Mrs Law said the couple had bought the business in 1983 when the local TAB sub-agency was located in the shop.

"We thought it'd be good money, and back then both sides of the business was expanding (the souvenirs and the TAB)."

She said after doing well for the first five years, the last thing they thought of was selling the business.

"But when we finally did want to sell, we found it was a lot harder."

Mrs Law said she felt attitudes towards spending money had changed since the mid 80s.

"Tourists seem to be spending most of their money now on travel and accommodation costs, rather than goods and material items."

The couple said they would be staying in the Ridge.

"Derek is excited about doing some more mining which is why we came here in the first place," she said.

But she said the business had been their bread and butter and that is why they had kept going.

However, she said she was now looking forward to spending more time doing volunteer work within the community.

Mrs Law said they had made the decision late last year to close their business.

"It was getting too hot to work and pre-pack gifts for Christmas and our insurance will expire this month, so May seemed an appropriate deadline for us to get out," she said.

"It was a funny feeling, the reality hadn't hit me until then," Mrs Law said as she described the last official day of their closing sale.

Mrs Law said while they hadn't been able to sell the shop, it had paid its way during the years.