“For many businesses the revenue from the summer period represents about 30 per cent of their annual revenue, so to have that stripped out of your bank account is going to leave a lot of businesses looking for support,” he said.
Mr Sleeman said the best thing people from nearby regions could do to help was to visit the Grampians.
“Right now the biggest opportunity for us is our close neighbours like Bendigo, Ballarat and Warrnambool. From a local perspective, now is an opportunity to rally the local community. A lot of locals are looking around and asking ‘how can I help?’,” he said.
“Just by getting out and about in your community and spending some money with tourism businesses, it’s a great way of helping them to recover and get over the shocking impact of the fires.”
Pomonal Estate co-owner Pep Atchison said the venue was far from capacity since reopening last week.
“Normally [during summer] we can get 200 or 300 visitors a day, but on Wednesday [last week] we had 60, on Thursday we had about 40 and on Friday we had about 50,” she said.
“A lot of them are Stawell and Ararat locals coming out, which is great. They’ve been supporting us quite well.”
Ms Atchison said many Pomonal businesses, hers included, were still struggling to overcome the effects of February bushfires when the December fires struck.
“A lot of small businesses have still had expenses in that time and no money coming in,” she said.
“A lot of us had all paid our bills ready to get into the peak season, so you were going in with just a small amount of money thinking you were going to make it up.
“It’s been full on. Especially for Pomonal, this is the second time in a year, but everyone really does rally together. It’s amazing how Pomonal sticks together and everyone checks on each other.”
Ms Atchison said she had spoken with some business owners who were considering closing unless they received government assistance.
“It’s frustrating because the Grampians region was going so well. A lot of businesses were opening up and people were happy. Then all of a sudden you have two fires in one year,” she said.
“It makes you take a step back and you start to reassess your business model.”
Mr Sleeman said he had been in regular contact with the State Government about ways it could support the region.
Small Business and Employment Minister Natalie Suleyman visited Halls Gap and Pomonal last week to speak to affected businesses, and Mr Sleeman said Tourism Minister Steve Dimopoulos told him the region had the government’s ‘full support’.
A State Government spokesperson said a Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangement, jointly funded by the federal and state governments, had been activated.
The Federal Government also announced a Disaster Recovery Allowance, providing up to 13 weeks of income support for workers and sole traders, and the Victorian Department of Families Fairness and Housing’s Personal Hardship Assistance Program had also offered emergency relief payments.
“These bushfires have been devastating for the Grampians and we’ll continue to support the communities who have been impacted – whether that’s local residents, tourism operators or other businesses,” the spokesperson said.