Even with Government assistance, the next 12 months are going to be a difficult struggle for all local businesses. This is because they rely heavily on the very significant, additional income from the tourist season to help sustain their operations and provide cash flow to get them through the October to April non-tourist period.

Present indications are that because of the COVID-19 restrictions, the whole of this year’s May to September tourist season will not happen. BEL has therefore implemented major changes to two of its three main operations due to an anticipated significant decrease in revenue at Cape York Peninsula Lodge and the need to abide by State and Federal COVID-19 health requirements and restrictions.

These changes have impacted the organisation’s workforce, according to BEL General Manager, Chris Foord, especially for casual workers who have seen their hours reduced or have been temporarily stood down.

“We have had to make fast and tough decisions to ensure BEL remains financially viable,” Mr Foord said.

“As a community-owned organisation, BEL’s purpose is to provide support to Bamaga and the NPA, and we need to ensure we can continue to safeguard present financial reserves and maintain profitability, albeit significantly reduced, so we can deliver support where it’s needed. We are trying to do this with minimal disruption to staffing levels and are accessing the relevant Government financial support programs for the company and its employees.

“Additionally, we need to ensure that our communities remain as safe as possible through responsible practises.”

BEL has re-allocated permanent staff across its operations to ensure it can retain key staff during this challenging period.

Bamaga Tavern

The Tavern’s Bistro initially offered take-away food, however customer numbers have been low and with the Bistro’s Chef needing to leave the community for family reasons, this is closed until further notice.

The drive-through bottle shop continues to operate as normal with take-away liquor available, including walk-up customers. It is open from noon until normal closing hours.

Cape York Peninsula Lodge

The Lodge restaurant is offering take-away two nights per week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) with a different range of options each time and is also catering for roast nights at Bamaga BP on Wednesday and Friday evenings. Otherwise, it is closed to the public. In-house Lodge guests are still able to enjoy in-room dining and can also utilise the bar with the ‘1 person per 4 square metre’ rule applying.

Accommodation and hire cars are still available.

Bamaga BP

As a service station, take-away cafe and mini-mart, Bamaga BP falls under the “essential services” category so is not heavily impacted in its operations currently but will be significantly affected by the lack of a tourist season. Its take-away food is operating as normal with the addition of two roast nights on Wednesday and Friday, which has proven extremely popular.

Bamaga BP is limiting the number of people in store at any one time to 25 in accordance with the 4 square metres per person directive.

“We would appreciate your patience and understanding during this challenging time,” said Mr Foord.

“Remember that staff are doing their best. We’d like to reassure the community that our Socio Support Policy is still open for applications for donations and sponsorships and provides for residents undergoing financial hardship and also medical-related assistance.”

As we go to press, restrictions are slowly being lifted and BEL operations will be reviewed accordingly.

www.bament.com.au/sponsorships-donations

BEL has applied for the Australian Government’s JobKeeper program, one that involves much paperwork to access but is vital for maintaining employment in Bamaga and financial support to families.

The JobKeeper payment will cover more than 30 of BEL’s employees that meet the requirements of the scheme such as being employed as of 1 March 2020 for a minimum of 12 months. Casual employees still working with BEL will have their wages topped up to $1500 per fortnight if they are earning less. Unfortunately, JobKeeper does not provide for casuals that have not worked for 12 months.

Those staff members stood down due to the COVID-19 situation will also receive the full $1500 per fortnight.

BEL will look to provide a variety of tasks across the organisation for those staff whose jobs are not presently available, such as housekeeping at Cape York Peninsula Lodge.

The scheme also includes full-time staff but the payment goes to BEL as a subsidy to support the company and not to the employee.

The payment is available for six months from 30 March 2020. Those receiving the JobKeeper payment will have to inform Centrelink as they cannot receive both the JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments. BEL’s General Manager, Chris Foord, said that BEL was committed to assisting staff during this difficult time.

“We want to retain staff and support them financially, together with providing for the social interaction that goes with having a job. This is especially important for those that we’ve unfortunately had to stand down for now through no fault of their own due to the temporary closure of certain BEL operations.”

To assist Bamaga Tavern staff and provide a better service for customers, the Tavern has installed a sensor for the drive-through bottle shop. The sensor alerts staff when a car arrives, which is especially valuable during busier periods.

The Tavern drive-through has been exceptionally busy lately and is often operating with low employee numbers due to support staff not turning up for work. This places enormous stress on the other Tavern staff who not only have to attend the drive-through, but also receive and unload deliveries, while continually restocking the cool rooms, in addition to other administrative duties.

This has caused long queues during busy periods, leading to frustrated customers and staff being abused as a result. This will no longer be tolerated and anyone aggressively vilifying Bamaga Tavern staff will have their name and comments reported; they will not be served at that time, nor for the rest of that day.