Beautician Rose Rosser only just made arrangements to survive the border closure, when she was forced to close her business for six weeks.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Blush Me owner said going back into stage three restrictions in regional Victoria wasn't a complete surprise, but it was disappointing.
"I was hoping with the border bubble, the government would say, 'keep working in the bubble'," she said.
"I go home to a totally different place - my kids are at school, but my business is getting closed in Wodonga."
Ms Rosser's Albury clients were cut off with the tightened border closure.
"We were already in an unknown, having the border closed - I live in Albury, so I wasn't sure at first if I'd be able to get to work," she said.
"Then our clients in Albury were cut off again [with the new permits].
"I had teamed up with some people in Albury who were going to swap clients, I had another salon that was going to rent a room so they could do their Wodonga clients - we only organised all of that last week.
"Last week was really busy, and then we get hit again."
One positive is JobKeeper is already in place and the Victorian government has flagged another grant for businesses impacted by forced closures.
"We can't go online; there was nothing else we could do the first time, so it was total closure for us for nine weeks," Ms Rosser said.
"At the start, with no financial assistance, was a nightmare.
"At least this time, JobKeeper is already set up, so that should get us through."
IN OTHER NEWS:
Ms Rosser said it was disappointing, when there was no community transmission in either Albury or Wodonga.
"If we had cases, I myself would want to close, but we've got no cases," she said.
"I've worked here 16 years and owned it for 10 ... nothing like this has ever happened.
"We've had to get through two closures of High Street and our lane closure at the start of the year.
"Hopefully it's only for six weeks.
"We're lucky we have a very loyal clientele, who'll be here on the other side again."