Tracey Foster is a Southie through and through. South Lismore is part of her DNA. The other part of Tracey's DNA is pies. Some say the best in Lismore, the best in NSW and the best in Australia. Tracey's family launched Bowen's Pies in 1949. Lilly Harmon sat down with Tracey to learn about her long life in Lismore.

I was South Lismore born and bred on the 16th Feb 1966.

My parents' names were Jean and Ron, and I have an older sister, Suzie (at least that's what I call her). My Dad was a big personality here in Lismore, and everyone knew and loved him. Back in the depression when people were struggling he’d be giving out leftover pies and sweets. 

I grew up in the first house built out on Caniaba Street, in the new estate. I've only left South for a short period to live in Lismore Heights for 3 years, but have always been here in South. I’ve even lived here in the same house since 1986.

I went to Lismore South Public and Richmond River. I basically got to year ten and got out when I could. Back in those days, we didn't have to go to year 12 like now. However, my main subjects were commerce, agriculture and geography.

It was different when I grew up here in South Lismore. You went riding on your push bike with your mates and you had to be home when the streetlights came on. It's definitely not like that anymore. There were fireworks and everything was set off all the time. South Lismore was a great place to grow up, as it’s still that community today. I’d say to my kids don't do anything you shouldn't do, because I'll know by the time you get home.

We used to go swimming in the river and there used to be swings out of the trees. It was a different world, you knew you were safe. We’d watch the movies, catch the train to Byron Bay on the weekend. Even my uncle, who came up from Tamworth, raced speedboats at the Lismore Lake. I’m very excited about the potential reopening of the lake because it was a hub of activity. 

Growing up I used to go on deliveries with dad. They started Bowen’s Pies in Union Street in 1949, eventually selling it in 1986. Between 1986 and my eventual ownership in 2010, we had two other owners who truly kept the store's spirit alive. 

After year 10, which was around 1981, I started working in a small local supermarket in Molesworth Street. It was called Brisbane Cash and Carry, a subsidy of Woolworths. After 2 years of working there, my dad got sick, so they asked me to start working at the pie shop. In 1983 I went to work for them and I was there right up until 1998. 

I met my husband, Allan, at a party because I was ironically good friends with his cousin. We've been together for a very long time, and married in 1986. After injuries working with the council for years, he needed a change of profession so we both took up owning and working at the shop. 

In 1998 we began our trip around Australia. We went right up to Darwin through Mount Isa, coming down the Western Australian coast and down around South Australia and Victoria. When we were travelling we were working a lot because we didn't have a lot of money.

We saw a lot in that time, the Northern Territory will always be dear to my heart. Darwin was always on our to-do list and then we went right through the Kimberleys. All that whole western coast was absolutely beautiful with Broome and Coral Bay. It was very windy though.

We had one of our dogs with us because it was different back then. Dogs could go into national parks and it wasn't such an issue to travel with the dogs. But I did notice a lot of the caravan parks are starting to do dog sitting. 

When we came back I was pregnant with our oldest girl Jessie who was born in 2000, then we had the two boys, Jack in 2003, and Ned in 2004. 

Both my boys work in South. Jack is a metal fabricator, fully qualified at 20 might I say. Ned is a diesel mechanic, and he's fully qualified at 19. Jessie lives in Casino at the moment, but we have bought her a house over South. Of course, the flood got to it, but we’re hoping she’ll be in it by the end of the year. I hope we can have her back in the house and open it up as an NDIS house, so other NDIS participants can live there independently with a carer.

We seriously have the best and most loyal customers in the world. All of them are just working guys who want to have a laugh and a joke and it's amazing fun. They preach our product everywhere they go. There was a guy in the shop that asked how long we’d been here for. I said 1949. That's not me personally, but my parents were here in '49. A man chimed in saying they were not only the best pies in Lismore, or NSW, but quite possibly Australia. 

Over the years it hasn't changed much at all. I guess when McDonald's and Hungry Jacks came into town it quietened down a little bit, but now not as much. I think people have really worked out that they have to look after small businesses after the flood otherwise we're not going to be here. So our takings have skyrocketed since the flood. There's no Skimmos now or the Fish and Chips store. Only us and the hot bread shop.

2017 was nothing. You hose and wash everything out. You sterilise everything and get back to it. 2022 was very different, however, we were back in the store by July. Our landlords had gone in and done what they had to because we only rent the shop. But we owned our house and Jessie's house. It's been a long, hard road. Our house was just completed and Jessie's we've probably got a week's worth of work.

Lismore is a community that gets behind everyone and gets in and helps everyone. We all had our own stuff to do, but a friend of mine two doors over said one day, I'm having a bad day, do you want to come over for coffee? We had each other's backs. That is a huge thing when something so traumatic happens. 

We got rescued at 2:30pm just as the water was going over our front hand railing at five and a half metres. I got the kids and the dogs out a bit earlier. 

I personally don't think we'll ever get another flood as big as that last one. Yeah, you know, we get little ones here that are on the ground. That's okay, everyone can deal with that. But once in 100 years, that's such a fallacy. People always say we flood before town, but it's actually the other way around and I don’t think people realise that. We love living here. I don't want to live anywhere else. 

There was no point in curling up in the fetal position. You actually just had to get up, do what you had to do and rebuild. We’ve still got bits and pieces to do, even thinking about getting a spa here. Nobody gets how hard food prep is, and coming home to a spa would be amazing. Over the years I’ve learnt with food prep that if you know what you do, you make it look easy. It becomes like second nature. Alan starts work at four o'clock in the morning. 

It's hard because I see people who still aren't open and still struggling cause we reopened so quickly, we had four months where we could just renovate, renovate, renovate. We were very lucky because most of our customers are tradies. South has really bounced back. Downtown it's really sad going around all being empty. Lismore is known for its quirky stores and they will help bring people into the town, rather than being known as a ghost town. 

All entries into South have houses that haven't been repaired. So it looks like an old ghost town to those passing through, unlike the heart of the area which is alive. We decided to get a sign because the water went two and a half feet above our ceiling. People and tourists say “Oh my gosh, that's a lot of water, isn't it?” 

We had a canoe in the carport and it actually floated around to the front veranda, we were able to sit in it till we were rescued by the tinnie brigade. We were able to get Ned, my youngest son, his girlfriend and our two dogs out earlier. We got rescued just an hour later but for the kids, they said it was like a lifetime because we couldn't keep in touch, our phones were flat and landlines didn’t work.

Our passion is old classic cars, sadly one got lost in the flood, but we got the rest out. 

We’re about to head down to Bathurst because we're all rev-heads. We're gonna do a bit of a road trip with all the kids around all the country roads.

My mum and dad were always Ford fans, and that’s what brought Alan and I together. When Ford Australia and Holden were discontinued it was just a sad day for everyone. You should keep Australian cars, and without them, it’s mostly international.

With Bathurst, it has changed because who’d want to see a Mustang racing a Camaro? It’s so much better watching a Commodore race a Falcon cause we’re always Ford. But we’re still very excited.

We’ve had our main car since 1980 but we couldn’t get it out of the shed in the flood, simply chocking it. We have 2 Cortinas, an Escort and an XY Falcon. Ned has a yellow XF and Jack has a blue Cortina. Right now we have three classics and our ranger for travel.

The Cortina was the most heartbreaking. Alan bought it for himself for his 18th birthday, so he had that for 40 years. Anyway, it was insured so it'll come back like the house and the store, bigger and better than ever. 

In the last few years, we began travelling again, because of our amazing staff. We just had 10 days in Darwin which was very nice. We’ve also gone down to Sydney a couple of times just to see stage shows. Just last week we saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show. We close the shop for three and a half weeks at Christmas and are able to have family time. 

We’re still here in the community, and all of us here at Bowen’s Pies are proud to be serving people all throughout the community here in South Lismore for over 70 years.