It was an emotional night at the Royal Hotel in Barham as locals bared their souls to Member for Murray Helen Dalton.

The continual tit for tat between New South Wales and Victoria has been a wrecking ball on businesses, families, local economy, and the wellbeing of our residents.

Despite repeated calls for a more strategic approach to border lockdowns, little seems to change from the approach of fear and politics peddled from the respective state governments.

We are two states but one community, often relying on each state for different basic services and trade.

What the community said:

Jason Wallace,
cluBarham CEO.

“We’re 90% down on trade, accommodation decimated.

“The mental health, our staff are really suffering.

“I just really feel for the community and everyone involved, we just don’t know which way to go.

“We feel for the small business, it’s very hard at times.”

Tracey Brennan,
accountant and volunteer.

“It’s a constant burden of what’s next, rules changing and keeping up with it.

“In this last lockdown, the amount of times I’ve been told by parents of kids that this was the one that got them in tears.

“It’s really sad for our communities that you have so many people unnecessarily stressed.

“Schooling, business and trying to put food on the table.

“Communicate, it’s not hard. Make one set of rules and stick to it.”

Jodie Thomas,
The Collectors Hub

“We opened our business and then three months later the virus hit. Moving up here to do our business we notice how people are suffering and there is not enough support.

“We have people who rely on us for that space, and we donate space to the opp shop. I notice, when you walk around town, people are feeling so low and confused.

“People are scared to come back because of what happened last time, with people getting stuck here.

“I am so passionate about bringing Barham back, and that beautiful bright town that we have.

“I just want life to go back to normal, to go out for dinner or hang out with friends and just live life!”

Alicia Marshall, Golden Rivers Dance Company

“I’m copping it from both sides of the border. It’s making it near impossible to run a class. I’ve been basically ineligible for support because I’m one of the many under $75k and not registered for GST.

“My anxiety is going through the roof and my home life is going to shit.

“It would be 20 years next year. I want to make 20 years of teaching the kids of our community dance.

“The number of young women or men who have gone through the dance school and grown in confidence from shy beginning to taking on the world, they can’t lose that!

“I want to keep the school going. It’s a positive, regular routine in my life and people rely on me also.

“How are we going to feed the industry with no grass roots?”

Ben Watts,
Barham Holiday Park

“Business is horrible, we’d be lucky to have five months’ work in the last 18.

“To be honest, the annuals and permanent resident fees don’t even cover our rent.

“We are reliant on tourism income to break even, let alone put food on the table.

“Realistically, the tourism downturn started with the 2019 bush fires. We started to see cancellations and a lot of Christmas booking got cut short because of fires near home or the media hype of ‘Australia’ is burning. It didn’t matter that we were six hours away.

“By January they were over it. February was quiet but that was typical with the hot weather, and March was starting to take off. We got in River Daze, one music festival at the club, then COVID-19 hit, and it hasn’t been the same since.

“Ultimately, we are rapidly approaching two years of what has been major downturn.

“I think it has honestly taken this (COVID-19 restrictions) for some town folk to realise how reliant we are on tourism.

“For us, financially, we have just sold our house to keep the bank at bay. If things don’t ultimately change soon, it will be very detrimental to us.”

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 19 August 2021.