Andrew Rich celebrates a new chapter in life after finding his way back to a long-held dream to own the Cooktown lure shop. Photo: Supplied.
A more-than-a-decade-old dream to lead a Cooktown business empire has finally come true for one local businessman after a divorce changed the course of his life.
Andrew Rich is now the proud owner of The Lure Shop Tackle World Cooktown — the realisation of a seed that was planted in 2015 by TV personality and retired war veteran Les Hiddins, aka ABC Australia’s Bush Tucker Man.
“About 11 years ago now, I came up here because the Bush Tucker Man was a bit of a father figure to me, and said, ‘Look, there’s a shop up in Cooktown that I think needs you, and the owner of it needs you. I think that’s where you need to be, and that’s where you’re going to make your mark in life,'” Mr Rich said.
“He goes, ‘I saw a vision in a dream that you were in Cooktown, and that was where you made your success; that was the place that started it off for you’, and flash forward 11 years, he was right.”
Days later, Mr Rich received a call from previous owner Russell Bowman, who invited him to make the trip up from Cairns and take a look at the shop.
“I walked into the shop and kind of fell in love straightaway, but I’m also a person who loves the universe and the direction the universe takes me in,” he said.
“I found these two reels that I’d been looking for for quite a long time ever since I lost mine. I hadn’t been able to find this particular reel, and he had two sitting in the cabinet.”
Taking it as a sign, he accepted an offer to manage The Lure Shop, playing a hand in its growth, which now boasts several stores and business ventures, including the Marine & RV Shop, Camping Cape York Shop and Cooktown Harbour Views Luxury Apartments.
However, he had left a wife in Cairns and eventually made the decision to leave The Lure Shop dream behind and went on to build a real estate empire back home.
The dream remained close to his heart, and in 2025, when the couple decided to part ways after 18 years of marriage, he was invited to make Cooktown his new home and manage the shop once again.
“I came up to manage it again in October of last year, and then the opportunity came up to buy it, and I took it with both hands,” he said.
Mr Rich commended the staff he inherited with the shop, adding that they were the heart of what made the Cooktown store “the greatest tackle shop in the country”.
“The customer service is fantastic; the guys give out their fishing spots because they want you to catch a fish or they want you to have a good camp, and they want you to get there safely,” he said.
“The team that I have here, and the generosity they give to every single person that comes in here — not just the locals, but the tourists as well — is the same whether they’re a new person or they’ve shopped with us for 15 years. They get the same love and attention and service that people have come to expect.
“For me, that’s probably the biggest thing that drives me, is that I set something in place 11 years ago that I still see happening today, and I know I’ve got the best team who can stand behind me.”
He said the ultimate goal was to provide for Cooktown and give back to the community through building The Lure Shop empire, whether through local employment, filling service gaps, or simply lending a hand when needed.
“There’s certainly small business ideas that I want to make happen in Cooktown, because I want to give back to the community and I want to make sure that the community has everything it needs — not just the fun stuff, but the practical stuff too,” he said.
“I want to try and build that empire, and within doing that, not just do it for me, but do it for all of the awesome people of Cooktown and our tourists that we have up here.
“I think you’ll see a lot more community-focused events coming out of the shop in the near future.”
