The Beauty Bar owner Gemma James said the latest round of business support packages won't help her small business.

"I've applied five times for different grants, this time and I can't get any of them," she said. "The small business grants only apply if you're paying GST, but I don't earn enough to pay that.

"Realistically, these small businesses should be the ones who need these grants the most, but instead we're expected to keep dipping into our savings.

"If this keeps going the way it's going I'm going to have to close the salon and open one from home where I don't have overhead costs."

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Miss James said her clientele was split 50/50 between NSW and Victorian residents and she was due to have one of her busiest weekends before the lockdown restrictions were announced.

"I was due to make around $1500 over Friday and Saturday as there was the Echuca United Football Club ball and I was booked out with makeup appointments," she said.

"I should have made a profit of around $2000-$3000 for the week but instead I only took home around $800.

"It really does feel like all doom and gloom. There's a big whole in my pocket from forking out all this money to stay afloat and I'm just waiting for people to come back in."

Further up Hare Street, The Sweet Meadow owner Aishe Besim took to social media on Friday to show her community the devastation "only" five days of lockdown has on her business.

With a significant drop in income for the months a Victorian lockdown took place in 2021, Mss Besim said the frustration was real with little warning given about the state's fifth lockdown.

"My main issue is the lack of notice, it's especially damaging in an industry with perishable items," she said.

"This time around, it's a suffocating feeling and there's been no JobKeeper either which is affecting our consumer's disposable incomes.

"What's happening to the hospitality industry isn't profit-making, this is simply minimising loss.

Miss Besim counted her café as one of the lucky ones; with a majorly young clientele and a tight community, orders over the phone are made easier.

"Of the four days of lockdown we've already had, the weekends are definitely busier than weekdays, but there's still about a 50 per cent drop straightaway," she said.

"It takes time for takeaway to develop. Last year with the amount of time we were in lockdown it was almost comparable. But we had JobKeeper then too.

"Without that government support I don't think I'll see those types of numbers again.

"You're either drowning in worry or overwhelmed with how busy it is when everything re-opens."

Murray River Council has pledged to launch a campaign to get the NSW border region turned green once the current coronavirus outbreaks are under control.

Aimed at the Victorian Government, councillors will request an urgent meeting with Ministers to restore the green status of the border bubble, whilst also working to deliver a wider campaign on this issue into Victoria.

Rich River Golf Club marketing manager Paul Lavars said it was vital the twin towns were united for businesses to survive.

"Around 90 per cent of of clientele are from Victorian and we derive 95 per cent of business out of the state," he said. "We've hit the skids basically.

"We're getting a bit of business out of our Moama residents who are very supportive but we live in a place where there's a population of 20,000 in Echuca who can't come over and only 6,000 in Moama.

"The only way we're going to do business is if we're made a green zone and an extension of Victoria."

Mr Lavars said Rich River's accommodation was 100 per cent booked for this week and had been reduced to two per cent occupancy after Victoria's lockdown was announced.

For the venue, this is the first lockdown they have been eligible to receive NSW grants since the beginning of the pandemic.

"The only reason we're receiving compensation now is because something happened in NSW," he said. "We'd been forgotten before the Sydney lockdown.

"We didn't get support any time Victoria was in lockdown and we were affected every time.

"Our community has been working really hard to help us all through be we just need a really common sense decision now.

"If Victoria can come good and we can be an extension with green zone, Moama can survive into the future."

Echuca Moama Tourism chief executive Kathryn Mackenzie said confusion around the border bubble and who can travel where was deterring visitation to the region well beyond the lockdown timeframes.

"It's so frustrating, we operate as one town," she said. "Our visitors come to Echuca-Moama and don't differentiate between the two towns.

"The current rules are not logical when you look at these border communities because we all work and mingle together.

"It would be like drawing a line down Bourke Street and saying one side can trade and the other can't."

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Ms Mackenzie said the two sets of rules for each side of the Murray were driving businesses to the ground and hurting families after one Rochester family was forced to find accommodation in Moama so their children could attend school.

"I think we need one ruling for border towns because right now this is closing down our communities," she said.

"We've had five lockdowns this year alone between the towns; it's very hard on our tourism and our community."

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