Salamanca market stallholders join calls to ease COVID-19 internal restrictions

Salamanca stallholders have joined calls for an easing of internal restrictions, while the city council is ready to put on a bigger market if the state government decides to allow more than 500 people attend at a time.

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SALAMANCA market stallholders have joined calls for an easing of internal restrictions, saying Tasmanians should be given more freedom.

Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said the city council was ready to put on a bigger market that still complied with COVID safety restrictions, if the state government decided to allow more than 500 people attend at a time.

“There’s certainly the demand for more people and we’d be ready to accommodate a bigger market with a bigger footprint and we could still put in the social distancing,” Cr Reynolds said.

Stallholders Association public officer Susan Campbell, who runs the Bagdad Pottery stall, said the council was doing all it could within the restrictions, but things were about to get tougher unless the cap on attendees was lifted.

Only 80 stalls are allowed to operate each Saturday and with more stallholders keen to take part, the initial two-week rotation was likely to blow out to three or even four weeks, Ms Campbell said.

“Permanent stallholders have had a license for five years to trade here and many have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into equipment and infrastructure,” she said.

“If they can only trade once a month because of restrictions on people accessing the market, it’s extremely difficult to swallow. Most people would accept closed borders even for a longer period — it’s the internal restrictions that need to be lifted.”

Woodworkers Linda and Justin Fry were dismayed by the likelihood they would no longer be able to attend every two weeks.

Justin and Linda Fry of Salamanca Woodcraft. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

“It’s been really good. We’re probably doing about half of what we were last year but it’s still a positive thing to come down and be here. It’s definitely worthwhile and much better than the doom and gloom we were feeling when it first started,” Mrs Fry said.

“The fact we don’t have it here and the impact it’s having on businesses, they need to open things up to Tasmanians.

“It’s nice to be making some money ourselves, rather than relying completely on JobKeeper. We’ve had lots of Tasmanians supporting us and they’re not asking for discounts, they’re happy to pay the price,” she said.

At the Grizzly Hatters stall, owners Jake and Tanya Mikoda were weighing up whether to continue operating at the market, given their trade had been so low compared with pre-COVID.

Tanya Mikoda. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

“At the end of this we’ll have to do the adding up and see if it’s worth coming,” Mr Mikoda said.

However, the couple said a second outbreak was “the last thing we need”.

“We don’t want to be shut down overnight,” Mr Mikoda said.