Muddy Waters open for business

Staff member Kaya Gibson, Owner-Manager Belinda Colless and fellow staff member Paula Johnston finish up their morning shift at Muddy Waters Café PHOTO SUPPLIED

The stay-at-home restrictions have meant businesses have had to be creative to keep their customers happy.

Muddy Waters Cafe in Brewarrina – like every other hospitality business – has been forced to change the way it operates, with regulations allowing only take-away food and beverages.

Owner-Manager Belinda Colless said the restrictions had been tough on trade but her main concern was keeping her staff employed.

“Forty per cent of our business is from tourists and travellers, so obviously when 40 per cent of your business is completely wiped out you have to go back to the drawing board and go, ‘rightio, what are we going to do?” Belinda said.

“For us one of the biggest priorities was maintaining the two long term staff that we had. It’s very easy to say let’s dump them but that’s not part of the bigger picture at all.

“They’re too valuable and they have families and financial responsibilities as well, so you have to look at it from every angle and juggle it, so everyone fits into the equation.

“We couldn’t have kept going without the hard work and support of Kaya Gibson and Pauline Johnston,” she said.

Read more in the printed edition of the Western Herald.