"It's a good time for staff to have a holiday, even though they won't be able to go anywhere," he said. "We did takeaway meals throughout and after the first set of stage three restrictions.

"It would not be in the best interests of the pub's viability to continue doing takeaways for six weeks."

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Nick Murray, who runs Horsham's Exchange Hotel and is the Australian Hotels Association's Wimmera regional councillor, says this time will be worse than last for regional watering holes.

"I think the first time around, people were geared up and had a mentality to support local pubs," he said.

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"Now it's more like 'Oh god, not again'. People will bunker down a little bit. The other thing is a lot of people are doing it tough and it's expensive to get takeaways."

Mr Murray said the AHA had been working with the state government behind the scenes to get a "tailored solution". "We are saying places like Horsham are different to places like Richmond, so there needs to be a targeted approach," he said.

"(While) we are sympathetic to Melbourne and the shutting down of regional Victoria... the fact remains small country towns with no cases are a lot different to major provincial centres and the city."

Mr Murray said the Exchange would stay open for takeaway meals for a week after lockdowns came back in, to determine whether it was viable to stay open any longer thereafter.

"While there is not a lot people can do other than try and get around their local pub - some pubs are doing takeaway tap beer as well as meals - more importantly when the pub does open, get back to it," he said.

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"What we are sacred of is people are drinking at home, and that will impact on trying to get people back."

At Victoria on the Park Hotel, publican Mark Fitterer said his business would be open seven days a week for takeaway dinners, and Wednesday to Sunday for lunches.

Publican Steph Pilmore said the Victoria Hotel would also be offering takeaway meals once lockdowns came in. It's bottle shop will also still operate.

For its last night of on-premises trade on Wednesday, the hotel is offering a "Drink Us Dry" promotion.

"We just want to be able to empty out our kegs, so we've put on a happy hour price for most of the day," he said. "We may end up with another six weeks of lockdown after this State of Disaster, so we are trying to offload some stock.

"Obviously people still have to drink responsibly. The seats are booked out, so it's pretty good."

Ararat Hotel publican John Williams said the pub will shut fully for the six weeks. It has not been doing meals all year.

Across the road at the Rex Hotel, publican Hayden Crawford said takeaway and delivery would be available seven nights a week.

"We have been doing six nights a week, but now there is nothing for us to do other than work," he said.

"We are going to try and keep staff on, but people need to support all small businesses in town for that to happen. If they don't, when (the restrictions end) there won't be small businesses. it's not just about money, it's about community."

ARARAT NEWS:

Tamara Nossack, of Apsley's Border Inn, said the pub would revert back to doing takeaway meals and drinks only, as it had during the first stage three period.

She said a combination of Victorian lockdowns and the closure of the nearby South Australian border had meant the pub needed JobKeeper to survive.

"We had the bar open and everything, and now everything is shut. We have kegs we don't know what we are going to do with," she said.

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