Sharon Pepper is a true blue Lismore gal with horses in her blood and pubs and clubs as her choose of career. Most days you will find Sharon down at the Lismore City Bowling Club serving drinks or organising the next event. Lilly Harmon sat down with Sharon to get her life story.

I was born here in Lismore, and went to Numulgi Primary School and onto St. Mary’s for high school which is now Trinity.

I grew up on a dairy farm that my parents ran, and from that, I really got into horses and horse riding.

My dad was the chairman of Northern Rivers Racing for a good period of time so it was already in the family. I’ve been riding since I was 2 as well as pony club til I was 18 and it's just in your blood and doesn’t go away, I love it. For all the people who say how cruel racing is, they need to go out and spend a week at someone's place who has horses and actually see what it really is all about.

I started riding racehorses when I was 14. My early years on the farm at a very early age we all helped Dad milk the cows, feed the calves, feed the pigs and exercise our horses we were breaking in at the time, every day before school and when we got home from school. 

I'm the 2nd child of four. We used to ride our ponies to Numulgi school every day for about a kilometre. We would then put them in the pony paddock and go to school. We’d come out at 3pm, jump on them and ride home. We were a very competitive family so most days we would race each other to school. I also rode when I was around 15 at the local bridal races. These were races held on someone's property they usually were held every 3 months. These races were run by the locals and it was a wild old affair (but so much fun).

Sundays on the farm we would all go for a fish and swim in the creek on the farm. Then back to milking Sunday arvo. 

I used to ride the steers at the local shows when I was between 13 and 15. One of the racing stewards for Racing NSW quite often mentions me being the only girl riding and towelling up the boys. I also did a lot of camp drafting and showjumping at the shows.

We used to get semi-trailers of horses turn up that we'd break in that had never even seen a human being before. It was always very interesting keeping horses from scratch to riding them. Every horse is like a human being and all have different personalities. So I've always been dabbling in the whole horse industry.

I did a twelve-month course at TAFE after I finished school in secretarial studies. Everyone at that time would be doing that course. Once I finished that, I worked in a legal office as well as working in the office of a car yard. Then eventually I ended up joining the Federal Police in 1983. 

I tried to get into the state police beforehand, but there had been a height restriction that I didn’t meet by only half an inch. I decided that joining the federal police was the next best option. To get in, I had to complete a really hard exam but I ended up passing in ‘83. 

It was a very good job and a very good working lifestyle down there in Sydney. I was in charge of a shift in the Federal Police that looked after 2 Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating.

Hazel Hawke was one of the nicest humans you would meet. I met my husband Mark there. However, when I came back from maternity leave after having my first child and went onto the night shift, I decided it wasn’t the job for me anymore in my changing lifestyle. Having children typically takes over most things! We bought a house out at Numulgi, we settled down and have been there ever since. 

I have three children with my husband Mark, Ben who is 36, Kirsty who is 34 and Doug who is 32. Through them I also have 4 grandchildren. Ben has a martial arts business up in Warwick. Doug lives in Brisbane and looks after dogs at a doggy daycare, he probably earns more than I do doing that. Kirsty is a returned soldier, she did 2 tours of Afghanistan. 

When I came back to Lismore I worked at the former Lismore RSL until it closed in 2004 because I was working there before I went to Sydney. My husband got a job at the local court.

After that, I worked at the Lismore Workers Sports Club and then at the Mullumbimby Pub where I managed the bottle shop for quite some time. At the Lennox Head Bowling Club, I was one of the supervisors there for about 8 years. My husband became ill around 10 years ago, so we both stopped working for a while and after a short stint of time I came here to the Lismore City Bowls Club where I’ve been for nine years. 

It's a great place here and you have all walks of life and interesting characters coming into the bowlo and enjoying it for what it really is. You’ll never meet the same two people here. For the bowls itself, it's a great sport. It's a friendly and happy place where everyone who works here likes working here which is always a bonus.

We aren’t owned by a big conglomerate, so it’s just a small place where everyone knows each other and loves being. It's a nice industry especially here since there's no climbing up the ladder to be in charge of the place, everyone's at the same level and everyone likes that. That’s one of the great joys I’ve found that working in hospitality brings into your life. 

I don’t play as often as people might think, I tell them all out on the green that I’m not old enough to be playing! At this stage I probably am, but that’s what I’m telling myself. Sometimes when they're short on a social Saturday and I'm working they will drag me in and usually pit me against Judy who is 92 so she can towel me up. I’ve been trying to hold out from playing as long as possible, but I might have to divert to the bowls soon.

A lot of hard work went into getting it up and going after the flood but we're getting there slowly with a lot of help from a lot of volunteers getting in and doing the hard work. But even now we have all sorts of different parties here like weddings receptions, work events, birthday parties and wakes.

We’re having the tropical fruits people up here on the 30th of December. So, there will be about 300 to 500 people here, so it’s a night we’re all working hard to prepare for. 

Even now I’m still training the horses, with four in work at the moment. You’re always up early at 5 am to tend to them, which I’m used to from growing up on the farm. Most people in racing are very good people so I always enjoy doing it. 

We go to Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast for racing, as well as Grafton, Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie. It’s usually, however, all within the local area that we travel for racing and the horses so that’s good for us here. Always a 30 to 45-minute drive to wherever we need to be most of the time. 

Business is booming currently, a lot more than it was before the flood and I think it comes down to a few reasons. We’ve started advertising the place a lot more online and in other ways. Also, we have changed a lot about the place in the renovations inside. It’s a lot more earthy and natural inside so it’s welcoming everyone coming in. 

Over Christmas, we are completely booked out with birthdays and Christmas parties with no openings so that’s great for business. We also have our ham raffles for the first three Friday nights of December. We’re doubling up because there are even parties during and before the raffles. It’s a busy time but it’s good and we definitely need it. We’re a very small club with a small amount of staff. 

The Bowlo has 5 paid staff the other 2 staff are Leanne and Joclyn. Without the help of Campsie RSL after the floods we most certainly would not have reopened. They have been truly amazing. 

Mark does a lot of work at the club as the licensee. He applies for grants, helps set up for our big functions etc. He also does a Thursday arvo bar shift at the club. As well as working various other bar shifts. I still ring Craig Love the CEO for a chat and advice on various club needs. 

The Bowlo could not run without its many volunteers, and yes, Ian and I are paid a few hours a week but most of our hours are voluntary not because we're heroes but because we love our little club.