It was an exasperating turn of events for Wagga commercial real estate agent Peter Campbell, who was just about to close several major deals next week.

"I had two settlements that were supposed to occur in Albury-Wodonga and now they're not going to happen, at least for the meantime. I hope," Mr Campbell said.

"I normally go to Albury-Wodonga at least twice a week, but anything involved with travel to Victoria has come to a dead stop. I do really feel for the hospitality businesses along the Murray river. It's just terrible."

Business also dried up for Wagga City Councillor Vanessa Keenan, who also does consulting as part of her day job.

Cr Keenan was in Victoria on Wednesday and made it back over the border just before the Thursday lockdown was announced.

She has since got a COVID test and has come back negative, but is now unable to return to Victoria to see her usual clients.

"I've got clients right across Victoria. A lot of the clients are in North-East Victoria in the bubble," Cr Keenan said.

"I understand I can't go to Melbourne - that's totally fine, I respect that - but the fact that I can't work with those clients in north-east Victoria I think is ridiculous."

In other news

Big4 Holiday Park owner Martin Cotterell said many caravanners had to cancel their bookings last minute and hitch their wagons back over the border following Thursday's announcements.

"There's been plenty of last minute cancellations, but they were filled pretty much straight away by people going in the other direction," Mr Cotterell said.

"Let's just hope it doesn't lock down any longer than seven days."

Former Wagga accountant and Member for Northern Victoria Tim Quilty said he thought the lockdown was a "stupid overreaction" from the Victorian government.

He also said the NSW government's border bubble was unfair, arbitrary, and unnecessary, particularly for regional towns like Wagga that showed no signs of COVID returning any time soon.

"It's obviously silly that Wagga's left out of the border bubble and Shepparton's left in. Regional Victoria shouldn't have been locked up in the first place," Mr Quilty said.

"Businesses have been locked down for the fourth time, cafes and restaurants are having to throw away all their stuff again. The last lockdown was the circuit-breaker, but this one is the spirit-crusher."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: