Warrnambool's Pavilion Cafe and Bar owner says Tier 1B listing was a 'matter of time'

In fact, he told the Barwon Health representative he was awaiting their call.

"When she rang I said 'I've been expecting a call from you,' Mr Watson said.

"I'm not shocked at all. There's been so many people coming in from outside the south-west. It's only a matter of time. Especially at a place like the Pavilion where we do attract a lot of not just locals, but visitors to town."

He said when he heard a few hours earlier that Deep Blue was an exposure site, he and staff started preparing for what he said was almost inevitable.

"There was so many people who had come to us (that day) who had told us they were heading to Deep Blue I just thought 'oh no' and started wrapping up before they called us. I was waiting for the call."

Mr Watson said the venue already had strict hygiene procedures in place and a deep clean was conducted on Saturday.

"It wasn't that onerous considering what we do at the end of a shift. We've done the clean ourselves using guidelines sent to us by Barwon Health.

"Places like restaurants, we basically pull the whole place apart at the end of every service anyway. We sterilize all the tables, the back of the chairs, the door handles. It's just normal protocol in today's day and age."

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He said the Pavilion had a dedicated staff member at the door, checking customer identification and a computer to ensure postcodes given weren't from a locked down shire.

"We're all over that and QR coding and if the customer doesn't have a phone there's a paper system as well."

He said the current 10 patron limit inside didn't make the contact tracing process easier and it would have been the same had they been allowed 50 people inside.

"I'd rather 50, for the wages and the staff member that's just there as a traffic controller.

"From a hospitality point of view, to be open with 10 people inside, we actually lose more money than when we're closed and just doing takeaway. It's not financially viable.

He said while the venue could have opened this weekend with limited staff, he chose not to from a community safety point of view.

"Barwon Health said to us, 'you can do that clean, and you can keep on trading'. I just don't have the staff to do so. I have a shortage of staff, they're nearly all in quarantine.

"We're carrying half the staff we would be normally at this time and we know opening up is coming and when it does we'll be busier than we ever have before, but no-one in our industry has the staff to cater for that when it does happen."

He said it was such an unknown industry at the moment and people were scared off from it. "I don't blame them," he said.

The Pavilion will re-open on Monday for takeaway only, manned by staff not affected by the recent exposure, and normal service will resume next Sunday (October 17).

Mr Watson thanked the community for the support he and wife Mary-Ellen had received in the past 24 hours.

He said they'd had various food parcels, a six pack of beer and numerous text messages and notes wishing them well left in their letter box and at the front door.

"The support they've given us today with messages and stuff being dropped at the doorstep it's amazing," he said.

"Some of the people we don't even know and they know where we live and have dropped things off.

"We've had messages to say 'I can't wait to have you back, keep up the good work'. That's really touching because it's certainly been a hard couple of years but we're nearly at the tail end of it too."

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