Drinks flowed, friends caught up and patrons enjoyed live music as pubs, restaurants and cafes moved to phase three on Saturday.
After almost three months of lockdown, reopening their doors was a celebration for many businesses in the Peel region.
The Bridge Garden Bar and Red Manna owner Jason Hutchen has relied heavily on the JobKeeper program to keep his staff employed but said "everyone was happy" to be able to open again, given the losses from COVID-19.
"The Bridge was booked out all weekend and it was great to see Red Manna full on Saturday night," he said.
"With 70 odd people in the bar the atmosphere was amazing."
Peel projects an air of optimism
Just a week ago, Nourishing the Soul cafe was one of the only businesses in the Peel region with signs of life but now hundreds of cafes, restaurants and pubs are bustling once again.
"We were open the whole time for takeaways but people could only picnic in the park then," Nourishing the Soul cafe owner Paige Baylis said.
"Customers are happy to be out and about and they are so happy they can actually dine in now."
Pubs to face new challenges
Sign in sheets, seating rules and time limits were the new normal when pubs reopened over the weekend.
Under the new rules, people must be seated to consume alcohol and extra cleaning measures are in place.
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Although the Bridge Garden Bar had less occupancy than normal, Mr Hutchen said he would need more staff than usual to police new COVID-19 rules.
"Asking people to be seated when they're drinking is like a full time job so we actually incurred more cost in staff wages policing all that," Mr Hutchen said.
"We also had live music and people wanted to get up and dance but they couldn't due to restrictions."
Peel music industry revived
The hospitality and music industry are working together to get many local musicians back playing gigs.
With many venues still closed, Bleeding Ears Music and Special Events manager Dave Feenstra said Peel musicians are relying on local pubs and cafes to make an income.
"The City of Mandurah and pubs like the Ravenswood Hotel have been proactive in trying to promote local musicians," he said.
"We recently had three local musicians, James Walker, John Read and Chris Matthews all perform live to air on local radio and it was live streamed on the City of Mandurah's facebook page with a total reach of around 18,000 people."
