"It was worse than we expected," owner of Daylesford Cider Company in Musk, Clare Mackie said.

"Last Friday we made a total of $140 with four staff on."

Ms Mackie had to refund 95 per cent of the bookings made for the weekend period. She's expecting the same for the upcoming Queen's Birthday long weekend.

"I would say we're down more than 500 per cent, but we will continue to trade for our casual staff who might rely on this as their only income," Ms Mackie said.

Businesses closer to the main thoroughfare of Daylesford still took a substantial hit.

Bec Mason owns The Farmer's Wife, a clothes shop on Vincent Street she opened in October 2020 following the success of a flagship store in Creswick.

"We were down at least 60 per cent over the weekend," Ms Mason said.

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"We did have to cut a lot of our casuals hours, but we got website design done and had team bonding days so we could still pay our staff at least half of their hours.

"People still have to pay their bills and rent and stuff. I don't know what we'll do if it goes on longer than two weeks."

Ms Mason said customers were usually very compliant with checking in via QR code and when asked to show their ID, but she doesn't want business owners to be responsible for turning away rule breakers.

"I don't 100 per cent agree that it should be on business's shoulders to act like law enforcement," she said.

"We're a very welcoming store and it goes against the grain. I feel quite compassionate for people in Melbourne too, it's a very difficult thing they've gone through."

While The Farmer's Wife didn't see any Melbourne IDs over the weekend, Ms Mackie said the Daylesford Cider Company turned away two patrons with city addresses on their licenses.

"They were cool about it, she said she lived here with her partner for ages and hadn't changed her address, but we can't even accept stat decs at the moment so we had to ask them to leave."

Right next door to The Farmer's Wife is Jilly Howard's home goods store Cedar and Sage, which also opened in October 2020. Ms Howard saw 25% of her usual trade on Sunday and thinks the knock on effects of the most recent lockdown will be difficult to bounce back from.

"I can't really see that we'll recover this winter, even though the lockdown may ease," Ms Howard said.

"If we're quiet, then that means we don't order as much stock until we gain momentum again, and then it's just an ongoing impact for all businesses and suppliers."

Twenty minutes further from town, Mitch Reed Rogers who opened the Trentham General about nine months ago says business owners haven't received enough support from the government.

"We're figuring it out as we go along, there's been no direct communication from any authority," Mr Reed Rogers said.

"I called Business Victoria and they had no idea, they told us we don't even need to check IDs so I had to look it up for myself."

Ms Mason from The Farmer's Wife agrees.

"I hate getting all political but I don't like that we've gone back into a situation of creating an "us and them" with Melbourne visitors."

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