Coronavirus: Bars are deserted at the pub with no cheer

The owner of Australia’s biggest bar estimates he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue on Thursday night alone, but still supports WA’s lockdown.

Tim McLernon, owner of Australia’s biggest pub The Camfield, opposite Perth’s Optus Stadium, in the deserted dining room on Big Bash day. Picture: Marie Nirme

Thursday night should have been a bumper one for Tim McLernon and his Camfield Hotel, directly opposite Perth’s Optus Stadium.

The Perth Scorchers and the Brisbane Heat were due to play off at the stadium for a place in the Big Bash grand final, and the Camfield — the biggest pub in Australia — was supposed to be the venue of choice for thirsty punters before and after the game.

Instead, both Optus Stadium and the Camfield sat empty.

A single positive case of coronavirus in a quarantine hotel security guard at the weekend prompted Premier Mark McGowan to introduce a snap five-day lockdown of two million people across Perth and southwest Western Australia.

Mr McLernon estimates his business lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue on Thursday night alone due to the lockdown.

“Don’t remind me, I’ll start ­crying,” Mr McLernon said.

“We are not talking $10,000 or $20,000 — we are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“But, we are lucky. We got a few (days) where we made hundreds of thousands as well.”

Mr McLernon’s business had been better off than many similar operations around the country given that up until this week, Western Australia had no community COVID-19 cases and very few operating restrictions.

He said he and most others in the industry had been planning for scenarios such as this one, given the impact of the pandemic elsewhere.

“Hospitality has been really good here these past eight months, and I think most people will have built up a pretty good nest egg to get through this. If you didn’t, you should have,” the hotel owner said

“We were always estimating in our plans that we’d have at least a couple of these (outbreaks).”

Rather than stand down staff this week, Mr McLernon, who owns several bars across Perth, opted to keep paying them through the lockdown. It has cost between $50,000 and $60,000 to maintain that wages bill, but he believes it is worth it.

Despite the financial hit of this week, he supports the government’s short lockdown.

“It’s better to do a five-day thing rather than have 70 to 80 cases next week and be looking at months and months and months (of lockdowns),” he said.