreak for restaurants, businesses in regional Victoria have revealed how they’ve been hit hard by the sudden lockdown.
Albury Wodonga
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Businesses in regional Victoria have opened up about the devastating impact Friday’s sudden lockdown has had on them.
From Bendigo to Ballarat, businesses in the hospitality and entertainment industry have been hit hard - and many have questioned why they were put into lockdown in the first place.
BENDIGO
MacKenzie Quarters owner Rhianwen Seiter said her Bendigo business was hit three times by the snap lockdown.
Operating out of a restored 141-year-old building just off Bendigo’s arts district, Ms Seiter said her MacKenzie St business included short-term accommodation, events and catering, and a restaurant - all of which were shut down.
“We lost all our revenue for Saturday,” she said.
“I had guests arriving at two o’clock (on Friday) and I had to say to them, ‘I don’t know if you have been watching the news’,” Ms Seiter said.
She said the Pakenham couple had driven for three hours, and had to turn back home that evening.
Ms Seiter said there was less heartbreak on Valentine’s Day, with 80 takeaway dinner packs complete with a “bottle of bubbles” sold to customers who had booked a table.
While she was able to recoup her Sunday losses, Ms Seiter said she was not certain they could maintain profits under lockdown.
“It will all depend if this lockdown continues,” she said.
“It’s very tricky as a business when you can be closed at the snap of the fingers.
“Living with that uncertainty is the biggest challenge.”
Ms Seiter said her business had adapted to the five-day lockdown, but she called for certainty if the emergency measures had to be extended.
She said the events side of the business had been hit the hardest, with desperate brides and grooms already calling to see if they should cancel their weddings.
Ms Seiter said this weekend was her business’s first anniversary celebration, with live music, fashion shows and photographers booked in.
“I can only hope for the best,” she said.
While Ms Seiter respected the medical advice, she appealed for the hotel quarantine system to be fixed, and measures to stop regional towns being hurt by Melbourne outbreaks.
City of Greater Bendigo Mayor Jennifer Alden said the lockdown came at a challenging time for the region’s businesses, particularly in the hospitality, retail and accommodation sectors
“We were enjoying a COVID recovery and many were expecting a busy time, given Valentine’s Day,” Cr Alden said.
“At this point we need to follow the health advice, which was to lock down the state to prevent people movement. “
Cr Alden said it was too soon to anticipate what will happen after Wednesday, but she said the council would be fighting for Bendigo.
“We will await further advice and advocate to local members and Victorian government ministers as required to ensure the best outcomes for Bendigo and regional Victoria,” she said.
“The government has indicated it is working through a support package for businesses and we hope to see those funds flowing through soon.”
BALLARAT
Stevie Kaze, owner of The Rock Ballarat Rock n Roll Rockabilly Festival, said his team was frantically cancelling everything they had booked, just hours before the event was set to start late Friday afternoon.
Mr Kaze called bands on their way to the regional city to tell them to turn back, the festival’s headline act made a mad dash back to South Australia and a 15-foot tall jukebox balloon sculpture which had cost thousands, was on display for all but 15 minutes before it had to be taken down.
“I’m not even estimating it (cost) at this point in time, we’re really looking at how do we stay solvent at the moment,” he said.
“The financial situation, I can’t even fathom what it’s going to be.
“It was heartbreaking that we got put in that situation, fortunately I didn’t get to feel the effects of that on the day because we were so busy packing everything up.”
Mr Kaze said he had refunded all tickets, with plans for the festival to go ahead later this year.
Commerce Ballarat chief executive Jodie Gillett said the lockdown was again “devastating” for the regions.
“Ballarat was gearing up for one of the biggest weekends we’ve had in over 12 months…venues were booked out, florists were stocked up and to get that announcement…is really difficult,” she said.
“I would implore the government to look at every possible way that they can support the business community and ensure that we see as little businesses as possible closing down in the months to come.”
Australian Hotels Association Victorian president David Canny and owner of the Red Lion in Ballarat, said the loss of stock for hospitality venues would run into the “tens of thousands” with uncertainty surrounding the end date of the lockdown creating chaos.
“What’s going to happen post Wednesday now, we’ve got functions booked….and we don’t know whether they’re going ahead yet,” he said.
“There was no reason to lockdown regional Victoria at all…this was just a total shut down, a panic that’s had a shocking effect on the industry again.”
Mr Canny said country towns should be excluded from the strict lockdown.
“No one can tell me it’s a good idea to have Echuca and Mildura shut down because there’s one case in Melbourne CBD, it’s ridiculous,” he said.
PHILLIP ISLAND
Phillip Island hospitality businesses say they are being pushed to the brink with many losing thousands of dollars during the five-day state lockdown.
Many cafes and restaurants, including Cheeky Goose Cafe and Hotel Phillip Island, have pulled the pin on takeaway services as it’s costing businesses more money to stay open than to close.
Cheeky Goose Cafe owner Cafe Robert van den Brink said his business lost between $20,000 and $30,000 in bookings over the weekend.
“We lost a lot of money after we had to call and cancel hundreds of bookings on Saturday and Sunday,” he said.
“We had zero warning that this was coming.”
Mr van den Brink said it’s not worth opening his cafe because Cowes is a “ghost town”.
“We are the number one tourist location in Victoria and we have no customers,” he said.
“By opening and doing takeaway, we lose more money than if we were just closed,” he said.
Hotel Phillip Island Assistant Manager Shandy Phillips said in total 250 bookings were cancelled on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.
“We saw an immediate loss of income,” he said.
“In comparison to previous lockdowns, takeaway sales decreased too.”
Phillip Island businesses are frustrated with the 5km limit, saying the tight restriction was not imposed on regional Victoria in past lockdowns when there were more cases.
There have been no active COVID-19 cases in the Bass Coast since August 28, 2020.
Mr van den Brink said the rules need to change because a 5km radius is a “small chunk” for many regional towns.
“The problem is you have 70 restaurants in the heart of Cowes with 4000 residents,” Mr van den Brink said.
“There’s not enough customers to restaurants because we rely heavily on tourists and visitors from other towns near Phillip Island,” he said.
Mr van den Brink said a lot of businesses are struggling.
“I know there are a lot of businesses that are going to be pushed hard with this lockdown because they made it through by the skin of their teeth in the last lockdown,” he said.
“They relied heavily on government grants and nothing has been announced.”
Mr Phillips said the uncertainty is a “massive challenge” in the hospitality industry.
“We are trying to plan for the weekend coming up but no one knows if we are going to be out of this lockdown or not,” he said.
“Ordering food is proving to be a massive challenge.”
Mr Phillips said if lockdown is extended, Hotel Phillip Island will be hugely impacted.
“Bass Coast businesses rely heavily on the next three months to make enough profit to get through the winter,” he said.
“We want to be trading again, we can’t see why we can’t have people in the venue.”
Bass Coast Shire Mayor Brett Tessari said the five-day lockdown has caused locals to lose confidence.
“Our towns were starting to get their confidence back but that has been dampened,” he said.
“It will be interesting to see once we do come out whether people get straight back into it or whether it takes a little bit of time.”
Mr Tessari said it’s “devastating” for businesses.
“It’s hard to justify locking down the whole state when the city is having issues,” he said.
“But the government is acting on medical advice and they are the experts.”
Mr Tessari said if lockdown is extended he hopes “there is something in place” for regional Victoria.
WODONGA
Popular Wodonga restaurant Miss Amelie was hit hard by the sudden lockdown announcement on Friday, with owner David Kapay estimating his business lost at least $18,000 in revenue over Saturday and Sunday.
“We had 96 booked on Saturday night, and 90 for lunch on Sunday for Valentines day,” Mr Kapay said.
“Average that at 100 bucks a head and that’s money I’d rather have in my bank account.
“It’s just a bit s--- to be honest. We’re definitely not the only ones affected.” Mr Kapay said he hated to think about all the food and flowers that were wasted as a result of the lockdown.
“I had about $9000 of produce arrive on Friday for the busy week ahead which is a bit disappointing and upsetting,” he said.
“It’s so much food wasted across the state and all the hard work that went into producing that produce from the growers.” Fortunately, a lot of the food from Miss Amelie was used to create takeaway meals at Mr Kapay’s gourmet food store, Miss Amelie Gourmet. Mr Kapay said all the fruit and vegetables that couldn’t be used were donated to Caravan.
“We’ve been in worse positions before and bounced back,” he said.
“We need to look at the glass half full.
“Hopefully its not seven weeks.
“We missed a couple of bumper days of trading, but in the grand scheme of life it’s not life or death.”
Wodonga mayor Kevin Poulton said everyone has a role to play in protecting the community from COVID-19, but believed locking down a regional town which hadn’t seen a case of coronavirus for 197 was unnecessary.
“We know the role we all play in this and how important it is to protect our virus-free status here in the region. However, I think it is difficult for our residents - who live and work here - to reconcile a tennis event continuing when they are unable to go to work or open the doors to their business, when they are losing money and work,” Cr Poulton said.
“I think our community is fatigued and confused and it does become harder to remain positive. “Decisions being made 300km away effectively divide our community and there doesn’t seem to be much consideration of the impact here on the border.”
Cr Poulton said he believed clusters should be managed in a way similar to NSW and Queensland without locking down the entire state and damaging regional businesses. “Certainly, we know many businesses were ready for a big weekend with restaurant bookings and floral deliveries and the like and it has been incredibly hard, especially after a challenging 12 months, to see that taken away,” he said.
“However, our business community is to be commended for the way in which they have adapted, been ready to adapt and how they have banded together to help each other.
“Myself and the CEO have been constantly advocating to the government about consideration for our border community and ensuring an even playing field, particularly for our businesses, with our NSW neighbours.
“I think we all live in nervous anticipation knowing things could change quite suddenly, as we have seen, but I continue to be very proud of our community and the kindness and resilience they continue to show throughout this pandemic.”
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