If you drove around Zadoc or Keen Street just before Christmas, you would have seen long queues snaking out of Swifty's Fresh Seafood as people lined up to pick up their Christmas orders.

The popularity of the local seafood business has been growing since it first opened its doors on November 1 2021.

That popularity has led owner Michael Swift to open Swifty's Fresh Seafood in Goonellabah.

The shop is a retail outlet in The Village Shopping Centre and is located next to the laundromat just down from Coles.

The reason why Michael opened the new shop in Goonellabah is the amount of people who don't travel downtown.

"People, like the retirees, people here don't always have access to Lismore. It's more common than what you realise. A lot of people, after the floods, came down, and the ones I've been talking to came down and said, what happened?" Michael said tongue in cheek.

"So, we wanted to supply Goonellabah as well as Lismore. We're pretty well known in Lismore, and there's a lot of people that don't know us in Goonellabah."

Due to the shop's size, most of the work still happens in Lismore.

(Michael serving a new Goonellabah customer at The Village Shopping Centre)

"We take orders to provide as much as we can with the size limits, but it's also an opportunity to open up seven days because nothing happens downtown on Sundays, but it's quite busy up here in the shopping centre.

Like any business, Swifty's Fresh Seafood Goonellabah will open on Sunday, provided it is supported by the community.

"We'll be open four hours on Saturday and Sunday, from 10 o'clock to 2. Monday to Wednesday, we're open 9am to 5:15pm, and 5:30pm on Thursdays and Fridays."

While the shop is open and operating, it is not the finished product. Over the coming weeks, Michael will be putting photos of Iluka on the walls.

"I like to display where everything comes from. We've got the trawlers and Iluka Bay on the front window of both shops. My old trawler is in that picture. But, you know, we'd like to just decorate it and make it functional."

(Michael with his old trawler photo on the right)

"It's always a work in progress; we're always changing and evolving. And, people's feedback helps us as well. It'll be a couple of weeks before I'm running smoothly, I think. But then I'm going, for hopefully, 10 years or longer,"

Iluka has a special place in Michael's heart because of his old fishing days, and he still gets part of his fresh seafood from there daily.

"Iluka can only supply, maybe a quarter or even less of our needs as far as variety goes. Local fish, like jewfish, mackerel, flathead, whiting, mullet, blackfish, that sort of thing comes from Iluka. Reef fish, etc, we get through the Gold Coast. It's sourced through North Queensland and Darwin. And then we source some fish from New Zealand and down south, obviously Victoria and Tasmania, even Western Australia with their lobsters and scallops etc. So, we source from everywhere, but we always have local stocks"

If the Lismore shop doesn't have what you want on-site, it can be ordered and delivered from the Lismore store.

"People can order anything they want. We can get it up here during the day sometimes, but guarantee the next day. And you can order anything from anywhere in Australia, and we can get it here within three or four days, most likely."

As for opening specials, Michael said he will give 20% off frozen fish until the end of January.

When you are shopping in Goonellabah, pop in and check out the new Swifty's Fresh Seafood shop at The Village Goonellabah.

Easter is not quite as big as Christmas for Swifty's, but plan ahead as Easter is only three months away, and book your seafood order early.