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Living

Sisters Casey Bowie and Sara Anning started a business from their shared love of family meals

Sharing food and love at the dinner table is so important to these sisters, they based a business around it.

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Sisters Casey Bowie and Sara Anning grew up on a cattle station in western Queensland.

PHOTOGRAPHY AMY HOLCOMBE

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In 2015, the sisters started Black Rock Beef Co, a home-style frozen food company.

PHOTOGRAPHY AMY HOLCOMBE

The dinner table is a cornerstone of Australian family life, where the day is discussed and dissected. The schedule for tomorrow is set out while meals are eaten. Jokes and stories are shared, ideas are examined and plans are made.

Sisters Casey Bowie and Sara Anning had many formative conversations around the dinner table. Those times are so valued by the sisters that they wanted to share that ritual with other families across the country.

Born into the sixth generation of a western Queensland farming family, their childhood was typical: chasing brothers Luke and Jake around the yard and helping their parents, Sam and Nyree, run their cattle station: 60,000 hectares called Wongalee, 33 kilometres north-east of Hughenden.

In 2015, Casey and Sara became partners in Black Rock Beef Co, a home-style frozen food company driven by a passion for ensuring the evening meal remains the cornerstone of family life, for themselves and the broader community.

They’re both in furious agreement that Casey is the best cook and the inspiration behind their delicious products. This talented 33-year-old has proved she can turn her hand to anything. Previous vocations rattle off like the ingredients list for a Black Rock lasagne: delivery driver, pouring beer, audio engineering, hospitality and even beauty therapy.

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But by the time she was in her early twenties, Casey felt ready for a change and she was easily convinced to move to the Gold Coast, where Sara was studying business at Bond University and nannying for a family — a job she thought would resonate with Casey. They were both responsible for cooking for their young charges and stocking the freezer with family meals. The families they worked for loved those meals. Simple, delicious and convenient. These were the seeds from which Black Rock would grow.

 

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Sara studied business at Bond University.

PHOTOGRAPHY AMY HOLCOMBE

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Casey juggled rearing her two sons with building the business.

PHOTOGRAPHY AMY HOLCOMBE

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But the start of their business relationship wasn’t idyllic. A move to Townsville in 2014 tested their close relationship.

“We shared a room and a bed and the bathroom was about a metre away from the bed. It was too close and it meant a lot of fighting,” says Casey. “We were so young — I was 23 — and
I think we were still learning about each other. Not to mention navigating a new business. We were so green! When we conceived the idea for Black Rock, we sat down at the table and googled ‘how to start a frozen food business’.”

Black Rock now operates from a custom facility in Townsville with three full-time employees, producing more than a thousand meals a week. Currently, the staples are savoury meat parcels, bolognaise mince and lasagne, though they are looking to branch out with pies, using beef sourced from the family’s cattle farm.

The banter between siblings is easy and funny, with a teasing under­tone that indicates friendship and respect. It seems that tumultuous share-house arrangement did no long-term damage. And motherhood has not only cemented their business resolve, but also their commitment to each other.

 

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“As massive and life-changing as birth is, your business doesn’t stop. As partners, we can’t go and make big decisions without each other.”

Casey’s firstborn son Reuben, now four, arrived during a particularly intense period of expansion. “He’d be in the kitchen with us and would get so upset on the days that we chopped onions and everyone’s eyes would sting. And I would just be like, ‘What am I doing? This is the worst’,” says Casey.

“But there’s no real time off when you have a baby, especi­ally when you have your own business. I was in the room with Sara while she was in labour, asking business questions because I had to get back to some emails. As massive and life-changing as birth is, your business doesn’t stop. As partners, we can’t go and make big decisions without each other.”
So — with babes in arms — Casey and Sara con­tinue to build the business. One of their greatest challenges has been keeping up with demand.

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