It's salt in the wound for local tradesmen who usually work in the lockdown zone to the north that tradesmen from that zone are allowed to come down here to work.

While all construction in the lockdown zone has been paused until the end of July, as a measure to combat the latest COVID-19 outbreak, tradespeople from the lockdown zone can travel to jobs within 50 km of the zone border (the Minnamurra River) without having to have extra testing.

The Member for Kiama, Gareth Ward, is concerned the rules could have unintended consequences, "From my point of view, if there is to be a construction shutdown in Greater Sydney to prevent the spread of COVID, then all we seem to have is an Order that has pushed potential problems to the regions that by and large have avoided a major covid outbreak.

"Surely they could work out that if construction workers could go to another area to work then they would."

The noticable arrival of extra tradespeople has had concerned locals contacting The Bugle, as well as the police and NSW Health.

"I want to know what procedures are in place to track their movements," said one caller.

"It's not right they can come down here at this time."

Mark Redding, owner of Kiama-based Integrity Homes, says that he knows many in the industry are confused about what they can or cannot do.

"This latest measure to close down the construction industry in the lockdown zone came as a surprise, as last time it was considered an essential activity," he says.

"It takes a lot of effort to keep on top of it, and there is a lot of confusion within the industry."

Mark Redding of Integrity Homes at one of his Gerringong jobs

Luckily for his business, at the moment it only has a couple of jobs happening in the lockdown area, with many more on the go locally and further south and in the Highlands.

"It is a matter of juggling the trades available to keep all the jobs going," he says.

"Tradespeople can travel within 50km of a lockdown zone without extra testing, but once they go beyond that they have to be tested every seven days."

He says some of his Sydney-based tradespeople are choosing not to come down at the moment, as a safety precaution.