Patrons sitting on bar stools was a “grey area” for mask wearing, pub owners said.

Proof of vaccination is not required to enter the town’s IGA supermarket because it is classed as an essential service, but the new rules require shoppers to wear masks.

Mandatory vaccination and mask requirements do not apply to people with officially approved medical exemptions.

Infected staff and workplace contacts are required to isolate for 14 days, which could cause some businesses to close, but this measure is expected to ease soon.

Both Toodyay hotels reported downturns at the start of this month, and the bakery is now shut on Mondays due a staff shortage caused by workplace vaccination rules.

The new measures coincide with shortages of essential goods after floods cut interstate rail services until at least February 12.

IGA store owner Dean Carter said 30km of rail freight every week had been halted, causing retailers to switch to interstate trucking to maintain supplies.

“We use independent supply chains and have enough to get by if people don’t panic,” Mr Carter said.

Freemasons Hotel owner John Pearce said a minority of pub customers had objected to being required to show proof of vaccination.

The first week under new rules was “an education process”.

“Everyone needs to just suck it up and get on with it,” he said.

“Like everybody else, we’re just following the law because that’s what we are required to do.”

Local police say they will conduct random checks around the town ensure the new public health measures are being observed.

Toodyay District High School Principal David Ball said all Year 7 to 10 students are required to wear masks indoors unless they had a medical exemption.

Other students did not need to wear masks, and masks were not required outdoors.

All school staff are double vaccinated.

The State Government says people concerned that vaccination may affect their health can seek a medical exemption.

However, this does not apply “to an objection based on personal belief” or “vaccine hesitancy and related fears and anxiety”, for which health provider advice should be sought.

Former Cr Bell also figured in several legal battles with former shire CEO Stan Scott after posting strident criticism of Mr Scott’s performance on Facebook.

The former CEO was later named in 14 of 23 adverse findings against the shire and its former council after the results of a year-long State Government inquiry were tabled in the WA Parliament in 2020.

Former Cr Bell gave no official reason for his January 15 departure, though there was growing speculation based on his frequent absences that he might not stay.

A discussion last year to cut the size of the council from nine to seven members was deferred pending the October 2021 poll.

The 2021 elections completed a four-year transition to allow all voters to vote for all candidates regardless of geographical area.

The reform included the introduction of postal ballots which caused a big increase in voter participation after years of low turn-outs at little-known shire polling stations.

York, Chittering, Goomalling and Victoria Plains all have seven councillors – a move favoured by the State Government.

Reducing the Toodyay Shire Council’s size to seven members would save ratepayers about $23,000 a year in councillor allowances.

It would also save a further $22,000 by avoiding a fresh council election so soon after the last poll three months ago.

A special meeting this month voted 5-1 (Cr Mick McKeown against) to seek WA Electoral Commission permission to leave the seat vacant, pending an expected Ministerial move to introduce smaller councils at the October 2023 poll.

A council of eight elected members with one vacancy still needs an absolute majority of five councillors to pass important decisions such as budgets regardless of the president’s casting (second) vote because it is still officially a nine-member council.

Her crowded evacuation ship was sunk by enemy aircraft off Indonesia’s Bangka Island and 29-year-old Alma was one of 22 Australian nurses who were able to reach the shore in a lifeboat.

They started treating wounded survivors on the beach when they were captured by Japanese soldiers who ordered them back into the water where they were machine gunned in the shallows.

Only one nurse, Sister Vivian Bullwinkle, survived and, after spending more than three years in Japanese prison camps, she wrote to Alma’s parents to tell them what happened to their daughter.

She said Alma was the last in a line of nurses in the water to be shot.

Her last words were: “Bully, there are two things in my life I’ve always hated – the Japanese and the sea – and today I have ended up with both of them.”

“Her brave conduct in an hour of crisis has added lustre to the service which she so nobly carried on,” Sister Bullwinkle wrote.

Local historian David Sims suggested an outdoor memorial to honour Alma’s heroism after seeing a wall display about her war service in the medical centre waiting room.

Toodyay RSL affiliate member Colin Bird led the project which, after being unable to get Federal Department of Veterans’ Affairs funding, attracted a local benefactor who donated $2000.

Another $500 was donated by Newcastle Gaol Museum volunteers and, with work in kind and materials donated by trade suppliers and other donors, the $5000 project was finalised.

A Perth firm was commissioned to cut a life-sized metal silhouette of a nurse to stand in a setting of Toodyay stone and brickwork with a commemorative plaque.

The memorial will be unveiled in a public ceremony at the Alma Beard Medical Centre at 2pm on Wednesday February 16 – the 80th anniversary of Alma’s death.

Local RSL organisers plan to follow the unveiling with afternoon tea next door at the Toodyay Club, depending on State Covid-19 requirements.