For more than six decades, Gooley's Menswear on Molesworth Street has been dressing the men of the Northern Rivers. Peter Gooley met with Sara Browne to talk about work, family, service, near-death experiences and, of course, fashion.

I was born in Casino and we moved over here in 1957. I was only a young fella. I started school in Casino and transferred over to Marist Brothers here in Lismore. I’ve always lived in Lismore, except for my army life, I was in different parts of Australia and overseas.

There’s only two brothers in the family now, there were four of us altogether. My brother Tony was never in the business, he became an architect, he made his fortune from that. He was in Sydney for a while then he linked up with an Indonesian girl. Her Mum and Dad got sick and she wanted to go back to Jakarta so they moved there and he worked there.

My father started in a corner store in Casino, opposite the ambulance station. It had fruit and vegies, like the corner stores used to be. The man who bought it from my father was a fellow called Hunt McCarthy, his son was Father McCarthy who started Father Mac’s Christmas puddings. He was at Alstonville.

From there my father went into a shop on Walker Street, men’s and children’s clothing and then when we came across to Lismore it was just menswear. It was this same location on Molesworth. It wasn’t quite as long as this, after a few years he extended out the back. We lived on the corner of Barham Street and Wyrallah Road, couldn’t tell you how long we lived there, it was a bloody long time though.

When I was at school, I knew basically I was coming here to work in the business. I left school in 1967, came to the shop and worked for two or three years then the army got me. I did my two years national service then came back here. It was a draw, like a lottery, your birthday numbers came out and I got picked. I went to Singleton for my army basic training for three months. Then I went to Bandiana which is down near Albury/Wodonga and I did another three months there. Then I got transferred back to Sydney for a few months and then off to Vietnam.

Peter Gooley third from left, Marist Brothers Rugby Team with Brother Marcius, early 60s

When I went to Singleton, the training was fairly difficult because coming from this environment to army training was completely different. They were very strict and all that. I used to surf a lot, it was a big change. I made friends during army training but then you got moved on. I was in Vietnam for 12 months. I had an easy job over there actually. I was involved in stores. They used to fix up all the trucks, I used to do the stores for the spare parts. I was based at Vung Tau. We had two main army bases over there. One was Vung Tau and the other was Nui Dat, that’s where most of the Australian battalions were. It was very different but the climate was like here at the moment, very tropical.

You were allowed R and R, I think it was about a week off. You had three places you could go to – you could go home, you could go to Hongkong or Taiwan. I went to Hongkong. I got up to all sorts of things. I’d never been to Hongkong, I’d never travelled so when I wrote a letter back to my Mum and Dad they said, take the experience and go to Hongkong. I missed all my friends during that year. I used to go surfing most weekends. I used to surf at Byron Bay and Ballina. The bridge at Ballina was a very good surfing spot then, until they moved the wall out and that stopped the waves coming in.

I was 19 when I went to Vietnam. It was a terrible trip over in the plane, not knowing what it was going to be like, not knowing anything. It was the first time I’d left Australia. We flew into Saigon as it was known then and then travelled by plane to Vung Tau. Once you were there, you knew you were there for 12 months. I was very relieved to come back, I was glad to come home, I’d had enough. I was very lucky that I wasn’t involved in any accidents or anything. The mateship was good, the friends that you make. We were all there to do a job in a strange country, you become good mates with a lot of them. There’s some I’ve kept in touch with but a lot you never hear from again because some come from WA and all over the place.

I came back to work in the business. My father was working here, Jimmy and Georgie Mulherin from Casino, Johnny Alvos was here too. He got my job when I went to Vietnam. He worked here for 45 years. My brother Geoffrey worked here too but he got sick of it and wanted out so he went into management rights, managing units. He managed two at Broadbeach then he went to Brisbane and managed the Manor House Apartments next door to the GPO. He's retired now.

My Mum was involved in the business too but at another shop down the road called the Discount Clothing Market. It’s where Millers are now. The family still owns the building but we got out of that shop because it became too hard on my father, he was getting older. Dad still worked in the business when he was in his 80s. He passed away when he was 89.

When I came back from Vietnam, I was a bit of a loose cannon. I was drinking a bit too much, yahooing a bit with mates. My other brother David said, there’s a girl you want to ask out. She was a girl who worked down at Brand’s Pharmacy. So, I asked her out, Jenny Clark. We ended up getting married, been married for 44 years. We’ve got a boy and a girl. My daughter is in Townsville, she married an army fellow so they travel around a bit but they’re based in Townsville but looks like getting a transfer back to Brisbane hopefully. My son started here in the business when he left school. He met a girl while he was still at school and she went to Sydney to work so he packed up and went to be with her in Sydney. I was very sad actually. He was fitting in well here and he was a pretty good little footballer, he played for Marist Brothers here in Lismore. He lives at Perisher, he and his in-laws own a chalet down there.

Peter with brother David and nephews Matthew and Ben

I’ve done a fair bit of travelling. Jenny and I went to England. We went to a wedding in Mexico, one of my mate’s sons. I was asked, years ago, if I wanted to go back to Vietnam, and I said no. Then another group of friends were going about 10 years ago and asked me to go along and I said yes. We did China, Vietnam and Cambodia. It was a bit daunting going back there but I didn’t mind it. It was a completely different place to what it had been. Vung Tau was like a fishing village when I was there and now it’s a city. It’s amazing how it has progressed.

I’ve seen a lot of changes in Lismore in my time and it’s been disappointing in a way. Lismore has never really recovered from the last flood. It’s a shame when you walk down Molesworth Street or around the block, there’s so many empty shops. It’s sad. I knew what it was like years ago and Lismore was a terrific town. It still is a good town but it’s not like it used to be. You’d walk down the street and you’d know half the people. Lismore was abuzz, it really was. 1974 was the big one, we had five feet of water in the shop. It’s a lot of extra work when there’s a flood. Then you lose the trade. The '74 flood nearly sent us broke because it came up so quick. We weren’t ready for it. Mostly the floods come up slow. '74 was different. 2017 was quick but not as bad.

Brands, Gooleys and Pinkertons have been here the longest on Molesworth Street. This used to be the main street years ago. I’ve never thought about moving the shop. This will always be here.

Trends come and go. Sometimes we’re back to the 70s with fashion. It goes around and around. The same as women’s fashion. Maybe the fashion designers can’t think of what to do so they go back to how it was years ago and reinvent it. Online is a big part of our business. We’ve been online about four years. The pandemic has had different effects. We had a terrific Christmas because people weren’t going away. They weren’t going to the Gold Coast or Brisbane to do their shopping. Same with the school formals. They were put back to December and again, kids were buying locally, which was good.

I think all the traders had a good time because of that reason. I think women’s wear would have done well around the area. It’s a bit of a slump now, January and February are always hard months. People have spent their money for Christmas and holidays and then it’s back to school. It’s hard on certain retailers because if you don’t stock back to school supplies you don’t get that business.

In my opinion, it’s sad the way things have gone with dressing. People are down-dressing, they don’t get dressed up like they used to. You see people walking down the street and you think – could do better than that. I know that’s my industry. We still do well with suits, this shop has been known as a suit shop. I own three suits, I don’t over do it. I always have a shirt and tie. There’s not many of us. If you walked into a menswear shop, not many would be dressed like this, they’re mostly in short-sleeved shirts. I’ve always dressed like this.

I gave up surfing which I should never have done. I came back from Vietnam and just didn’t worry about it which was a bit sad. I used to love it. Now I mow the lawn and do the whipper-snipping, times change. I’m 72 now and I’ve eased back a bit now with work. I take Mondays off and I’ll start to cut back. Hopefully, when I retire, I’ll travel. I think I’d like to do more of Australia. It’s an interesting place, it’s a strange, vast country. There’s places that I haven’t seen that I probably should go and see instead of going overseas.

I’ve got two grandchildren. My son’s wife had a baby in December, a little girl. My daughter Nerida has Mitchell who is 7.

Jenny worked down at Brand’s Pharmacy for about 40 years. She had a break from there. We had a shop around on Woodlark Street, Jean House also belongs to our company and the workwear next door. Before the workwear went in there, we had a ladies shop and Jenny worked there for a while. She wasn’t so keen on it. Then she went back to the pharmacy. She left there to work with her brother at Greg Clark Building. She wanted a change.

I do have a sense of destiny. There’s something that happened to me when I was a little kid. I drowned. I was pronounced dead. My parents had a big fishpond in the yard where we lived in Casino. I went in diving for the goldfish and they found me floating. Across the road was the ambulance and two doors down from us was a doctor, Doctor Jaber, and that’s how I was saved. They revived me. I have no memory of it. I was in the shop here one day chatting to an older lady who said she was from Casino. She said, you’re not a Gooley are you? And I said, yes I am. She said, you’re not the little boy who was drowned are you? I said, as a matter of fact I am. I made the ABC news. There was no TV then, it was radio news.

I had another experience when I was surfing, huge surf down at Evans Head. In those days there was no leg ropes, just your board. If you had a wipeout, you had to swim. I got taken out by a rip and then brought back into the river. A fellow saw me struggling from the side of the river and he sang out ‘let it take you mate’. So, I stopped trying to swim and let it take me to the shore. I was scared, I thought I was going to drown.

Peter's father George opened the family business in this location in 1957

I never thought I’d do anything else. This is it. I could have stayed in the army but I didn’t. It wasn’t my cup of tea. I was there for two years, that was enough for me.

I know lots of faces in Lismore but lots of times I don’t know names. Lots of people come in and say ‘gday Pete how you going?’ and sometimes I’ve got no idea who they are. It’s embarrassing. I smile and say how are you going. As you get older, it gets worse because you forget things and forget names. I don’t like aging but you don’t have a choice do you? We’re all doing it. We’re all getting older, we’re all going to die. You’ve got to accept that.

We’re taking our seven-year-old grandson down to Perisher at Easter time. Then we’re going to take him back when there’s snow there, just to show him the difference between seasons. He’ll enjoy that.