Business owners along the Murray River have expressed anger and shock at the latest tightening of border restrictions.
"It's harsh for the regional people," Barham Newsagency owner Tish Conder said.
"There are a lot of people — mental-health wise — are so down, and so bad."
From midnight tomorrow, the Victorian Government announced border bubble residents can only cross the border to enter Victoria without a permit for medical care, compassionate reasons, work, education, COVID-19 vaccinations and sport at a club or physical recreation facility.
It means Victorian residents cannot visit friends or hospitality venues on the NSW side.
"We're trying to get ahead of the emerging and increasing risk in NSW. It is focused in Sydney but there have been exposures and cases in New South Wales," said Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.
"Given their [the NSW Government] commentary it's going to get worse before it gets better, we need to take a proportional set of measures," Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said.
"If Sydney had taken up the idea of a ring of steel, limiting movement out of Greater Sydney, Wollongong and Central Coast into regional NSW, these measures may not have been taken.
"They've declined that particular approach."
Communities exhausted
In Moama, Morrisons's winery head chef Troy Jarrett said metro-based politicians should visit the border communities before enforcing the rules.
"We are so far from Sydney, an 8-hour drive, 3 hours from Melbourne," Mr Jarrett said.
"Neither Echuca and Moama have had any active cases of COVID during the Sydney outbreak, and it feels like we're the worst people in the world, quite frankly.
"We've got restrictions from both sides, rather than just one side. It sucks."
It was a similar story at Murray Downs which is a 9-hour drive from Sydney
Michael Slattery has owned the Murray Downs Resort for two years and has had 18 months of it in lockdown.
"It's so deflating, we are hanging on by the skin of our teeth," he said.
Victorian border bubble residents can play golf in Murray Downs but can't stay overnight.
"We have no one in our corner fighting for us. This lockdown is hurting the most by far."
The Murray Downs business owner said the Victorian Government should compensate the NSW border businesses.
"We are 800km from the outbreak. We're going to need some sort of help," Mr Slattery said.
The Wodonga mayor, Kevin Poulton, said the region needs support as it continues to bear the brunt of closures between the states, despite not having had a COVID-19 case locally for over 300 days.
"While governments state and federally are still borrowing money to fund their way through this we are just starting to grind to a halt, our border communities and economies are just starting to go: 'It's all too hard!'," he said.
Hospitality and tourism devastated
Mr Jarrett said the Moama Winery has taken a huge hit.
"Staff that were doing 38-45 hours a week, are coming in for 15 over the weekend," he said.
Committee for Echuca-Moama CEO Deanne Armstrong said this year has been a nightmare and one of the most challenging years for border businesses.
"It's pretty devastating. Moama businesses haven't been receiving much tourism in the previous months, due to lockdowns," she said.
"It's going to be a long road to recovery. Some of these businesses are really struggling.
"Echuca residents now can't even go across the border to try and support local businesses.
"The support from the NSW government only goes so far to keep the businesses ticking along."
While in Barham, Ms Conder is now holding out hope, the government doesn't reinstate the same permit system as last year.
"Last time I did 5,000 of them. A lot of them don't have a printer, and a lot of the elderly people, they prefer to have a paper version so they can see it and feel it. It was a real hard job," she said.
