Lockdown stress hits South West tourism region

Residents in Perth, and the Peel and South West regions have been instructed to remain at home unless completing essential work or tasks, with face masks a mandatory requirement outside the home for people over the age of 12.

As news of the lockdown broke on Sunday and with just hours to spare before the rules came into effect, locals in the Augusta Margaret River region headed to supermarkets, petrol stations and hardware stores to stock up on essentials for the week ahead.

Masks were in high demand, and local supplies were soon sold out. A number of creative and enterprising residents were soon sewing cloth masks for sale via social media channels.

Parents preparing to send their children to their first day of the school year were left scrambling for childcare solutions, and teachers awaiting the arrival of their new students were forced to put learning schedules on hold for at least another week.

With testing underway in earnest across the metro area and uncertainty over the eventual length of the shutdowns, the Mail spoke with members of the local community to see how they are adapting, and surviving, under the cloud of COVID-19.

In the last 24 hours with news of the lockdown, I found my son wouldn't be starting day one of Year 1 at school. It was going to be a special day, a coming of age moment.

To adapt to the changes at work, I contacted the assistant manager, Beth and asked her to buy enough face masks for the team, implement the SafeWA register immediately (it was due to commence 12th February) and ensure all customers have a face mask. No mask, no service, no exceptions.

We have had sanitiser stations available all the time since last lockdown. Communicating with my team, they welcome the policies.

We are all in this together so hopefully our customers respect the policies in place as we are only a team of five and hopefully it will only be 5 days.

It was all a bit surreal when the news came through. It didn't take long before friends and colleagues were messaging with concerns and questions.

As a teacher, I was waiting for an email from our Principal, Peter Howse, to clarify my role.

Thankfully, he kept us up to date every couple of hours with department emails and messages.

My colleagues have been messaging each other by checking in and sending support.

Apart from having extra time for term planning, my fabulous husband Andrew, will continue to work in essential services and my daughter has an extra week's holiday.

We have plenty of supplies and will stay home until further notice.

I'll have to wait a little longer to meet and greet my wonderful students.

We took a minute for a short 'puppy break' (to meet staff member Debbie's new dog) after a busy morning selling masks on Monday. We had a lot left over from the first shutdown luckily enough, to ensure everyone got some.

For the next 5 days we've thought of a few steps to make things more organised and compliant with the rules.

We're asking our customers to please wear a mask, and if for any reason you cannot wear one, please call ahead and order your items over the phone. Staff then drop the orders in to your car in the carpark.

We have closed the front entrance and are now using the back entrance facing the carpark. This helps us direct the flow of people in and out of the pharmacy without causing congestion.

We have a maximum capacity of 27 people in the pharmacy including staff, so we are asking people with many scripts to fill, to please return in 30 to 60 minutes.

Customers are asked to take social distancing measures and remain 1.5 metres apart, and we also have a paper contact register in store for those who have not downloaded the SafeWA app.

We also won't be doing beauty services or ear piercing over the week.

Those who are unwell or have any symptoms are asked to not enter the pharmacy and instead call us (9757 2224) to order items and pay over the phone. If you call us when you arrive, we'll bring the items out to your car.

I'd like to thank all our customers for their patience and understanding!

For me so far, all that has really changed is my inability to play live gigs.

Yesterday I was super excited to perform at The Common for their "Summer Series Events" and got the call about lockdown as I finished a rehearsal. It was deflating as the stage is where I feel most at home.

I'm currently wearing a (very groovy) mask, and I'm also avoiding getting caught up in the panic. I think it's super important to keep a calm and clear mind in times like these.

In light of this COVID-19 situation, I am using the extra time to write more songs and put my energy into my music.

Potentially as an alternative to live gigs I'll set up a few live streams via the socials. A lot of us did this in the first outbreak. It will be nice to continue to share music in this way.

Of course it will be tough for those that are full time musos as it is their main source of income. However, I also believe that the amazing musos I associate with will use this time to get even more creative and focus on songwriting, honing their craft, creating merchandise and planning for future music endeavours.

For example, fellow friend and muso Dan White has just released a new music project under the name of 'Brightsider', it's super exciting stuff.

Also, as I mentioned, live 'streaming' and PayPal donations will probably be back on the cards for the duration of the lockdown!

The 1st of February was already a massive day for Petra and I, as we were to begin our first day of trading as the owners of Morries.

Everything we were initially working through as new business owners suddenly became quite trivial as the news of a second lockdown came through.

We've changed our offering to takeaway so we can still offer something for anyone who would like to enjoy our food and cocktails. We will take each day as it comes now and keep working to provide a quality offering to the people of Margaret River.

The rest of the week should provide its challenges, given the life of freedom we have been living amidst the pandemic.

If anything, I personally take it as a valuable lesson that the pandemic is still very much a massive problem we all face at the moment.

Within the hospitality sector, I feel for everyone as trading has been fantastic this summer season and to have it halt abruptly can catch some off guard.

I feel that after the first lockdown last year, many businesses will hopefully be in a good position to face the adversity of this week, and beyond.

The takeaway offering will be fantastic around town and I think the locals will be spoilt for choice. Jump on board and get your favourite venue in the comfort of your home!!

I'm positive we will bare this bump with a grin and continue to hold strong as a community.

We've just gone from 100 to zero overnight - everyone wanted a bit of a break but not like this.

Completely different stress hits you like a ton of bricks.

Hopefully it's only until Friday but who knows?

It's the uncertainty that's the killer... what will the lockdown be like when it's lifted? Are we going back to seated dining and 20 at a time? Who knows?!

My initial thoughts were just to close until Friday but I thought staying open for take away would be something that the community appreciated before, and would appreciate again.

So I made the call to stay open for the week, although that has changed a bit and we are going to take a breather on Tuesday and back open for burger night on Wednesday.

The rest of the week really hinges on what happens on Friday, lots of hope going into resuming normalcy before the weekend but if it doesn't happen then we will have to find other ways to adapt.

The important thing is we try and follow the rules and squash this bloody thing.

My oldest was due to start pre-primary on Monday, but that is obviously on hold for now with the announcement of school closures.

He is actually very excited to have extra time at home with his two little sisters. My partner is still working as normal.

Even though I am a stay at home mum, the kids and I very rarely stay home all day, so that's what I will find the most challenging.

I am usually lucky enough to have access to heaps of family support. The kids see their grandparents and cousins multiple times a week, so I will miss that family connection for sure.

I have set up a little home gym so I can still get my daily exercise in and have set up lots of fun activities to keep the kids entertained.

We'll do lots of painting, arts and crafts, puzzles, baking, LEGO and hopefully they won't go too stir crazy!

I am trying to stay positive.

I am hopeful this lockdown won't go beyond the five days but I'm well aware that it could.

I'm really just taking it one day a time and trying to keep calm for my kids.

Honestly, I am grateful I have a roof over my head, grateful I can hang out safely at home.

Most of all I'm grateful the coffee shops are still open for takeaways!

The lockdown has thrown our whole life upside-down, but again brought us together and shown my husband Sean and I how strong we are and how amazing our friends and staff are.

Adapting to two businesses and having the kids not going to school and having to work full full time is a stretch but our kids are just amazing, they deserve medals.

Through the help of our friends we managed to set up, release and activate a complete take away menu for both businesses, change all rosters and communicate with staff, and shut down and pack away all seating areas.

We're following all guidelines to the letter and smiling while doing it.

It is going to be a very quiet week and we will lose thousands of dollars, but it's just money and we need to push forward and be there for our regulars, our community and those in need.