Massive blow to local hospitality from Top End Covid lockdown
Darwin and Palmerston’s hospitality venues have suffered a “significant blow” due to the 48 hour Covid-19 lockdown.
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HOSPITALITY venues have suffered a “significant blow” to their typically bumper school holiday period due to the 48-hour Covid-19 lockdown across parts of the Top End.
Confused business owners were still awaiting clarification on whether they were allowed to remain open after the Chief Minister’s shock lockdown announcement on Sunday.
But Darwin’s CBD quickly became a ghost town once the lockdown came into effect at 1pm Sunday, as contact tracers scramble to find 15 “unaccounted for” people who were working at the Newmont Corporation Granites Gold Mine in the Tanami Desert and are now in other parts of the Territory.
Hospitality NT chief executive Alex Bruce said the lockdown was a huge hit to the hospitality industry, especially during peak tourist season and school holidays.
“This is a significant blow to our peak school holiday period,” Mr Bruce said.
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“With relatively short notice, there has been a mad scramble to inform venues to shut by 1pm for on-premise activities.
“We support the chief health officer and his team and hope this situation doesn’t require extension beyond the 48 hours announced this morning.”
NT Chamber of Commerce chief executive Greg Ireland said although the Chamber supported the lockdown, as of about 12.30pm on Sunday there was a lack of clarity around which businesses were allowed to remain open.
“We still don’t really have a great amount of certainty and don’t really understand the definition of an essential business,” Mr Ireland said.
“We’ve missed an opportunity to be better prepared for this event (the lockdown) by not having clarity ahead of time.”
Mr Ireland said he hoped the lockdown would “drive those outcomes in the next couple of days”.
Addressing the media on Sunday, Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the definitions were outlined in the chief health officer’s direction, but a 24-hour helpline had been established for questions about the lockdown, including which businesses could remain open.
“They’ll be there to help you with questions like, what is essential work? What is an essential business? This hotline will be open from 1pm,” Mr Gunner said.
“We’ve got all our small business champions now engaging. We talked to all the business organisations to work through that with all of them so there’s clarity about what can and can’t open, but I think by and large it is common sense.
“Food is a very clear essential service so those kinds of things are what we’re considering will remain open based on experiences interstate.”
Darwinite Paul Phoenix decided to head to the pub to enjoy his last schooner before the city went into complete lockdown.
Mr Phoenix said he originally intended to go grocery shopping but changed his mind when he saw the queue of people.
“I went to Coles and walked inside, saw all the people and went ‘nope, I’m having a beer’,” he said.
He said he was also concerned about the financial impacts of the lockdown.
“As a local muso, if it goes for more than two days it’s not going to be great,” he said.
Restaurants, cafes and pubs around the city have taken different approaches to the announcement, with some ramping up their takeaway service and others closing completely.
The Waterfront’s Mexican restaurant Hot Tamale has kicked their delivery service into gear, offering delivery to Darwin, Palmerston and the northern suburbs.
Deck Bar announced on their Facebook page they will be closing for 48 hours “as more news comes in”.
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