Wagga businesses were left scrambling as less than three hours' notice of a state-wide lockdown caused chaos, with one owner saying it feels like "we are on our own".
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It came into effect from 5pm, giving businesses and residents only two-and-a-half hours' warning.
Forum 6 Cinemas manager Craig Lucas said he was standing in the foyer when he got a message alerting him that social media posts said a lockdown was coming.
"I said 'I am waiting for something official' because I have learnt you cannot believe everything on social media," he said. "Then it was, and of course I had movies playing. I was telling people when all these sessions were coming out from 4pm onwards that they were about to go into lockdown."
Mr Lucas said it was frustrating that the orders were not mentioned at the NSW Premier's morning press conference, and that the news came out from multiple sources on social media.
He queried why they didn't use a system that sent out a mass alert, like they do in emergency situations.
"We haven't got any of the support mechanisms in place like we did last year," Mr Lucas said. "There was all that legislation last year, with rent support and we had a job keeper. This time we are on our own.
"With less than two hours of official notice, you can only do what you can do."
Romano's Hotel owner, Mathew Oates, said his staff had less than three hours to clean up and get everyone out of the hotel.
"We heard a few whispers that got louder and louder over 30 minutes," he said.
"I said, 'hold your horses until we have something official,' and it started to spring up in the news, and then it all rolled from there.
"Then, by 3pm, we had some clarification from the Australian Hotels Association and government, and we started to make plans."
Romano's had a booking for an 18th birthday party and an engagement celebration that had to be cancelled last minute.
"The people for the engagement party had already started decorating the function room when the announcement was made," Mr Oates said.
"They had an early drink because that was all they could do to celebrate. All the patrons were really understanding. They were really great."
Mr Oates said they had started to make plans to open a takeaway service, but it was not something they could roll out straight away.
He said they would be looking into whether they could start it up but hoped this would just be a seven-day lockdown.
"At the moment, we have a fair bit of work happening from a restoration perspective in the rooms upstairs, so we will probably end up moving our focus to that if we can," Mr Oates said.
"We have left the lights on at the pub because, at the end of the day, it would be pretty sad to drive down the main street with all the lights off. So we have left them on to let people know we are still here."
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Named 'Wagga Eats', it became a place where local pubs, restaurants, cafes, and the like could post how they were operating and how locals could support them.
Mr Papaioanou said since the news on Saturday, there had been a lot more posts.
"To have a lockdown is a better decision because we have some clear direction, and at least we can plan around it," he said.
"Industry 33 will be going back to takeaway and delivery only, so it will still impact us.
"However, I am sending out a lot of support to small businesses and encourage people to support them however they can."
Serena Hardwick from the Wagga Business Chamber said there were some concerns about how businesses would survive.
"People are concerned about how long this will go for and about having to stand down staff and the impact on their financial sustainability," she said.
"The best thing Wagga can do is financially support them, so that means doing takeaway and anything that can increase their turnover and ensure they survive.
"To businesses, if you are experiencing problems accessing support, then please reach out to us, and we will get in contact with government officials and other groups that can help."
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