Local Bungendore baker Grant McAllister opens his doors to the Gunna Doo Bakery every morning at 3am but once his early regulars - mostly truck drivers and tradies - have come and gone, business activity flows steadily downhill.

"Apart from the locals coming in, business around here has gone dead quiet," he said.

"I can't really out my finger on it; whether it's the [mandatory] masks everyone has to wear [in NSW], the QR check-ins, the weather, the drop-off in the coast trade or just that Canberra people are staying home a lot more.

"Or maybe it's all those things put together. But our trade is down about 40 per cent on what it was and I've had to cut everyone's shifts right back because we are just not getting the business."

It's a similar story right around the country town, which for many Canberrans was a weekend brunch break or a stopover during the Kings Highway drive to the South Coast. Compounding the issue this week was the announcement by Transport for NSW that the Kings Highway would be closed periodically for two and a half months from August 30.

However, many of the retail and hospitality business owners also believe that the significant turn-down now being experienced is a trickle-down effect of the Sydney basin lockdown.

Alison Lloyd, who runs Village Antiques in the main street with her twin brother Tim, has reduced their opening hours and is concerned at how quickly customer numbers have fallen away.

"Even in winter we're usually busy, especially on weekends," she said.

"We had a sale last Saturday which pushed the customer numbers up but then Sunday, it just went dead again.

"During the week, Bungendore is like a ghost town. We've got several businesses closing up shop because they can't afford to keep their doors open."

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Ms Lloyd said the knock-on effect of the Sydney basin lockdown has taken some weeks to arrive but is now being felt quite profoundly.

"Everyone in business around the town is feeling it; we usually have customers coming in from all over; down from Sydney, on the way to the [South] Coast, and in from Canberra," she said.

"We're in a prominent position on the main road and it's really noticeable; people are just not travelling.

"I strongly suspect one reason Canberra people are not travelling out of the ACT is because they don't want to have to wear a mask when they cross the border [into NSW]."

She has been hugely disappointed with the level of government support for regional businesses, particularly on rental subsidies and concessions.

"We had to shut the doors for seven weeks during the Covid lockdown last year but at least there was the financial support in place," she said.

"This time around, it's like the regional areas have been forgotten. It's far worse financially now for regional business than it was back then [in last year's lockdown]."

The Bungendore Wood Works gallery has the raw numbers to demonstrate the drop-off in trade.

The gallery's four-year average was over 1500 customers a week. Last week there were 380 people through the door, with its all-important weekend trade well down.

Gallery co-manager Sharon Rasker said that business uncertainty had racked the town.

"You get one or two businesses in town closing their doors as has happened recently, others reducing their opening hours, and everyone else starts to feel nervous," she said.

"And now we've got weeks and weeks of this [downturn] still ahead; it's a very tough time to run a business in Bungendore."

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