THE big concern for many is just how many businesses in Greater Lithgow - and in fact Australia wide - will survive the dislocation of the COVID19 lockdown.
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The population can leave home for the purchase of necessary requirements but the numbers in Lithgow's CBD shopping strip are sparse.
For shopkeepers staying ahead of the normal challenges of business life is a daily routine but the current situation is something no one could have planned for.
It's right across the board but the board is tilted more acutely for some than others. And climbing back up that slippery slope may prove too much for some.
Cafes, Asian restaurants and hotel bistros are clinging on with food and coffee takeaways and even the Workmens Club and the Zig Zag Motel's Switchback Restaurant have now introduced takeaway orders.
The Zig Zag's Michael Inzitari says the service has proved even more popular than anticipated and keeping his kitchen staff in work.
But away from the hospitality industry there are fewer options for survival techniques.
Many retail outlets, services and businesses, both in the CBD and the Valley Plaza, are carrying notification that they have closed until further notice.
Others sadly have already given up and walked away.
We live in an unprecedented time when the challenge to both health and the economy are much more than simply survival of the fittest.
A walk on the risky side
AN upside to our enforced but necessary confinement is the number of people who have finally discovered both the satisfaction and the benefits of getting out for a walk.
But this need to walk comes with its own pitfalls; tripping hazards on our urban footpaths. (Memo Council: some of the worst we've come across lately are on about half the length of the eastern side of Lithgow's Padley Street).
It's an overwhelming challenge for Council to replace all of the displaced panels in the short term so the secret to avoiding an orthopaedic surgery is to look down and ahead rather than look around too much.
Meantime, with Lake Wallace inexplicably off limits, a safer option might be that superb new shared Farmers Creek walking and cycling track that runs all the way from the Geordie Street crossing almost to the Sandford Avenue bridge.
Just remember the rules of separation.
Pity about the players
IN the aftermath of those delightful early Autumn rains the countryside around Lithgow is looking absolutely picture perfect.
So too are our sporting fields, particularly Glanmire Park, which has rarely been better.
Pity our locked out sporting codes can't get out there and enjoy the new found playing environment.
Our unique landmark
STILL with things looking impressively refreshed, the late 1800s James Street railway viaduct in Lithgow has finally emerged from its construction site wrappings to reveal its new visage to the passing world.
During the strengthening works over several months the old sandstone blocks were given a thorough cleaning and the structure positively glows at night when bathed in floodlighting.
The railway authorities have told the column the viaduct is regarded as one of the most important, and rare, heritage items on the NSW network.
A truce in the paper wars?
Is this an indication we may be emerging from the current version of the Dark Ages?
For the first time in weeks well stocked shelves of toilet paper and kitchen paper were drawing surprised comment in Lithgow supermarkets at the weekend and with no indication, at least while we were there, of panic buying.
Hope it's an emerging trend and not just a momentary blip on the lockdown radar.
