Coolas Ice Creamery owner and manager Claire Smith said her business were working hard to satisfy a town flooded with tourists.

"The week between Christmas and the New Year was absolutely insane, it was like nothing we had ever seen before," she said.

"Lifting 'the ring of steel' has definitely seen a boom for Halls Gap and for us.

"This period has actually felt a lot like Easter, it is normally our busiest time of the year, but it only goes for four days, but this went for almost a week.

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"We have been really busy all the way through, it has quietened down and hasn't been as busy as the Christmas-New Year period, but that's the case every year and leading up to Australia Day we expect it will pick up again."

Ms Smith said she her and her staff had been working extra hours and doing all they could to meet the demand.

"We have been working very hard, its been a very busy time and we couldn't do that without our staff and we couldn't do it without putting in massive hours ourselves," she said.

"Our staff are working big hours, as are all the owners in the business we are all working fairly big hours and we do every year."

"It's been so busy we have been running around trying to get stock, we have been making extra trips to the shops around town and in Ballarat or Horsham to try and get that extra stock.

It has definitely been a busy time 100 per cent."

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Ms Smith also said her business was trying its best to overcome some staffing and services challenges in the area.

"I think there is definitely a staff shortage in Halls Gap, but I think that relates to the border closures and lack of backpackers," she said.

"A lot of the jobs in Halls Gap that are usually filled with backpackers, so that is making a bit of a shortage.

"We have a lot of kids who work out here, so we tend to have them work at a certain time and finish at times so they can car pool with other staff, we don't necessarily need them for all of those hours, but its something we do to ensure we can get staff.

"So we have to make allowances for things like that and try to make things as easy as possible for everyone."

Ms Smith also said all the businesses around Halls Gap were working just as hard.

"It's not just us, there are so many business out here working so hard to maintain that service for everyone," she said.

"We know other business have had to deal with other pressures like seating capacity and stuff like that, so all the businesses in Halls Gap are going through different things.

"We just want everyone to know we are one of many businesses in Halls Gap operating at a massive capacity to try and serve our customers.

"We are here, we are serving lots of ice-creams, lots of hot dogs, lots of coffees and we are here for you."

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