Opened only in 2020, the business had survived the pandemic to become one of the most popular dining spots in the NSW Southern Tablelands, with an online rating of 4.9 stars.

But the day after I met her, Ally was unexpectedly forced to make the decision to permanently close Troopers Rest.

"You've got a thriving business where you're booked out, you've got beautiful staff, lovely food, a really great restored building from the 1860s, everything's great ... but you have to close," she tells me despondently when I call to check in this week.

The problem was that Troopers Rest had been short a couple of kitchen staff for the past few months and, despite an interstate search, Ally had been unable to find people for the positions.

The day after I visited, two more of her cooks told her they would also need to leave for separate personal reasons unrelated to the business. Knowing how impossible it had been to find workers for the other vacancies, she saw no way to keep the business going.

"It was impossible to meet our standards, physically knowing the number of meals that we put out, we couldn't give the same level of service."

The issue of staff shortages in Australia at the moment has been well documented. And we know that tourism and hospitality are among the hardest-hit industries because they traditionally rely on working holidaymakers and skilled migrants, who have not returned in the numbers we saw pre-pandemic. But it's still shocking when you see its devastating effects play out right in front of you, knowing it's just one example of many similar situations.

"I believe a lot of the hospitality businesses in Braidwood are several people off closing - if they drop two or three staff, they're that vulnerable," Ally warns.

The impact of the skills shortage in the tourism industry is being felt more in regional parts of the country, where other factors are exacerbating the problems. One of the biggest issues is the lack of housing for workers, with tourist towns turning permanent rentals into Airbnbs, tree-changers from the city snapping up properties, or just a lack of planning from local authorities. The problem is acute in Braidwood, where Ally Kemp is confident she could have attracted new cooks if there had been accommodation for them in town.

"There are still a lot of chefs and cooks in the cities who also want a tree change, so I just think we would've had a much better chance," she explains.

Coincidentally, on the same day Ally's two staff members told her they would need to leave, the federal government was holding its Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra, just an hour's drive away. While there were some specific outcomes from the meeting, it's hard to see how any of them will address the chronic problems in the travel industry in the short term.

Travelling around Australia this year, I've been to many restaurants that have had to reduce their opening hours because they can't find enough staff. I've stayed at countless hotels that have cut back on services like cleaning or room service. And the problems with the airlines are no secret, with cancelled or delayed flights and long waits from check-in to luggage collection.

But it's not stopping people from travelling, particularly domestically. The latest figures from Tourism Research Australia, covering the month of June, show that Australians took 8.4 million overnight domestic trips that month. While that number is slightly down on 2019, the amount spent is up 22 per cent (to a total of $7.5 billion), with Queensland and Tasmania seeing the biggest increases.

Of course, high demand just makes the effects of the worker shortage even more acute. The cruel irony for people like Ally Kemp is that the popularity of her restaurant is why she was unable to keep operating it with a skeleton crew. And as the number of international tourists slowly increases (the latest figures for July show visitor arrivals are still only about 40 per cent of pre-pandemic figures), there will be even more demand on hotels, tour companies, and other hospitality businesses.

So looking at jobs, talking about skills, holding summits - they're all steps in the right direction for the economy as a whole. But tourism has its own unique set of problems to be solved. And a good start would be looking at ways to provide more affordable housing (or any housing at all!) for people who want to work in Byron, Broome, Braidwood, and dozens of other regional towns across the country.

Troopers Rest served its final meals last weekend, with "lots of tears, lots of flowers, and lots of hugs", as Ally describes the day. She's philosophical about the situation, telling me, "We've been caught up in something that's a bit abnormal, but things will change." And hopefully they do change. Soon. Seeing popular small businesses being forced to close like this is heartbreaking, and we should be trying to save every one we can.

You can see more on Michael's Travel Australia Today website.