Bell's Family Carnival ready to rock Batehaven after tough 18 months

And, despite a challenging 24 months full of bushfires, COVID-19 restrictions and border closures, the Bell family will be back this December to bring a carnival atmosphere back to Batemans Bay.

Elwin Bell, who runs Bells Amusements, hails from Queanbeyan but also owns land near Mogo that was impacted by the Black Summer bushfires.

"We always look forward to getting there (Batehaven)," he said. "It's our most popular carnival, and we love being right near the beach for six weeks.

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"We've got a place out past Mogo, but everything we had out there got burnt out."

The Bells have recently spent months in the Northern Territory and Queensland due to COVID-19 restrictions, which Elwin said had been "hard" on every carnival in the country.

"It's been devastating," he said. "A lot of our shows were cancelled, and a lot of carnivals are having trouble getting our public liability insurance.

"That's not just a carnival thing, that's everyone even down to the bloke hiring jetskis in coastal towns - anything that runs for the public.

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"We're tough though, we've battled on. We were lucky to get JobKeeper, that helped us a fair bit, but we've just had to tighten our belts and spend the time cleaning up our rides and trucks.

"After everything was cancelled at the end of July, we went all the way up to Darwin to do Northern Territory and outback Queensland.

"We stayed in Queensland and ran our own fun fairs in all the country towns, and didn't get back into NSW until the end of October.

"Our first show back was Queanbeyan, and we're in Young this weekend."

However, Mr Bell is expecting a bumper carnival this year based on the numbers prior to July's lockdown.

"The Sydney Royal Easter Show was a bonanza this year, one of the best shows we've ever seen," he said.

"It was almost back to the 1970s where the shows were great - it felt like the people wanted to get out and spend their money."

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Bells Family Carnival will run from December 26 to Australia Day, and Elwin is bringing back all the local favourites - and an exciting new ride as a bonus.

"We're about bringing memories and happiness, and we just want to see people have fun," he said.

"We'll have the Cha-Cha - which is everyone's favourite - the Matterhorn, the Hurricane, the No Limits, and we have new drifting dodgem cars.

"Come down, spend some money, and have a great time."

This year will also see the return of the popular New Year's Eve fireworks.