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Sales restrictions have been relaxed for South Australian wineries and breweries a day after an Adelaide Hills beer maker considered taking legal action over a police order which forced it to shut down on-site trade.
Key points
- Rules stopping breweries and wineries from on-site trading have now been relaxed
- SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the decision followed consultation with SA Health
- It comes after Mount Barker brewery the Prancing Pony revealed it was considering legal options
Wineries, breweries, cellar doors and distilleries had previously been directed by police to stop on-site trading after a cluster of coronavirus cases broke out in the Barossa Valley wine region.
The Prancing Pony Brewery at Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills had been operating a takeaway service before it was last week ordered to comply with the restriction, but it protested against the move.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said after extensive consultation with the state's chief public health officer Dr Nicola Spurrier, affected businesses would again be allowed to sell alcohol and other products from their premises, on a takeaway basis.
"We see this as a slight relaxation of the imposition so that these businesses can continue to trade as they would like to, and as much as possible in the current circumstances," he said.
Mr Stevens said the police decision was part of a regular review and now aligns those businesses with restrictions currently in place for hotels and restaurants.
He said it was not due to issues raised by Adelaide Hills breweries over the weekend.
"We think we've achieved the outcome and the chief public health officer has advised us this relaxation is appropriate in the circumstances," he said.
"A big factor in this was reducing international and interstate travel into SA by tourists [which] has had a significant impact on the volume of people traveling to these areas."
However, consumption of any food or produce on the premises will continue to be banned.
"Tastings of any kind are not permitted," police said.
"Social distancing restrictions for people attending wineries, cellar doors, breweries and distilleries remain unchanged and must be complied with."
On Tuesday, Prancing Pony co-owner Corinna Steeb said her business would fight the previous restriction on takeaway sales, and said she had sought legal advice.
"We plead with the police to reconsider it," she told ABC Radio Adelaide.
Mr Stevens said the move on Wednesday was partly in recognition of the fact so many people did the right thing on the Easter long weekend and avoided unnecessary travel.
"We appreciate the harshness [the restrictions] have on businesses and the community," he said.
"They're not made lightly and they're done with the intent on slowing the spread of the virus in the South Australian community."
Relieved to be back on the menu
Adelaide Hills wineries and breweries are relieved they will be able to have a more reliable stream of income, with people allowed back for takeaway and drive-through sales.
Prancing Pony's Ms Steeb said she was pleased some normalcy was returning.
"We had a staff meeting this morning to discuss the way forward … what will the business look like and how can we continue trading," she said.
"Obviously now we can go back to what we had established."
Ms Steeb said the the business would not take further legal action.
"For us this has been resolved," she said.
"We're not vengeful people. This is not about us, this is about interpretation of a directive that we thought was wrongly applied.
"In the first instance, we will continue serving our local community. They've supported us tremendously throughout this whole situation."
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Winery staff to stay on the books
Lachlan Allen from Barristers Block Wines said under the restrictions, the business had been forced to rely on online sales to stay afloat.
He said the change to allow people back into cellar doors would help keep staff employed.
"It was really hard on our staff because they thought that was it, that it was game over," he said.
"This is a really nice step for us, just to keep our staff ticking along as well as the business.
"It's still not where we trade or anywhere near, I think we're down nearly 90 per cent to our normal trading volume."
Mr Allen said the restrictions had been challenging but he understood why they had been implemented.
He said he was thankful for the support the business had from the public, which made a steady stream of online orders.
"Online sales have been going really well and we've had a lot of support from even the local community who still want to support the local producers, so that's been keeping us going and pretty busy," he said.
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Topics: covid-19, lifestyle-and-leisure, retail, alcohol, adelaide-5000, sa, mount-barker-5251
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