“ I grew up on the Central Coast. India Fox, the previous owner of Bohotopia had 10 stores or so around the Central Coast and Sydney, They were called ‘India Fox’ and I loved shopping there. They were my favourite stores. I moved further north to pursue my life and lifes lessons and ended up doing a pharmacy traineeship in Armidale and worked there for 6 years. During that time I met my partner Stuart, and we had our daughter Wren. I decided to act upon the SCU enrollment forms I had sitting around for years and started studying Naturopathy. We ended up here in Lismore late 2008 so I could study in 2009. While at uni I started getting involved with the Lantern Parade and organised the childrens lantern making workshops for a while. I was also involved with the parade and performed in the fire shows. Through the Lantern parade I became friends with Shannon. Shannon worked here at Bohotopia and put the word in for me, so I worked here for a few months.
My grandmother passed away a few years ago so I came into some inheritance. Stuart and I tried to buy a home but being a student and Stuart working in the bottle shop, we ended up purchasing this shop instead. India was ready to sell so we said ‘let’s do it’ and here we are!
I went overseas on a buying trip to Nepal, Thailand and India. It was the first time I had been overseas. It was an amazing experience but heartbreaking at times. Seeing how people live and seeing how much help these people need really inspired my decision to purchase the business. These people need our help. People have stopped going to Nepal because of the earthquake, fear of terrorists etc. These people aren’t getting any income. I know there’s big movement against imported goods but people there need our business.
We didn’t realise what an iconic shop it is till we bought it. Everyone loves it.. We hope the people of Lismore like what we do with the shop. We’re not really changing much at all.”