How Bass Coast carnivals survived 12 months of no business
Bass Coast’s carnivals and amusement parks are back after being out of business for 12 months. Here’s how the owners survived.
Bass Coast News
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Carnival and amusement park owners have been feeling the impacts of COVID-19 on their much-loved family businesses.
A&A Reardon Amusements owner Adam Reardon said it had been a difficult 12 months.
The family-run business usually works for 12 months of the year, travelling to agricultural shows in Seymour, Geelong and Dandenong but that changed in 2020.
“We were basically put out of business for 12 months because agricultural shows didn’t go ahead,” Mr Reardon said.
“Without JobKeeper we wouldn’t have survived.”
The amusement company is currently set up in Inverloch, a place where they have been working for more than 80 years.
Mr Reardon’s great grandmother’s brother first established the carnival in 1936 on Inverloch’s foreshore.
“We love coming here because we have a great history in the town,” Mr Reardon said.
“But we have noticed a drop in attendance since New Year’s Eve.”
The fifth generation owner believes the decline in customers was because of the COVID-19 outbreaks that occurred in Victoria at that time.
“People got frightened,” he said.
“They didn’t want to come to the carnival in case an outbreak happened.”
Mr Reardon said they had been following all correct procedures with regular cleans and QR codes upon arrival.
A&A Reardon Amusement workers Les and Ann Evan said the pandemic had impacted them in every possible way.
“It’s been really hard to adjust to a different lifestyle,” Mrs Evan said.
“We feel like we have been pushed into retirement.”
The couple, who have been married for 50 years, said they were grateful for JobKeeper.
“It allowed us to be financially stable through the 12 months we weren’t working,” Ms Evan said.
Island Summer Carnival owner Brian Watkins said he was fortunate he had savings.
“We went on JobKeeper for a while but we saved a little bit of money for a rainy day that kept us going for quite a bit,” he said.
The 78-year-old, who has been in the carnival industry for his whole life, said he was initially worried about COVID-19 impacting attendance numbers.
“My son has been in New South Wales working carnivals and he said we would get the numbers,” he said.
“The island has been so busy; we have seen big crowds.”
So far January 2 has been Island Summer Carnival’s busiest night, with between 300 to 400 people attending the Cowes venue.
Mr Watkins said he had been sticking to restriction limits and following hygiene standards.
“We have everything in place,” he said.
“It’s been working out all right.”
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