Everybody helps where they can. It's tough but someone has to do it.
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Sandra and Abby Hornsby and Sue and Steve Szypica sit and gaze at the azure sea, sipping red wine and cold beer in the lunchtime sun at the Dolphin Point Tourist Park. They are a bunch of old friends brimming with good-natured generosity.
"We just brought ourselves, an empty Esky and we shop locally," Mr Szypica said.
They reckoned they would spend $800 on this trip compared with the usual $500.
It was a conscious decision to shop locally rather than stock up first at home.
"We wanted to support the community," Sue Hornsby said. Her husband chips in: "We go to a local restaurant. We've been to the movies. We shop every day."
One of the men says, "I bought eight pies this morning."
"We speak to the local shopkeepers and they all thank us. They want everyone to come back. We've been doing our best," Mr Hornsby says.
The manager of the camp is grateful for the custom she has. Kathleen Forrester looks at this year's bookings on-screen and compares them with last year's. This year's calendar is a sea of blank spaces.
"Weekend cabins are good but camping is shocking," she said.
Canberra Day is on March 9 so next weekend is a long weekend - but the Canberra bookings haven't come in like in previous years.
Kathleen Forrester thinks that holidays are not what people plan when worries about corona virus loom and memories of fire and smoke linger.
TV adverts are bringing the oldies down. And they've been bringing their wallets with them. And we've been noticing.
- Cameron Grant, The Fish Shop, Burrill Lake (Since 1994)
She was in an area hit by fire early, right at the start of December, and the after-effects are fading compared with those for people in areas hit later - like Canberra where the big fires and smoke were from New Year's Eve on.
"Ours was ages ago," she said. At the camp, everybody was ushered into the water as the fire approached. "The boss sent everyone into the lagoon with their wine."
She hopes Canberrans will think about the blue sea and sun as Canberra Day approaches and bump the bookings up.
Further down the coast towards Batemans Bay, Terry and Maureen Mowle from Kaleen in the ACT need no second invitation.
He sits under the awning of the caravan and reads historical fiction while she busies herself inside. The retired public servant and nurse are having a lazy, lovely time at the Lake Tabourie Holiday Haven - and doing their bit.
"Normally, we bring stuff down," he said. "And we wouldn't normally come down for this long but we thought we would make an effort."
They have deliberately spread the largesse around by moving sites between Lake Conjola ("We loved it. The location is fabulous.") and Lake Tabourie which they also think is blissful.
Some South Coast sites, like the one they are staying at, seem less than full (though they might be empty anyway at this time of year compared with the school holidays).
Advertising is helping business pick up, according to Cameron Grant who serves prawns of every size from "schoolies" up at "The Fish Shop Burrill Lake (since 1994)".
"TV adverts are bringing the oldies down," he said. "And they've been bringing their wallets with them. "And we've been noticing."
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
