THE closure of Brown Mountain could signal the death of Bemboka according to businesses now doing it tough.
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The mountain highway is disintegrating in several places after heavy rainfalls caused a major landslide, and is closed to traffic for at least a month.
Jim Williams, owner of the Drovers Rest Café, said his passing trade has dropped to nothing and he has already had to make cuts to his staffing.
“This will kill us. It will kill the town,” Mr Williams told the BDN.
Jim and Cindy Williams opened the Drovers Rest in December and have enjoyed a burgeoning trade.
Mr Williams said official figures he sourced while looking to open the café noted close to a million vehicles travelled the road each year – “until last week”.
“We were enjoying a nice little business with passing trade and local customers,” Mr Williams said.
“It’s been growing all the time, with more trucks pulling in off the road and busloads calling up to see if we can cater for them – and we can.
“It was all looking fairly rosy,” he said.
“We were employing local people, but now we’ve had to let them go.
“These are drastic times.
“This is not just our business, this is our home.
“As much as local trade is great, there’s just not enough people here to keep all the businesses running.”
Also making cuts to staffing - and even opening hours - is the Bemboka Pie Shop.
“It’s (the pie shop’s) been around for 30-40 years and I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this,” Bemboka Pie Shop owner Angie Canby said.
“It’s catastrophic.
“I can’t even explain it. It’s an eye-opening situation.
“Almost 100 per cent of our trade comes down the mountain.
“There are two main staff members I’ve kept on, but the rest are maybe only getting four hours a week.
“We’re also only opening from 10am until 3pm now instead of nine until six or seven.”
Barbara Brown, owner of Bemboka Grocery, said as her store caters to the locals, the only interruption to the business was to the deliveries.
“Bread, papers, cigarettes, they all used to come down the mountain, but they’re not coming at all anymore,” Ms Williams said.
“We have to come into Bega every morning to collect supplies.
“It was convenient having everything delivered to our door, now it’s adding extra miles.
“It just means we have to work a lot harder to do our job,” she said.
While travelling to Bega each morning for supplies, Bemboka Grocery also delivers the overnight bag for Service One Members Banking, as service officer Karen Alcock said the credit union’s courier isn’t travelling the road anymore.
“We have enough trouble getting freight out here at the best of times,” Ms Alcock said.
“Countrylink doesn’t come out to Bemboka either anymore - it goes up the coast to Batemans Bay.
“It’s absolutely huge - it affects everybody.
“A lot of people are saying ‘we are in real trouble out here’.
“Everyone’s going to suffer from this.”
Retired chef and owner of Stroudover Cottage Patrick Reubinson said the rest of the Bega Valley didn’t understand the true impact of the road closure, with through traffic now non-existent.
“It’s almost as if there’s a ‘no through road’ sign at the (Princes Hwy) junction,” he said.
“People aren’t coming down from Canberra for a weekend with us anymore either. It’s easier to go to Batemans Bay.”