By Dongyun Kwon
Walking along the main street of Healesville, it’s getting easier to see either empty buildings or signs of closing-down businesses.
Crumbz has turned into an online shop since Monday 3 March, after 14 years of operation.
Mobihub removed its Healesville branch last October.
Grandma’s Gift Shoppe also left the town and the building is remaining empty.
The Bodhi Tree announced the permanent closure through its Facebook page.
CreditorWatch is a commercial credit agency, which provides businesses access to unique data through solutions covering the entire customer lifecycle, from customer onboarding and credit decision automation to credit risk management and automated collections.
According to the data on business failure rates for all Victorian regions for the 12 months to 28 Feb 2025 supplied by CreditorWatch, the average business failure rate for all Australian regions is 5.09 per cent while Yarra Ranges sits around mid-range for Victoria at 5 per cent.
The business failure rate has been rising consistently since October 2023 and reached 5.10 per cent in January 2025, which was its highest point since August 2020.
CreditorWatch chief executive officer Patrick Coghlan said all regions have experienced an increase in the business failure rate post-Covid.
“Government support measures such as JobKeeper and a hands-off approach to debt collection from large creditors such as the Australian Taxation Office and big banks during the pandemic, helped reduce the business failure rate during that period,” he said.
“These measures prolonged the demise of some businesses that were already in trouble. Once they stopped receiving assistance, they were no longer able to survive, the so-called zombie businesses.
“Since then, high inflation and a higher interest rate regime have contributed to business closures as well, particularly those that are reliant on the discretionary spending of consumers such as hospitality.
“Cutting spending in this area is one of the few levers households can pull to reduce costs. It might be eating out less at restaurants, bringing your lunch to work or having one less coffee per day.”
The craft store, Crumbz, was originally opened up at the other end of town, where Mugshots Hair Dressers is currently located, in 2011.
The business expanded and moved to the location where it finally closed down.
Shop owner Kay Trembath said she decided to close down the brick-and-mortar store but continue to run the online store.
“It’s a personal choice. We tried to sell it, but we couldn’t get a buyer for it, and then we had to renew our lease but we didn’t want to renew for another three years,” she said.
“We considered everything like the volatility of the economic climate as it costs a lot to run a business these days. But, it wasn’t just that. It was other things as well.
“It’s tough doing business at the moment, so going online will be interesting.”
Looking back on her 14 years of journey in Healesville, Ms Trembath said it was “the best experience” in her working life.
“I’ve loved every minute of it, loved the locals and community. It was not like coming to work at all. It was just somewhere I came to spend time with like-minded people,” she said.
“I’d had my sadness earlier in the (last week of the brick-and-mortar store). So we had a little bit of a celebration with the staff and some customers came in, and we definitely felt the love.
“We got lots of beautiful flowers and bottles of champagne and lovely cards. That just made us feel better about everything.”
Along the way, Crumbz aimed at spreading good influences in the community.
The business not only raised funds for people in need but also educated children with life-long skills.
The shopowner said Crumbz was able to reach and help a lot of different people through crafts.
“We did raise money for cystic fibrosis, for brain cancer, and for kids with cancer. Beyond Blue was one of the other ones we raised money for,” she said.
“We also spent time educating young people. So we taught kids to knit, and we entered the Lilydale Show, and we did lots of really wonderful things with children.”
Despite the closure of the offline store, Crumbz remains an online shop and provides a click-and-collect service at the Healesville Library every Wednesday from 11am to 1pm.
Customers can choose an option to pick up at the library in the checkout process.
“They can still have it posted, but they can select it to pick up at the library. If they’ve got any technical questions or need help with a knitting project, they can also pop in and ask,” Ms Trembath said.
“If they want to see any new products, we can take it down to the library and they can have a look at it. It’s just a way for us to connect with the local community and to help those people who don’t shop online. They can certainly give us a call and we can process their order over the phone for them.
“But if they can shop online, that’s great. They can do it when they want and just pick it up at the library on a Wednesday.”
Being asked about the last word to the community, the shopowner said nothing but “thank you”.
“I would just like to thank the community for their love and support over the years,” Ms Trembath said.
“We’ve made lifelong friends out of this process, and everybody that stepped through the door meant something to us, and so we really have appreciated the kindness that came from this beautiful community.
“Personally, the staff members I worked with were great people and highly skilled.”
Unlike the Crumbz’s case, Mobihub struggled with the financial challenges with its Healesville branch throughout the years.
Mobihub opened the Healesville shop in 2022 after the shopowner noticed many customers from Healesville travelled to his Lilydale store to get their phones fixed.
Unfortunately, one more phone repair shop was launched at the same time period which made the shop difficult to attract customers.
Mobihub owner Syed Faiq said if he had known of another phone repair shop opening, he would never have opened his shop in Healesville.
“We had a good customer base but it was not that busy. It was only about 10 per cent of customers compared to the Lilydale one,” he said.
“In Healesville, the rental fee soared from $2500 to $2800 per month within one year. (The rental fee) was much higher than the Lilydale store which is $2200 right now.
“We talked to the agent but they were not willing to negotiate with the landlord.”
Mr Faiq claimed the landlord could still get financial benefits from negative gearing despite losing the tenant.
Negative gearing is a commonly used term used to describe a situation where expenses associated with an asset including interest expenses are greater than the income earned from the asset, which can apply to any type of investment.
Individuals who are negatively geared can deduct their loss against other income, such as salary and wages.
“A lot of property owners (in Healesville) are investor companies,” Mr Faiq said.
“Those investors who pay lots of tax can get benefits from negative gearing. It is better for them not to reduce the rent for tenants but to keep the shop empty.
“The lease for the Healesville one was for three years. Before us, there was a jewellery shop which left after eight months of operation. Within three years, two people took the shop and left and now the shop is still empty.”
Reforming negative gearing has been a hot potato nationally, but only confined to housing properties, not expanded to commercial properties yet, as one of the ways to sort out the housing crisis by getting more available options in the market.
The Bondi Tree announced its closure through Facebook expressing the sadness of the difficult decision and the gratitude to the local community and the crew.
“After eight years of serving our community, we have reached the time to say goodbye to our beloved, unique, gorgeous and quaint little space,” it reads.
“We are deeply grateful for the incredible support you’ve shown us throughout our journey. Your patronage, laughter, support and shared memories have been the heart and soul of our restaurant … I would personally like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our dedicated Bodhi Crew past and present, who have brought Bodhi to life. I wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
“While this is not the news I wished to share, I want to assure you that this decision was not made lightly. This closure breaks my heart but I now need to put my family along with my own health and wellbeing as my number one priority.”
Star Mail contacted the Grandma’s Gift Shoppe.
Although most of the decisions were made due to personal circumstances except for the Mobihub case, Star Mail was wondering how the recent Reserve Bank of Australia’s announcement of the interest rate cut would impact the local businesses.
Mr Coghlan said the impacts of at least a couple of cuts will need to be felt by consumers to get them spending again.
“Interest rate reductions (more than one) and the July 2024 tax cuts will certainly help cool things down, but businesses remain under pressure from price rises, wage increases and the impacts of lower consumer demand,” he said.
“We expect this to continue until cost-of-living pressures alleviate and consumer confidence picks up.
“The other big unknown is the impact of the threatened tariff regime of the Trump administration in the US, which could increase inflation.”
