Some of the events had been in the making for over a year, and others had previously been postponed due to last year's lockdown.

One such event was the Melanoma Institute's Amie St Clair Ball, which takes place each year to raise awareness about melanoma.

For Annette St Clair, the event also acts as a memorial for her daughter Amie, who lost her battle with cancer in 2009.

Last year was meant to be the Ball's 10th anniversary event, but this was postponed due to the pandemic. Now, it has been called off again.

"I was heartbroken," Mrs St Clair said.

"I was [at the venue] when we were trying to come to the decision, and I was extremely emotional and upset."

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After discussions with the entire committee, the Melanoma Institute and Wagga MP Dr Joe McGirr, the event had no choice but to be cancelled. The charity will take a significant financial hit, with decorations, the venue and catering already paid for.

"We would hate for something to happen; 241 people booked to come to the ball, so we had to think of their safety," Mrs St Clair said.

She believes that event organisers weren't given enough time to deal with the new restrictions, announced on Saturday afternoon.

"I at no stage felt angry, but I guess I was bewildered and we all were asking the question, why would you make an announcement at 2pm for it to be enforced at 6pm."

President of the Gundagai Tigers Rugby League club, Marty Hay, found himself in a similar situation. Their 100 year anniversary event was due to be held on Saturday night, and with everybody already in town to watch the football during the day, he had to make the announcement of its cancellation over the PA system.

"It was very deflating, because we've been organising this event for 18 months," he said.

"We had people flown in from as far away as Western Australia, and a lot of people from Queensland."

Mr Hay doesn't know yet whether the event can go ahead at a later date this year, but said that travellers from interstate - who already made the trip for Saturday - could not afford to travel to Gundagai a second time.

"The financial burden will be the main one we struggle with," he said.

"We're only a small bush footy club."

On Monday Wagga's NAIDOC Week committee held an emergency meeting, and made the tough decision to cancel all their events.

"Given the current COVID situation it would be safer to cancel the events, or to postpone them," organiser Ashleigh Pengelly said.

"With the current situation we can't put a timeline on it. We'll wait to be guided by the health guidelines, but we hope to hold them later this year.

"At this stage we're scrambling. We don't have anything else planned for this stage; we'll just have to wait and see."

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