Business booms across the Territory after Stage Three restrictions lift

ABOUT 2000 Territory hospitality employees headed back to work, business owners rejoiced and Territorians hit the town in droves at the weekend as Stage Three COVID-19 restrictions eased

Monsoons staff member Jenika Acharya celebrates after a big weekend after the stage Three Covid-19 restrictions were lifted. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

ABOUT 2000 Territory hospitality employees headed back to work, business owners rejoiced and Territorians hit the town in droves at the weekend as Stage Three COVID-19 restrictions eased.

The latest stage of rolled back restrictions meant there were no time limits on venues and people could drink without having a meal.

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Darwin venues saw huge numbers on Friday and Saturday nights, with one venue even calling for the capacity to be increased.

Area Manager of Australian Venue Co, which runs Monsoons on Darwin’s Mitchell Street, Matt Hutchins said the venue’s halved capacity because of social distancing led to a further safety risk with people queuing outside the venue for up to 40 minutes.

“We’re going back to licencing and council to see if there’s better ways to do it.

Mr Hutchins said all punters were asked to give their details to the club so they could be contacted in the event of an outbreak.

“If you give us full capacities back we can actually make it safer because we can trace them,” he said.

“But if you’re standing out in the line we can’t keep track of you.”

Hospitality NT chief executive Alex Bruce said the weekend was a “great success and allowed many Territorians to return to work.”

“We are meeting with Environmental Health again during this week to discuss lessons learned and best practice approaches,” he said

Monsoons enjoyed an otherwise successful weekend, with Marketing Manager Carly Balding saying punters were well behaved.

“We could not have asked for a better two nights, everyone was so well behaved,” she said.

“The socially distanced dance floor worked an absolute treat.”

Hotel Darwin manager Penny Phillips said the relaxed restrictions were great for boosting business.

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“Everyone seems a bit more relaxed and not watching the clock,” she said.

“They can have a good catch up with people.

“We’ve also had people booking functions again which has been really good for business.”

Cavanagh Hotel manager Paul Palmer said although business had improved, they “desperately need to open borders”.

“As a city venue … regardless of tourism there’s a lot of corporate people coming to town who visit city venues,” he said.