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At this time of year, Cameron Morris would normally be gearing up for a busy summer playing host to backpackers from all over the world.
Key points:
- A hostel in a popular WA tourist town has been booked out for two years by labour-hire firm
- 76 per cent of businesses in Dunsborough and Yallingup are struggling to find housing for staff
- Businesses are calling on local community to consider taking on boarders to fill job gaps
But his Dunsborough Beach Lodge hostel, 300 kilometres south of Perth, is instead booked solid through to 2025 – not by backpackers, but a labour-hire firm looking to house workers locally.
While it's a symptom of a growing housing crisis plaguing holiday towns in WA's South West, Mr Morris said the arrangement had changed his life.
"More time for the kids, and I don't have to answer the phone at all hours of the day and night," Mr Morris said.
"Now we have some consistency to plan our life around."
His 54-bed hostel is now home to people from East Timor, Tonga and Fiji who are working at the region's vineyards and resorts.
"They just kept getting bigger contracts and having more companies come to them saying 'we can't find workers'," he said.
"Which meant they decided to book me out for two full years."
Shortage crippling businesses
Even before the booking, he said the housing shortage was already attracting different clientele.
"In the last two years, we're getting a lot more calls from Australians who have a job in the area, looking for somewhere to stay," he said.
"We've also had quite a few locals who have had to move out of their rental and are looking for somewhere just until they find another one."
Many tourism-focused businesses are increasingly concerned about finding enough staff for the busy summer period.
A survey of nearly 200 businesses in the area found 76 per cent were struggling to find enough staff, blaming a lack of affordable housing.
Dunsborough Yallingup Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Greg Milner said the accommodation problem was crippling businesses and pleaded for action from all levels of government.
"One fairly prominent hospitality business … have been forced to buy a guest house for nearly a million dollars just to ensure that they've got somewhere to put reliable, qualified staff for the coming season," he said.
"This is a crisis, it's an emergency among many, many businesses down this way.
"We've had landowners come to us saying they want to put temporary accommodation, even cabins, on their properties for workers and they're blocked at every turn."
Community needs to work together
Yallingup winery owner Darren Haunold said finding accommodation for hospitality staff was going to require the local community to help out.
"We really need assistance from government here, we need them to step up — I mean, even a rebate for taking on a border," he said.
"With the cost of living increasing, perhaps consider taking on a boarder.
"Think of the $800 or $1000 a month that you probably going to earn as a result of a shared room.
"It's almost wartime kind of solutions, because we really have to think drastically.
"There's no faster solution than the community opening up their arms to to welcome our workers into the region and make our small businesses function properly."
Mr Milner said agreed finding a short-term solution was going to require radical thinking.
"The City of Busselton is trying to do what it can within the rules," he said.
"But sometimes I think the rules need to be stretched and bent."