Stawell's hospitality businesses have been hit hard by the latest COVID-19 lockdown in the state and are hoping good news is on the way soon after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday the state was "well-placed" for the five-day snap lockdown to be lifted.
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Café 1868 owner Joanne White said she was keenly awaiting tomorrow's announcement with much of her business on the line.
"I was pretty devastated (when I heard the news) because we had some catering jobs booked in for Wednesday, I have other events booked in for Thursday and Friday with lunch bookings for the rest of the week," she said.
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"So the catering has been postponed for now and we have to wait until we hear the government's direction for tomorrow, and if they extend the lockdown then all the other bookings will have to be cancelled as well.
"It's a huge financial loss for businesses and we haven't heard if we are going to get any kind of compensation this time around, like they gave us with the other lockdowns.
"So it's a huge loss to businesses who are trying to recoup some our losses after last year, and now we are back to square one."
Café 1868 have reduced its service to just preparing food to order, while other business in the town, like the Gift Hotel, have closed until they are able to have guests.
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"We have had to cut back to just being open for a few hours over lunch time and do take-aways, because we were stuck with lots of fresh produce, so we've been open to try and move some of that stock through," she said.
"It's all just made to order, there's no point having a cabinet full of food when the streets are dead."
Ms White is hoping for good news on Wednesday with the impending announcement from the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews about restrictions easing.
But she said 24 hours wasn't much time to get prepared and hopes residents spend locally to help businesses recover again.
"You just have to do the best you can, we might have to limit menu items until we get on top of things and we might have to reduce our menu to what we have," she said.
"It's important for people not to be complacent and think businesses are going to be there no matter what, so it is important for people to spend their money locally and help businesses as much as you can."
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