IT'S an exciting time for the community as businesses begin to reopen and come out of lockdown. But for some, like Royal Hotel Oberon, it's proving to be stressful.
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The pub doors opened on October 11 and manager Amber Obernier said there was plenty to organise and lockdown had served up a mix of emotions.
"It's been a rollercoaster of going into lockdown coming out, going back in and now we're out again," she said.
"So our first day of business was a bit stressful. We've had a couple of people who were a bit short with us when we've asked for vaccination proof."
"On top of that we had an afternoon rush, after work I think everyone wanted to come and enjoy a draught beer and celebrate Freedom Day," she said.
Ms Obernier said some patrons were behind in having their COVID passports organised.
"A lot of our elderly patronage struggled a bit because they had a print out from the doctors showing they'd be vaccinated but they actually need to have the immunisation history from Medicare so that's been a little bit hard," she said.
She was also concerned about some people not doing the right thing when it came to proving their COVID vaccination.
"People think they can screenshot the passport but being a screenshot it's easy to doctor, it has to be a refreshable app or your wallet on your iPhone," she said.
"It makes our job more stressful and we're all a little bit stressed about the weekends, because we have to do a lot of policing and we want people to do the right thing but not everybody is," she said.
"It falls back on us if they've gotten past us with something fake."
Ms Obernier encouraged the pub's customers to be patient and do the right thing.
"At the end of the day we've known what we have to do for quite awhile now and it's not our rules it's the government.
"This is what we've got to do for us to have a job and for everyone to enjoy what we offer," she said.
She said people could expect to feel safe when visiting the pub which has a COVID safe protocol in place.
"We've had to close most of our entry points so it's just entering through the one door.
"A staff member will greet you at the door and ask for your digital COVID passport showing your tick of approval for being vaccinated and get you to QR code in before you can enjoy a meal or a drink," she said.
The Royal Hotel Oberon has returned to its normal hours and operating seven days a week.
"We've opened back to our regular hours and just trying to get back to normal as much as we can," Ms Obernier said.
