Goya Dmytryshchak
Hobsons Bay’s tourism industry is riding out the second lockdown in what is a tale of survival.
Before COVID-19, the industry was estimated to generate $294 million annually in to the local economy.
The global pandemic has impacted major tourism drawcards such as Melbourne Seaplanes, Williamstown Bay and River Cruises, Scienceworks, Seaworks maritime precinct, The Substation, HMAS Castlemaine, Melbourne Ballpark and the Newport Railway Workshops where Steamrail Victoria is based.
Melbourne Seaplanes, owned by Barbara and Brett Audas, is among those weathering the storm.
“Besides Scienceworks and Seaworks, we’re one of the biggest attractions in Williamstown,” Ms Audas said.
“I think poor little Williamstown is a bit of a ghost town at the moment … like everywhere.”
While their business is grounded for sightseeing, it is still able to conduct “endorsements” or training for pilots to obtain a licence to fly a seaplane.
“We spend a lot of time training the pilot in the office – in our compound area at Williamstown – and then they do a lot of ‘touch and go’ flying to learn how to land in the water, to float, and to take off,” Ms Audas said.
“There’s probably people suffering a lot more than we are – at least we can do endorsements – but if it goes on for too much longer it really is going to be a worry for us.
“But we are keeping ourselves busy doing work on the compound where we keep our seaplane and also we’re redesigning a colour scheme for the seaplane at the moment, so it will all be fresh and lovely.
“We’ve been doing up our pontoon as well so it will all be nicely painted and ready to go hopefully when summer hits.”
