Hospitality businesses across central Victoria are overjoyed to re-open after the state's sixth lockdown came to a close in regional areas.
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Food and hospitality are now open for seated service only. There is a density requirement of one person per four square-metres with a maximum of 100 people per venue.
Venues smaller than 100sqm can have up to 25 people before density requirements apply, and face masks are still mandatory indoors and outdoors.
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Green Olive café part-owner and coffee roaster Scott Lindsay said the requirement for staff in hospitality venues to check the identification details of all customers to ensure nobody from Melbourne was breaking the rules was onerous, and remained a significant challenge.
"But it's not our biggest issue," he said.
"Customers who refuse to obey the rules and wear a mask remain our biggest problem.
"I get it that people get grumpy and they get frustrated and they just want to take it out on someone, but it's not right or appropriate to take it out on hospitality staff."
Hotel Shamrock owner Ray Sharawara was pleased when he learnt the lockdown restrictions were easing and understood some strict rules needed to remain.
"It was totally unexpected given the situation in Melbourne but we've always argued and hoped the government could control the spread of COVID by contact tracing and it appears the government is prepared to take that risk on and say 'we think people will do the right thing in regional Victoria'," he said.
"I'm thankful we can open but I am aware there are more risks with people leaving Melbourne to come to regional areas and we have to be right on top of it.
"Last time we definitely had people from Melbourne and we hope people do the right thing."
The hotel and restaurant owner said from previous lockdowns where restrictions had been stricter on Melbourne residents, the accommodation industry in Bendigo took a longer time to bounce back.
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Mr Sharawara said the snap decisions to take regional Victoria in and out of lockdown had some effect on food wastage and supply levels for restaurants.
"The short notice works both ways," he said. "Locking down causes wastage but now we're good at keeping food and if we have perishables we tend to give them away.
"The short notice to resupply does cause some drama and you'll see venues shorten their menus with practicality on the mind.
"Our staff is on standby all the time now but we are seeing the problem that because of the uncertainty young people are now reluctant to say 'I want to work in hospitality' and they're leaving for something more reliable and steady.
"On the whole, most operators in Bendigo are very good at getting the job done."
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