In the face of staff shortages, road closures and power outages across the Goulburn Valley, some Shepparton’s CBD reopened for business on Monday amid the ongoing flood crisis.
But aside from a small number of dedicated restaurants and cafés, the CBD was quiet, with the majority of businesses shuttered and sand-bagged throughout the day.
For Melissa De Temple, however, the show must go on at her shop, Baking Dough, which traded on Monday despite a serious staff shortage.
“Business hasn’t been too bad,” she said.
“Today we’ve had a lot of people cleaning out our bread stock because we’re one of the only businesses open at the moment — we’ve had a lot of people coming in for lunch.
“We were open on Saturday and that was a bit scary because half our staff had to leave to go home because of the flooding; one of our staff members lives in Kialla West, so she took off immediately before the roads shut.
“Now we’re down two bakers because they’re in Mooroopna, a packer who’s in Broken River Dve who’s flooded in; there was basically my husband, one driver doing all of last night on their own when we usually have at least five or six people on.”
The shop, situated on Maude St near the mall, is only kilometres from the flooding at Victoria Park, which has consumed much of Wyndham St.
Ms De Temple said she was uncertain how the flooding would affect her business.
“It’s just very unpredictable right now,” she said.
“I think the main concern for us was to make sure we didn’t get any water this week, and we’ve been lucky so far.
“It’s been okay, but it’s still scary because it’s unpredictable. Because we’re mainly wholesale as well, a lot of the schools and cafés are shut, we’re just going day by day.
“About 70 to 80 per cent of the business is wholesale and the rest is shop-front; it’s a big kick and it’s completely different from the COVID situation, everyone is trapped so you can’t do home deliveries.”
A couple of doors down on Maude St at My Mate’s Pizza, owner Arlind Nebiu was flat out during a lunch rush.
He too was missing chefs and staff members.
"We're struggling with staff — most of the chefs are stuck in their house and can't go anywhere,” Mr Nebiu said.
“We had one worker last night and that was about it.
“We were very concerned (about the flooding), I didn't have much sleep. We have three shops here, but now it's getting a little better — it's positive to see the water hasn't arrived here.”