Susanna Freymark
Hey Julie!
Memories ride like a teenager on horseback
Hey Julie! is a song about Julie Bowden who died a year and a half ago.
She had been dealing with cancer and died suddenly from sepsis at Lismore Base Hospital in November 2024. She was 64.
The song Hey Julie! is by Unumgar’s Watling & Bates – Geoff Bates is Julie’s brother.
The song is out today, Friday, June 12.
At Julie’s home in Wiangaree her husband John and daughter Nicole Bowden talk about the horse mad, vibrant woman they clearly miss.
“You learn to live with it,” John said.
“The first 12 months are the hardest.”
John said everyone put a rose on Julie’s saddle at the funeral.
That saddle was custom made for Julie and it has pride of place in the centre of the house surrounded by her ribbons including one for NSW Horse of the Year 2023.
“She got her first horse at 12,” John said.
“Her first horse was Stormy.”
Her dream had always been to be able to look out the kitchen window and see her horses in the paddock.
At Wiangaree, that dream came true.
Julie got up at 5.30am every day and first thing she did was to say good morning to the horses then check her vegetables and flowers growing in the garden.
John met Julie on a blind date. They were both born and grew up in Clayton, Melbourne.
Julie was 19 and John was 21 on that first date.
Julie worked as a nurse at Kyogle Hospital and the aged care facility for 15 years.
“She knew everybody and everyone loved Julie,” John said.
“And she was connected to horses,” Nicole said.
Julie competed in equitation and taught local pony club children.
Her favourite horse was a rescue horse called Blue. She had said Blue was her heart horse.
“He died a week after her,” Nicole said.
“The horses were confused when she didn’t turn up.”
Julie was kind, firm but fair and she had a great network of friends, Nicole said.
“I miss her so much.”
Julie was a larger than life person, who died weeks before her and John were going to go on a trip to Fiji. John still went on the trip because Julie would have wanted him to.
Julie’s presence is all around her Wiangaree home. Her memories fill the house and hearts of her family. And now her memory lives on through the song Hey Julie! 
You can stream and download Hey Julie! at watlingbates.com with CD single available on request. The release date is today, Friday, June 12.
