Mackay Pieman Barry James Rebetzke passes away at 84

Pieman, furniture maker, cowboy and husband Barry ‘Boom Boom’ Rebetzke will be much missed by his friends and family. Read the touching tributes.

Mackay native, Pie man, furniture maker and beloved husband, grandfather and great grandfather Barry James Rebetzke passed away nine days after celebrating the New Year at the age of 84.

Mackay native, Pie man, furniture maker and beloved husband Barry James Rebetzke passed away on January 9 at the age of 84.

Called ‘Boom Boom Rebetzke’ by his friends and competitors in the Pie business, Barry was regarded as a man of ‘great wit’ and many talents.

“He was an old cowboy,” said Lisa Carter, Mr Rebetzke’s daughter.

“He loved the country.

“He loved horses and made beautiful rustic furniture in his retirement and sold them at the Mackay market.”

Mr Rebetzke was born in Mackay on January 4 1940, the same year Winston Churchill became the Prime Minister of Britain.

He attended school in Mackay and found work at the Byrnes Pie Factory, where he started a love affair with pastries.

From there he changed careers to work at Farleigh Mill.

“He tried a bit of everything,” Mrs Carter said explaining his career changes.

After leaving the mill he bought some land near Seaforth where he started his first farm.

Mr Rebetzke became a cattle and horse farmer, tending his herds like a cowboy straight from an old western, starting a family at the same time.

'The Old Cowboy' shared his love of the country with his children at a very young age.

“He had three sons and three daughters,” said Mrs Carter.

“Beautiful families on both sides.”

Mrs Carter described her childhood as full of rodeos and camping and her father as being a positive purveyor of life lessons.

“He’d breed and break in horses,” she said, remembering a moment from her youth.

“He’d always get straight back on the horse, no matter what.

“He said to us ‘you don’t let it beat you’.

“I’ve carried that with me.”

While still working his land, Mr Rebetzke took over from Nev the Pieman, a pie vendor famous in Mackay for possessing a wood-fired pie cart.

With Nev’s cart, Barry returned to the life of the Pieman and became a familiar sight at many of Mackay’s markets alongside his second wife Mary.

Barry James bought Nev the Pieman's famous wood-fired pie-cart and took it over as his own.

“Never short of a story,” recalls Mrs Carter.

“Some people stopped by (his pie van) and wouldn’t buy anything, just talk.”

In his retirement, Barry was not idle, making rustic furniture which he took to market.

Barry James Rebetzke spent his last days at the home he built atop a hill in Erakala, surrounded by loved ones and drinking his favourite red wine with his dog Buck.

His casket will be carried in his favourite white ute driven by his son Shane.

“He was larger than life,” said Mrs Carter.

“He will be missed.”

Barry James Rebetzke’s funeral will be held at St Brigid’s Catholic Church at 1:30pm on Tuesday January 16.