“WE'RE basically forecasting COVID again,” Tooleybuc Sporting Club administrative officer Tracey Domaille warns.
In what was meant to be a massive tourism season for Tooleybuc after two years of lockdown, the flooding emergency that has reached the town is a hammer blow to businesses.
Ms Domaille attended a Murray River Council flood recovery meeting this week, and the news from flood-ravaged Echuca was foreboding, not just for Tooleybuc, but the region.
“They’re saying people in Melbourne think Echuca is closed, so that’s a very worrying sign,” she said.
The situation is already looking dire for the town's tourism industry, with cancellations coming in thick and fast.
“We’ve already had cancellations in the villas, with people thinking they can’t get where they're going, so it’s going to be dead,” Ms Domaille said.
“I had to relocate a couple of people out of the villas on Wednesday night to the motel next door, and they had around 10 spare rooms, which is ominous for everyone.”
Road closures are a significant factor in the number of people travelling through the town.
“People are just unsure, and with road closures that’s going to stop the traffic coming through,” Ms Domaille said.
“We were getting between 10 and 15 caravans per night before this – now we're lucky to get two.”
With the Murray River under pressure even before the peak at Tooleybuc, it seems this isn’t a problem that’s going away anytime soon.
Ms Domaille said the club would continue to operate.
“We’re still going, but the hours will probably reduce – we’ve still got locals, but a lot of them are affected with their farms on the other side of the river going under,” she said.
“Tonight will be a good gauge, with the members' draw traditionally being our busiest night, so we will get a good indication, but Wednesday night was dead, for example.”
Sandbagging efforts have been conducted at the club to protect villas, but the club is safely on the hill and protected by the golf course's levee.
“We’ll be high and dry, just nobody here to see us,” Ms Domaille said.