By Jed Lanyon
As the state’s lockdown extended into another week, residents and businesses owners are looking towards the potential easing of restrictions by Friday 11 June ahead of the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
The state government announced a $32.2 million Regional Tourism Support Package on Sunday 6 June. Half of the money will go towards 10,000 more regional travel vouchers (which included the Yarra Ranges in the scheme’s first two rounds).
The package is said to provide $11.8 million to support eligible Victorian tourism businesses with grant top-ups for the current Business Costs Assistance Program. The remaining amount is for the Alpine Support Program, an investment of $4.4 million to support Victoria’s alpine resorts as they prepare for the return of skiers and snowboarders.
Speaking prior to the funding announcement, Yarra Ranges Tourism CEO Simon O’Callaghan feared any funding wouldn’t amount to the losses through a quiet winter period.
“Obviously it has devastated businesses who had held stock for weddings and events in the first week and that has a significant impact in waste and costs that businesses can’t recuperate.
“For some businesses, coming into winter, every dollar counts right now. Many of them are seriously hurting coming into winter in a market that generally gets softer for us without running for weeks without any income, particularly when the government grant doesn’t equate anywhere near the losses these businesses will see on a weekly basis.
“There are a whole heap of other small businesses in the tourism sector that won’t be eligible for any grants that are available because of their size and business structure.”
With the upcoming Queen’s Birthday long weekend, Mr O’Callaghan anticipated a busy week for businesses if restrictions were eased.
“We don’t understand the implications of the long weekend yet… If Melburnians are allowed to move within metropolitan Melbourne, then we’d expect the Yarra Valley to be absolutely overrun no matter what the weather or conditions.”
But Mr Merlino had cautioned that movement will continue to be restricted between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
“Even if all goes well we won’t be able to have people travelling from Melbourne to regional Victoria over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, the risk of exposure is just too high,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday 2 June.
Residents from regional Victoria will only be able to travel into Metropolitan Melbourne for permitted reasons and will have to abide by the area’s restrictions.
Mr Merlino cautioned the government would “carefully ease restrictions” following the lockdown period.
Minor changes to restrictions were announced. For Melbourne, there are still only five reasons to leave home: shopping for food and supplies, authorised work and study, care and caregiving, exercise, and getting vaccinated.
People can travel further for exercise and shopping, with an expanded 10km radius.
Kids in Year 11 and 12 have returned to face-to-face learning. That included students in other year levels who are doing a Unit 3/4 VCE or VCAL subject, while that class is being taught.
A number of outdoor jobs were added to the authorised list – things like landscaping, painting, installing solar panels, or letterboxing. Other restrictions – including mask wearing – remained the same.
But while some industries resumed, the extended lockdown means another tough spell for local businesses, who have been forced to turn to click-and-collect. For Auto-One Woori Yallock, it’s another week of only being able to service customers over the phone.
The store’s assistant manager Daniel Jennings told Star Mail, “We’re running around like headless chooks trying to get everything sorted. It’s hard on us and it’s hard on the customers.
“We’re sympathetic and empathetic with everyone that is affected. It’s tough and we’re trying our best and everyone else is trying their best, so hopefully it’s all over soon.”
