If the walls of Bowen’s Pies and Takeaway could talk, they would tell a long tale that spans decades of a family business and countless floods.

Yesterday, the tale was told by Tracy and Alan Foster who re-opened their business for the first time since the flood at 6am Monday morning with customers waiting at the door.

“We pride ourselves on customer service. If you go somewhere, you want to be treated with a little bit of respect,” Tracy said.

In between greeting every customer by name and deftly preparing orders, Tracy and Alan took some time to talk to the Lismore App about their wild ride these last few months.

“We’ve been here 11 years now but my Mum and Dad started this business in 1949. They sold it to another lady, Dawn Virtue, in 1986 but I stayed and worked for Dawn for 14 or 15 years. Dawn didn’t sell it until 2002, around then. My husband Alan and I bought it back 11 years ago,” Tracy explained.

In preparation for a big opening day, devoted friends Trish and Jo were in the kitchen and at the counter to assist.

“We didn’t know what was going to unfold, normally it’s just Alan and I running it but when you’ve got friends like this…my sister-in-law Janelle has also been amazing,” Tracy said.

The building, which stands on Union Street opposite the train station, was severely impacted by flood inundation and left the landlord with significant repairs which included complete rewiring and ceiling replacement. As with so many buildings in the area, the water rose through the ceiling to the apartments above.

“After the 2017 flood, we were closed for four days. We didn’t have a choice but to open then. We were cleaning up here and our customers were all coming in during their clean-up saying ‘we need something to eat’. So, we basically opened then with rissoles, cooked onion, bacon, eggs and toasted ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches...but they were happy with that,” Tracy explained.

“We didn’t think about not coming back. We live over here as well, born and bred in South Lismore. Our house was flooded. And our disabled daughter's house as well,” she added.

“We got the trifecta!” Alan piped in.

Rescue story

After arranging rescue for their children and dogs, Alan and Tracy waited their turn for a remarkable nine and half hours before being collected by a civilian boat at their home and taken to the Ballina Street bridge. There they waded through thigh-high water and climbed into another boat.

“The water came into our house just before 6am and we didn’t get rescued til about 2:30pm. A civilian rescued us. I got my kids and my dogs out first and then they came back to get us.

In South Lismore, it's very diverse and everybody knows everybody and our neighbour had just had her breasts off from cancer and she had been screaming ‘somebody help me’ so we said ‘rescue her first’. It was only Alan and I and I was sitting in a canoe so worst-case scenario, we could have got up on the roof. The kids were safe, the dogs were safe so we just waited our turn,” Tracy said.

“When we were going up Ballina Road the guy in the boat said ‘do you want to know how deep it is?’ and I said ‘mmm I don’t know’. He said it was five and a half metres deep. He kept saying ‘duck’ for the power lines. It was pretty full on. Even if it was a 12-metre flood we probably wouldn’t have evacuated because we’re six foot off the ground. Not in a million years would you think it was going to come into the house,” Tracey added.

Back home in South Lismore

More than four months on, the Fosters are back in their house and back in business.

“We didn’t stop. We gave ourselves Sunday afternoons off. For four months,” Alan said.

“More at home first then in here at the shop. We just had to get some normality back in our lives so we bit the bullet and did home first,” Tracy added.

And now, their daughter’s house is under repair too, with some thanks to regular customers who are also tradespeople who’ve stepped up to help.

“We had a caravan but then we moved back into our home even though it didn’t have any walls or anything in it. We had our kitchen outside and we just lived under the house basically. Everything was under the house and we slept upstairs. Our house is nearly finished to be honest, thanks to guys like that, who was just in here. They were all really good customers of ours, our gyprocker, cabinet makers, electricians…” Tracy explained.

The key element of the kitchen – the oven – was saved from the flood and enabled the business owners to get back to baking.

“That young guy who was just in here – the cabinet maker – he saved it for us – took it away in a truck,” Tracy said.

“If we hadn’t saved that we wouldn’t be here, it’s too expensive to replace,” Alan added.

“We need a break. Because we were rescued so late in the flood, Alan ended up with Baker’s cysts in his knees, from standing in the cold water so long,” Tracy explained.

“How ironic,” Alan mused.

“I don’t know why they call them that. They first thought he had blood clots which was a major concern. It’s done damage to the ligaments in his knees so now he has to have surgery,” Tracy said.

Bowen’s has returned to regular trading hours Monday to Friday 6am to 3pm weekdays. There are extra hours for Alan and Tracy and the crew in preparations but perhaps this means they can have their weekends back for a well-earned break.

Pie lovers of the South and beyond are celebrating the return of yet another wonderfully resilient Lismore business.