The inundation of water has almost brought the Western Plains to a grinding halt and local businesses are beginning to suffer from a lack of tourism dollars, but owners and managers around the region are feeling more resilient than ever.

In Lightning Ridge, the local visitor information centre has well and truly entered their quiet season early.

“Yesterday there was $84 in the till,” said the centre’s manager Di Kearl. 

“Tourism is bad at the moment…we might be blocked off by Tuesday or Wednesday, totally,” she said. 



In one of the slowest seasons that Di can recall, tourism numbers this October have dropped by around 4,000 from October 2020. 

While business hours usually shrink in late November, Ms Kearl fears it won’t be long before staff hours will be prematurely cut. 

“So that affects their pay packet as well…it’s just such a widespread thing,” she said. 

She’s finding a silver lining however, with the business getting to those jobs that never get done, and preparation well and truly underway for next season. 

Half an hour away in Walgett, owner of Stone’s Throw Katie Murray said that there has been a definite lag in customer traffic.

“It’s basically stopped because all the roads have been cut. It’s been stopped for about the last three weeks since they started closing roads,” Ms Murray said. 

Ironically, the emergency crews in town for flooding have been her saving grace as they flock for coffees. 

“Now with the arrival of the SES in town, I guess they’re providing me with a little bit of a pickup,” Ms Murray said. 

With Christmas shopping on the horizon, Ms Murray said that the lows of business always seem to pass. 

“I’ve been in business for nine years now in between droughts and floods and everything else, you can’t do anything about it,” she said.

“If our businesses and our homes aren’t being flooded then we’re in a better position than a lot of people out there.”

Further south, Warren has seen some of the largest flood levels across the Western Plains yet, as images of the golf club completely surrounded by water quickly became the gauge for just how full the Macquarie River is. 

Warren Golf Club manager Jasmine Ramsay said that with the golf courses covered from the nearby river water business has been slow.

Despite practically being an island, however, not much would stop locals getting to their watering hole. 

A little water hasn't stopped the locals from getting to the golfie. (Supplied)

“We stayed open every single day, we actually boated people across and a lot of people walked through knee-deep water,” Ms Ramsay said. 

As more towns prepare to be cut off and travellers make themselves scarce, there’s no way of telling when the reality of slow business will come to an end. 

Across the Western Plains, however, shops will continue to open their doors each day and look towards the light at the end of the tunnel.