The staggering number of closed or vacant shopfronts in Docklands

In December, almost half of all shopfronts in Docklands were closed or vacant.

A City of Melbourne report found 47 per cent of street-front shops were closed, with 21.9 per cent vacant and 25 per cent temporarily closed due to COVID-19 restriction uncertainty.

President of the Docklands Chamber of Commerce, Johanna Maxwell, says not much has improved since then.

“We’re improving slightly, but certainly not in any leaps and bounds,” she told Ross and Russel.

“It’s not just the cafes and restaurants, there’s the chemists, the doctors, the physios, they chiros, the osteopaths — all the underpinning service industries that we’ve got down here are hurting.”

Ms Maxwell says she doesn’t expect things to improve markedly in Docklands until the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is well underway.

“There’s lots of people that are saying until the vaccine they won’t consider public transport,” she said.

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