Towns in lockdown
Despite sharing more in common with regional Victoria than metropolitan suburbs, townships in Cardinia Shire such as Garfield and Bunyip are currently under stage four restrictions imposed on the 31 municipalities that cover greater Melbourne.
While less than 10 kilometres from the Baw Baw Shire and what is considered regional Victoria, Bunyip and Garfield are officially part of Melbourne - no matter how rural they seem.
With shopping restricted to essential businesses such as supermarkets, food shops, bottle shops and pharmacies, the streets of Garfield and Bunyip on a Tuesday afternoon are noticeably quieter than normal. With “click and collect” the only option for other retailers, and only one person per household being allowed to do the daily shop, car and foot traffic is noticeably low.
However, proprietors of businesses that have continued to operate are heartened by the support they have received from locals in recent months and are hopeful that this support extends to other local businesses as they are allowed to reopen fully.
John Preston of Garfield Country Style Meats has continued to trade during the latest lockdown and thinks that the restrictions on people’s movement, such as not travelling more than five kilometres to shop, has changed buying patterns. “I think we have been quite lucky,” he said. “Under normal conditions, some people might drive to Warragul, Drouin or Pakenham to do their grocery shopping, however as people are encouraged to stay closer to home, they are doing more of their shopping locally.”
Narai Jung from the Garfield Pharmacy and Medical Centre agrees with John and says that things have largely been business as usual. Like John, she thinks the mix of customers has changed. “I think a lot of people in the area would normally travel to Melbourne for work and perhaps do more of their shopping there. With people working from home more, we have seen some different customers than normal,” Narai said.
Under stage four restrictions cafes are still able to operate as take away only. For proprietor of Biddy Martha's Cafe in Bunyip, Gavin Saunders, business has had its challenges. “Not being able to have sit down business obviously affects turnover and has caused us to scale down a bit,” he said.
“However, we are pretty fortunate that we can still operate.” Like a lot of hospitality businesses, Biddy Marthas has innovated in these trying times and as well as a dedicated walk up coffee window, the business has started doing take away dinners on weekends.
Gavin is happy that locals seem to have converted to the takeaway option as he thinks it will be a feature for some time. “While pizza and fish and chip shops are busy, we have been lucky that locals have embraced our takeaway options such as curries and other more homemade style meals.”
With restrictions around retail and hospitality in Metropolitan Melbourne unlikely to change until November 23, business has never faced a tougher time. However, local support enjoyed by those who have been able to continue to operate perhaps gives some hope to those waiting to reopen.