Salamanca Market faces long closure as pressure grows for extended hospitality shutdown

Tasmania’s most popular tourist attraction may be forced into a lengthy closure amid calls for hotels and restaurants to shut to minimise the spread of coronavirus.

SALAMANCA Market is facing a potentially lengthy closure and a top Hobart restaurant owner is calling for a four-week hospitality shutdown to minimise the spread of coronavirus.

The Hobart City Council said the 48-year-old market, which is Tasmania’s most visited tourist attraction, would likely face indefinite closure from Saturday.

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Stallholders said they feared the shutdown could be as long as three months, putting the livelihoods of hundreds of artisans and small farmers at risk.

“We will not make a final decision until Monday when we get the Prime Minister’s guidelines about mass gatherings, but it is highly likely [Salamanca Market will close], given what we understand,” council general manager Nick Heath said.

Meanwhile, Fico owners Federica Andrisani and Oskar Rossi said they were closing their Hobart restaurant from next Sunday and urged others in the industry to follow suit.

“Everybody needs to shut, not just restaurants, but hotels and cafes,” Ms Andrisani said of the decision to bring forward the restaurant’s traditional four-week winter break.

“Every night come 70-plus people in our restaurant from everywhere,” she said. “I think Tasmania needs to be protected, we need to protect the community.”

Distraught at seeing the effect of the virus in her Italian homeland, Ms Andrisani said she could not sit back and do nothing.

“Don’t wait for the government, people need to do something, it’s a public revolution,” she said.

Fico owners Federica Andrisani and Oskar Rossi will be closing their restaurant in the coming week due to coronavirus. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

It looked like any other busy Saturday at Salamanca Market on Saturday, with tourists rubbing shoulders as they perused handmade goods and scoffed mini pancakes.

Timber artisans Justin and Linda Fry were among the stallholders chatting with customers, while privately burdened with the likelihood it was their last market for the foreseeable future.

“This is devastating for us,” said Mrs Fry. “We’ve got to pay our mortgage and family expenses and our income is just being shut off.”

The Frys have sold their handcrafted Tasmanian timber wares at the market for 29 years.

“We’ve always been proud that we have always supported ourselves, but as of Monday we are in the position of having to go to Centrelink,” Mrs Fry said.

Linda and Justin Fry who operate stall Salamanca Woodcraft at the Salamanca Markets are concerned how a closure to the market would affect stallholders. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

Susan Campbell, who runs Bagdad Pottery, said stallholders had been “blindsided” by the likely closure of the market.

“It’s not just about retail, the market offers an opportunity for a whole experience, you come and listen to musicians, enjoy some Tasmanian whisky, it’s an amalgam,” she said.

Hobart’s popular Farm Gate Market is going ahead on Sunday, but the market’s Friday night sister event, Street Eats @ Franko, which was due to run until the end of April, will likely be called off.

Organiser Madi Seeber-Peattie said she felt “the weight of the world” on her shoulders as she planned how to keep the Sunday market running to protect the income of growers and producers.

“There’s no assistance for sole traders and the risk is potentially a lot of these small producers go out of business, it’s devastating,” she said.

“I think Monday will be an important day because we’ll get that determination from the Federal Government of what is considered ‘essential’.”

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