Andrew Newton and Grant Smith AKA Two Mates Brewing have been working for 18 months on opening a micro-brewery in South Lismore. They have been great hockey mates since their mid-thirties, hence the name. Denise Alison from Humans of Lismore spoke to Andrew and Grant about their life and their journey.

Andrew - “I’m a Grafton boy born and bred. I’ve been down in Sydney for 25 years where I started my family. I spent the best part of 20 plus years in the Apparel industry…Senior finance operational, CEO, CFO, COO, multiple roles running companies through that time.

My family is all down there at the moment, however we are in a transitional period where we will be heading back to the North Coast. For me it’s always been about coming back home. My parents have retired to the Sunny Coast and my brother’s in Brisbane so for us this region it’s where we want to be.

As Grant will allude to, we are Hockey tragics. That’s where our past started to join and seems like a lifetime ago, back in our mid 30’s. That’s part of the journey that’s led us to where we are now.

Grant and I played a lot of Masters Hockey for our State and our country. Everywhere we’ve gone it’s always been about family for us and that’s been a massive thing behind what we’ve built here. I’ve got 4 kids and Grant’s got 7 to 27 (laughs) Grant - ‘Edit that part out’ (laughs).

What we’ve started here stemmed from us coming back from a Hockey trip over in Bunbury in the Margaret River. We were in a team environment which consisted of 52 people. 14 players and the rest were all our families. Everywhere went over there we could do stuff as a family. Even though it is a wine region, we spent most of our time looking at Breweries. They were on massive blocks of land and had really cool stuff for kids so really inclusive. That started a lot of phone calls.”

Grant - “I’m originally from Canberra but I’ve lived everywhere. I was a Hockey tragic. I played for my country for 10 years from 1990 to 2000. I did the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 which was great. I’ve lived all over the world, all through Europe and all over Australia. I spent a lot of time in WA and North QLD.

My background is in construction. Outside of Hockey I did a trade through my father and then onto contract administration, project and construction management. I’ve been in that world for almost 20 years.

I moved to Ballina in 2002 where my brother lived. I met my now wife Kim in 2014. We are a blended family. My wife had 6 children, I had 3 children and we have 1 together. We actually have 10 children ranging in age from 5 to 26….3 older boys then 7 girls. Up until last year I had 7 daughters living in our house.

I continue to play Hockey because I love it socially and it’s family based. As Andrew said we’ve had the pleasure of being able to travel nationally and overseas. We’ve done world tours and played in World Cups, played in Trans Tasman tournaments in Australia and NZ. Andrew and I are similarly aligned with the way we are with our families.

My wife and I live in Casino. We’ve been there for 8 years. We’ve struggled with a social outlet for our children, places to go and things to do. I always found I was picking my children up and taking them outside of the region…travelling north. My wife and I started thinking about what we might be able to do here. We spent nearly 12 months talking about it. With 7 daughters at home and both working, there’s not too much time to develop those things.

Off the back of the trip to WA I was on the plane on the way home and I found a block of dirt here and said… We’re gonna do it! It was 30 acres in Caniaba and we were looking at Agrifarm. Unfortunately through the planning side of things it wasn’t permissible so we had to think about it more.

Andrew being in the more metro scene in Sydney and craft breweries, which all had that industrial theme. Our vision was around having grass and plants and old sheds. In discussion with Lismore City Council we got directed to this place. It ticked all the boxes. It’s a big parcel of land and we have future plans we can do here down the track. Ultimately we’d like to get to a bigger landscape, a bigger acreage area similar to what they have in WA. We have a beautiful catchment here and a real niche in the market for what we’re doing.

We are centred in the Northern Rivers so everything we’ve based our branding on has been Northern Rivers based. Local produce, local people, local contractors, where practically possible we source everything local. In the last week we’ve been working with foodies and muso’s. We’ve been getting them down to check out the space.

We want the space to be driven by the public and by the community, what they want and things they want to see. We’ve provided a platform for them. We have the Brewery here, we have our Railyard and Produce stuff going as well which gives people a face in Lismore. We have a Grandma and Grandpa who produce pickles and relishes. They don’t have a retail space so this provides that follow on of opportunity for the region.

We have a great outdoor space too and a children's play area. It’s all a family friendly environment. It’s important to us that we had a space that can be enjoyed by adults and children. Most pubs in this region are adult based, kids just running around but nothing to entertain them. In fairness to the adults, you want to be able to bring your kids here and have them entertained while you’re entertained. We’ve created a space out the back where people can grab a blanket, throw it on the grass and chill out. This is space where you can also come, sit and read a book just enjoying the space. It’s not all about coming to consume alcohol. It’s just a great place to come and hang out.

The craft industry follows a similar line, no TV’s, no pokies. People need to come down here and talk to each other because that’s what it’s about. It brings people back to what we were like as kids where you entertained yourself. We have another thousand square metres out the back as well so we’re looking at stage 2. We have some ideas but initially we would like to integrate an animal nursery and organic gardens. You’re not going to come here and pay $13 for a beer. Every thing we’ve done here is to make it price point relevant to where we are.

There’s a lot of money in Lismore, we know that, but there’s also a low socio economic side too and there’s also a lot of families like us, big families or people living on the line. You can come here with $20 and get a beer and a burger and stay for a few hours. You don’t have to spend $100 or more.

With the industry that we’re in, if a Brewery were to open up next door they are not seen as competition. They compliment what we’re doing. We are a place of destination, people come here specifically for this rural landmark that will draw people to Lismore. The rail trail finishes right outside the door. We have an amazing Brewer on board. His name is Neil Whittorn. Pop’s his name in the industry, 74 and he’s a wealth of knowledge. He’s worked for Stone and Wood, CUB, Little Creatures in WA. He’s an amazing bloke and he’s been a blessing to us.

We’ve lost a couple of Brewers through timeline and personal circumstance. We’ve been 14 months sitting in with Council and 18 months working on this proposal and we’re kinda past it now. We want to focus on positivity, what’s ahead of us and getting open.

Grant - “ What we try to do here in the set up is re-use. We’ve had very minimal waste on this site. We’ve used offcuts of sleepers for supports for bars. All offcuts are saved. All our timber comes from Big Scrub timbers so all local.

Our wives have been heavily involved. Andrew’s wife Frances has done so much behind the scenes. My wife Kim is a renovator / builder. She built the wet bar and she did all the kids area including building the cubby house.

Frances has been heavily involved in the Produce side of things and developing all the artwork, our graphics and social media. Our kids have all been involved. Our older kids will be here working. Our younger kids will be working out the back in the glass area. All the kids have been involved in the whole journey and they are excited to be a part of it.

Not living in Lismore, this is the first time I’ve done something specifically in the region. I built the North and South tower on the Base hospital for a contractor and I worked on the gaol at Grafton. I also worked on another hospital in Coffs.

Coming back here now, I can sense with the change around a new election, everyone’s really excited about the what if’s? I think businesses like ours and other businesses that are coming in like Blue Kitchen who will be opening at the old Railway station, Brad Rickard and his team who are doing really good things with The Loft, the guys at StockPot, Dirty’s in Keen St. There’s a lot of great, funky, foodie places, places where people can just go and hang out. Again we just compliment that.

We will have a rotation of 6 or 7 local food vans. We have some great guys locked in - Junkyard, Earth Oven, the Bratwurst guys, Ugly Dumplings and more so great variety. We also have lots of great muso’s lined up.

The thing that we’ve really noticed here is the support from other businesses, welcoming us and everyone wants everyone to succeed. It’s really nice to see. On the flip-side there is also a minority of negativity around things, which you expect. It’s almost like some people want to see you fail and sadly those minorities have made the journey difficult at times for us.

Andrew-" It’s not the big developers coming into town. At the end of the day you have 2 families who have thrown everything into this. We haven’t called on anyone to help us back this, we’re doing it ourselves and we’re doing it for the region. We followed what the strategic plans asked for, the vision of what they want to do for regrowth and regeneration and we’re doing exactly that. Add to the problems we’ve faced is Covid. All these other issues we’ve carried then throw in a pandemic. It’s been extraordinary times.

Grant - “ We’re pretty proud of what we’ve produced and what we’ve held together. We come from a background of team sport which is where the Two Mates thing comes from. Everything we’ve driven around this about being united and the adversity we’ve faced through this would sometimes break people. We’ve not only got a business relationship but we have a very solid personal family relationship.

One thing we’ve said through this process is it doesn’t matter what happens we’d never let it impact that. It means more to me than the business. I’d throw away a million dollars before I’d throw away a relationship or a family relationship. I think that is one of the elements which has been the key for us to be able to continue. We haven't given up.

We go through these cycles of up and down where one’s low then the other one’s low and we carry each other through. It’s a bit like the old Battle of Attrition, the old war in the trenches type thing but at the end of the day we get to the bar in the arvo, have a beer and talk about what we’ve done and who we hate (laughs) then we get up the next day and do the same shit.

The Craft industry are very much built around the journey. People think you’re building a brewery and people see the sugar on top and how good it is to have a brewery. They don’t see what’s in behind it and what’s involved. It’s phenomenal, all the way back. You are continually juggling all the way to the line. Obviously you have the operational things of the business but the big part is how you evolve as a business once we go to market. How many beers are we going to bring on?..what other products?… What events? And it's just us, our 2 wives who stand beside up and our kids.

We do it all off the back of no brewery experience. Plenty of experience on the other side of the bar (laughs). We’ve learnt so much and will continue to do so.”

Check out their website Two Mates Brewing.