After more than two decades, a popular dining spot in Launceston will stop serving breakfast and close its doors on Sundays, making it the latest in a long line of hospitality venues struggling to get staff.
The changes at Stillwater Restaurant, which also functions as a hotel, will come into effect in the middle of May.
Co-owner Bianca Welsh said the decision was a difficult one to make, but necessary to keep the business viable.
"Ultimately, the skilled labour shortage has finally caught up to us," she told ABC Northern Tasmania.
"We're really struggling to find skilled chefs.
"We've got a really great team, but we really need an army to do what we do."
It's a particularly big blow for the city, just two years after Launceston was recognised as a City of Gastronomy by UNESCO for its high-quality culinary and wine scene.
Qualified staff in short supply
In a nearby restaurant, venue manager Daisy Towler is multi-tasking, giving instructions to the chefs, taking deliveries, and serving tables.
She was also on the lookout for quality personnel for her team but was finding it hard to find qualified staff.
"The only people who are applying at the moment are of school age or have just left school and they are notoriously unreliable," she said.
"You're hiring these young ones and they're calling in sick every other day."
Lack of rentals fuelling the issue
Will Cassidy, from the Launceston Chamber of Commerce, said staff shortages in tourism and hospitality were now "pretty huge" in the northern Tasmanian city.
He said the problem was in part due to many hospitality staff pivoting away from restaurant work during the COVID pandemic and never returning.
Mr Cassidy said the other major contributor was one that was hurting the hospitality industry across the country — the lack of affordable rentals.
An August 2022 report by the Everybody's Home campaign showed that Launceston and north-east Tasmania were missing out on $201 million of economic output annually due to the lack of housing.
"There needs to be more incentives for people to downsize their homes and there also should be incentives for people to take on boarders," Mr Cassidy said.
He said a lot of hospitality and retail workers were also underemployed because: "They can't do extra hours because they're so scared that they'll lose benefits associated with those hours."
Four-day weeks to retain staff
Stillwater is introducing a four-day working week as it re-focuses its efforts on retaining its best employees.
"We'll be able to move most of the full-time permanent team to a four-day week, which is the absolute dream and they're paid the same wage as what they would be on a five-day week," Ms Welsh said.
"We're really pleased to offer that as a work-life balance."
Ms Towler already offered her casuals a four-day working week and tried to provide the same for her kitchen staff.
"It makes home-life balance a lot easier; it's something everyone is trying to get their heads around," she said.
Mr Cassidy said the industry needed to market itself as more than a temporary stop.
"Hospitality suffers because it's seen as a fill-in job and it's not seen as a permanent career," he said.
"That's really unfortunate because hospitality means making customers happy and we should be embracing that."
