The possible loosening of lockdown laws across Victoria in the coming days will have varied effects on different industries, say city business leaders.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday announced a three-step plan to get the Australian economy moving again, beginning with stage one, which all state's can implement at their discretion.
The first stage allows for the reopening of restaurants, cafes and shopping centres, but with a caveat of a maximum of 10 people at time in those businesses.
It also includes a maximum of five visitors at your home at once and the ability to exercise and have public gathering up to 10 people.
The Provincial Hotel's Simon Coghlan said the biggest challenge facing the hospitality industry was gaining a critical mass to become viable again.
"You can't have a restaurant that's one-quarter open for the service required," Mr Coghlan said.
"The hospitality industry requires the hotels and restaurants to be full on a Friday and Saturday to offset the quiet night earlier in the week.
"You're simply not going to get the volume in order to pay the bills."
While Lola at the Provincial has remained open during the pandemic, serving takeaway food seven nights a week, Mr Coghlan said the restaurant would have closed if it wasn't for government concessions and an understanding landlord.
"We are looking at coming up with plans to reintroduce the service, but right now the unknown will be how many people will have money to spend?" he said.
"Hospitality is very much discretionary, not essential, people have to have the spare cash to spend.
"We'll wait for Monday and see what it looks like."
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has said no changes will occur in the state before Monday when the State of Emergency is slated to end.
The retail sector has largely returned in the past two weeks, however one major retailer which has yet to open its doors in Ballarat is Myer.
A spokesman for Myer said the national brand was in the process of reopening seven of its 60 stores, (five in Queensland and two in New South Wales), but as yet had not made a firm decision on when Victoria stores, including Ballarat, would reopen.
However he reaffirmed the store's commitment to Ballarat and to planned renovations of the Sturt Street site, saying as soon as a decision was made, it would be communicated.
Stage one also offers up a return to locals and regional travel, which could be seen as some sort of win for the tourism industry.
Curator at the Ballarat Wildlife Park Julia Leonard said as soon as it could, the park would open its doors to the public.
"Even just being able to have our local members, just having them come through the door, to spend some money, eat at the cafeteria, have the animal experiences and buy souvenirs, it will be really worthwhile," she said.
"If it allows for regional travel and we'll be able to have visitors from Melbourne come to the park, that will be great.
"We're not sure of what the plan will entail, but if we're included in that, we will absolutely be ready to open. Before we closed, we were making sure about sanitising, social distancing, we will go back to what we had in place.
"Hopefully other places will also be able to return, we need money coming back into Ballarat."
The City of Ballarat said it would eagerly await direction from the state government before it made any decisions as to what services may be the first to reopen.
It is understood the Ballarat Animal Shelter could be one of the first to open up again to pet adoptions should restrictions be eased in coming days.
"The City of Ballarat will continue to adhere to federal and state government advice concerning COVID-19. Ballarat residents have done an exceptional job in following official regulations and we thank them for it," Mayor Ben Taylor said..
"We look forward to the state government's announcement on Monday about possible changes to restrictions."
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