“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 sent 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.”