Regional businesses are beginning to buckle under the pressure of unaffordable power as Australia's gas crisis continues to bite.
In the Victorian town of Stawell, about 230kms north-west of Melbourne, local manufacturer Advance Bricks is shutting after more than 82 years in business.
Managing director John Collins says the company, which employs 23 people, could no longer afford the power bill after the collapse of commercial gas supplier Weston Energy in late May forced it onto a plan with "retailer of last resort" Energy Australia.
Mr Collins said the company, one of the town's biggest employers, went from paying $6-to-$8 a gigajoule of gas to more than $37 a gigajoule overnight, and that no other gas retailers were able to supply the brickworks because Energy Australia was the only other retailer that had access to the gas pipeline.
"The assertion by (Victorian) Premier Andrews and (federal) Minister Bowen that heavy industries can transition to renewable energy is complete and utter fantasy," he said.
Local Nationals MP Anne Webster said she feared a "rolling tsunami of closures of businesses at the very time when we are needing manufacturing to pick up in Australia".
Energy Australia said it took on 390 business customers from failed gas retailer Weston Energy on May 24 under the Victorian retailer of last resort process, a feature of the national energy market.
Energy Australia said the gas rates it was offering were based on a range of factors, including what it cost to buy gas in a market where all providers were paying unusually high prices.
"Stawell and the broader Wimmera region in Victoria is an open market and we welcome greater competition that would provide businesses more choice," a spokesperson said.
"Other energy retailers may set up arrangements to provide gas through the pipeline owner."
Devastating affect on Stawell
Robert McIntosh has worked at Advance Bricks for more than 30 years, following in the footsteps of his father.
He started as a boy and was paid three cents a brick to clean bricks after school.
The former bricklayer now has an office job at the factory and said the closure of the business would have a devastating affect on Stawell.
"I think the [brick oven] will get turned off next week," he said.
"The bricks that are in there will be cooked ... and once they come out it will slowly be turned down and then turned off."
Mr McIntosh was not sure when the factory doors would close for the last time but "I have a holiday in a month's time for two weeks, so that might be it."
'Hard to see them suffer'
For the past 20 years, administrator Lynne Scott has been processing accounts and payroll at Advanced Bricks.
When she saw the handwritten names of the former employees in the old ledgers, she realised the business had employed a lot of people in the small town over many years.
"It was so nice to come to a family business and work for a family and not be a number," she said.
"I'm very concerned about the owners because they have been here all their life and they live and breathe the business,"
"We just work for them so we can walk away and do something else but it's hard to see them do it and suffer," Ms Scott said.
"You let your staff go, you won't get them back."
Conventional gas exploration and extraction have been permitted in Victoria since the middle of last year, but fracking and coal seam gas exploration are banned.
Andrews: We don't have fracking in this state
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said experts believed there was a low likelihood of significant onshore conventional gas reserves in the state.
"We don't have fracking in our state and we are very, very proud of that," he said today.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) received 710 complaints regarding the conduct of energy companies last month, almost twice the average.
So far this month, the ACCC has received 361 reports, mainly from New South Wales and Queensland.
It said it would be closely watching for anti-competitive or misleading conduct that could harm consumers.
