THE ban of construction workers from being on the job for at least two weeks will not only affect building sites, but hundreds of local businesses that rely on their custom every day.
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Unless Ballarat is given a reprieve on Wednesday and released from what was a planned seven-day lockdown, for many business that rely on walk-up trade, it could spell disaster.
With office workers unable to return to their businesses and now construction workers now unable to work, many food vendors across Ballarat will be forced to lay-off staff, cancel orders and possibly even close up shop until their customers are able to return.
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Grab-A-Bite Takeaway in Creswick Road sits in the middle of a number of construction sites.
It has recently lost customers due to the completion of the GovHub building, and will now be forced to carry on without the support of workers at builds such as the nearby Nightingale Apartments and the new Haymes Paints showroom, just to name two, until Ballarat's lockdown is lifted.
Owners Lachlan and Liz Berriman said they would need to decide if they would remain open after Wednesday or operate on reduced hours, if lockdown was to continue.
"Right now the tradies are gone, we are thinking of closing or reduced hours," Ms Berriman said. "It's just a snowball effect one thing after another.
"Tradies are the only things that have been keeping the economy going for a lot of us. After the tradies goes, it will have an effect on all businesses after it.
"I don't think they've looked into how it effects others. What's going to be next, is it mechanics? Is it postal deliveries? We just don't know where it will end.
"Even delivery truck, a tradie might work out of three places, but a delivery truck might go to 50, these are all the things that are going to be impacted on."
Ms Berriman said at this stage it was just her and her husband Lachlan who were left running the takeaways outlet, unable to afford to put more staff at this time. She said excess stock will mean they open on Wednesday, but after that remained uncertain.
