Standing at the bar of his brewery on the banks of Perth's Swan River, Brad Hill reflects on the challenges he and his businesses have endured across the last two years.
Around Christmas time, his venues were raking in their best revenue for the year.
Weeks later, as the Omicron outbreak took hold and health restrictions were implemented, that crashed by about 90 per cent.
"We had some small venues that unfortunately we had to close. We couldn't have enough customers coming through to keep them open," he said.
While his businesses were able to weather that challenging period, relaxed rules have brought relief – and Friday's further easing of restrictions will only add to that.
"It couldn't have come much later for us, because all businesses have only got so much runway," he said.
Masks inhibit socialising
Over the course of April, eased close contact rules and fewer restrictions on businesses have helped bring back customers to struggling venues.
But many in the CBD continued to point to masks as the biggest obstacle to a full recovery, with the Property Council suggesting they were the reason many city workers stuck to their home office.
"I think people don't necessarily like socialising when you can only see half their face," Mr Hill said.
From Friday, that will change, with the final capacity limits removed and masks optional in all but high-risk settings.
Paul Hudson-Bottoms, who manages Mr Hill's Perth bar, said the city had only recently started to come back from the "ghost town" it was reduced to when the first cases of the current outbreak arrived.
"The current mandates were quite restrictive in a way, so it's really nice to get out of the woods and have that off our shoulders now and [have] people coming in again," he said.
Luring people back to the CBD
But it won't solve everything, Local Government Minister John Carey noted yesterday, when he announced a $12 million support package to try to bring people back into the CBD.
The cash injection includes $7 million to help revitalise Yagan Square, which has struggled to attract the customers many had hoped for when it opened four years ago.
"We don't need more big public spaces," was Mr Carey's message.
"We need events and facilities, or amenities, that get people into the city."
He's hoping that money will bring events and a new anchor tenant to the space, with flow-on effects for the rest of the city.
"Just having a retail offering is no longer enough," he said.
"What we're trying to do as part of the Perth City Deal, as part of this package, is think of targeted measures that actually get the people into the city."
Call to rejuvenate Perth CBD
Shadow treasurer Steve Thomas welcomed that funding and the focus on improving the city's offering as a whole.
"It has to be a revitalised City of Perth, otherwise we simply have a very long, slow death," he said.
"More events down on the foreshore, for example, a greater use of the foreshore, all the way through to the other side of Northbridge."
That will also be helped by $4 million from the state government, to be divvied up into grants worth as much as $100,000, for organisations to hold events in the city.
Tim Kennedy has been the events industry's public voice throughout the pandemic and was "particularly thrilled" by that measure.
"We hope that it is a taste of what's to come," he said.
"And hopefully we do see organisers get behind this because the industry does need some assistance to get back on its feet."
Worker shortages bite
Winter is always a quiet time for the sector, and those grants won't be available until the start of July.
Even still, Mr Kennedy hoped it would provide a light at the end of the tunnel for businesses to hold on for.
"But that doesn't hide the fact that we have substantial issues in terms of getting going again, particularly around workforce and attracting people back," he said.
And with WA's return to normality lagging behind the rest of the world by a few months, trying to convince skilled workers to return west won't be an easy prospect.
"But then also trying to attract people back to events when we have other industries such as mining for instance, which has proven to be a lucrative industry for a lot of our people," he said.
Mr Hill hopes venues like his bouncing back will be able to help other sectors, like events.
"It's pretty hard to go and put a band on when you don't have enough people and revenue's tight, but there's these secondary industries that it flows through," he said.
"With us being able to get our venues going, the way it's going to flow through to the rest of the economy I think is a really, really good thing."
And after some difficult discussions with staff, as venues closed and hours were cut, Mr Hill and Mr Hudson-Bottoms are looking forward to things taking off in the weeks ahead.
"I think a lot more people are going to want to come out now, and probably stay because the place is going to be busier," Mr Hudson-Bottoms said.
"There's going to be a better atmosphere and people are going to love it a lot more."
Mr Kennedy also hopes people will get back out and enjoy events like they did before the virus.
"Get out there and support your West Australian event business," he said.
