![\"Townhouse](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6a1e964bf2bab16f40c9027caa396f0163d98769.jpg\")
Camera IconTownhouse Cafe owner Kylie Tomlinson pictured with staff Emma and Sonia at their Eaton shopfront back in February. Credit: Townhouse Cafe<\/p>\nA popular South West cafe has shut its doors after just seven months, with the owner calling out the government for not supporting local businesses.<\/p>\n
Townhouse Coffee Co and Cafe is a family-operated coffee house that first opened the doors to its second South West location in February, a decade after first opening in Bunbury.<\/p>\n
Just months after opening the new storefront, the owners of the Eaton site revealed they were forced to make the \u201cheartbreaking\u201d decision to close the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter pouring so much of our hearts, time and energy into our little caf\u00e9, the time has come for us to close our doors,\u201d the business announced in a post to their followers on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis caf\u00e9 was never just a business to us. It became a huge part of our lives \u2014 a place filled with early mornings, long days, laughter, tears, friendships, familiar faces and countless memories that we will carry with us forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Council Drive eatery went on to explain that running a small business in the current economic climate is \u201creally hard\u201d due to rising costs and constant pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmall businesses are often described as the heart of our communities, but the reality is that when things get tough, it can feel like you\u2019re expected to somehow survive on your own,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, there simply hasn\u2019t been the government support or assistance needed to help small businesses like ours through increasingly difficult times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fought incredibly hard to keep going. We sacrificed, adapted and gave everything we could because this caf\u00e9 and the community around it meant so much to us \u2014 but sometimes, giving everything you have still isn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camera IconTownhouse Cafe owner Kylie Tomlinson pictured with staff Emma and Sonia at their Eaton shopfront back in February. Credit: Townhouse Cafe<\/p>\n
The South West cafe shared a massive thank you to all the patrons who had enjoyed a cup of coffee or a bite to eat at the establishment, before ended the lengthy statement by urging Eaton residents to continue to support local stores.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are incredibly proud of the little community that grew around our caf\u00e9. No closure can take away the friendships, memories and moments we shared,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease continue to support your local small businesses whenever you can. Behind every one of them is a person or family giving everything they have to keep their dream alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many WA business owners quickly filled the comments of the Eaton cafe\u2019s announcement, commiserating with the owner over the struggles of seeking government support nowadays.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are very correct that the government does not want small businesses to prosper or survive . . . they offer zero support in these harsh economic times,\u201d a former cafe operator commented, revealing they had previously shut their business for similar reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a small business owner staying afloat has been the absolute hardest . . . the government has no interest in supporting us as we pour our blood sweat and tears into staying open,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly tough out at the moment, wishing you all the best for the future,\u201d a third South West local wrote.<\/p>\n
The devastating closure news is the latest blow to the family-owned business \u2014 with the owner sharing in June that the Bunbury location of Townhouse Cafe was forced to shut over leasing issues.<\/p>\n
PerthNow has contacted the Townhouse Cafe for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular South West cafe has shut its doors after just seven months, with the owner calling out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,1295,44,12587,45],"class_list":["post-891083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-food","tag-news","tag-small-business","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}