Bakery at Farina

Road to and from Farina to the bitumen is OPEN.
Outback SA roads.
" Mulgaria Rd - Farina to Mulgaria via Witchelina
Close from Farina to Mulgaria. Road is wet, severe scouring, and debris in creek crossings. Next update 22/6/26. Note: the road is open from the bitumen to Farina."
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Yes but was closed to everyone on Saturday.

Yes and its open now.
That site is updated whenever things change, as you well know.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Yes , I’m pretty sure that’s correct

Farina station
I think the camping has always been the stations enterprise along with other attractions nearby, so nothing will most likely be different with the new owners

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Hi Warren,
Appears that we are 'brothers' in a manner of speaking. And I take it that you, as I, did not follow our fathers' profession.
I can remember at end of my schooling that my father said to me…. "I'm sure that you want to be an electrician, but you can choose to be anything you wish ……… except a baker."
Nevertheless, he was proud and respected in his profession. And I still have not found any meat pies as good as his!

His advice to me was identical. My uncle was also a baker, his son took up the trade for a few years but ended up a fettler, make what you will of the comparative difficulty, certainly the air would have been fresher and the hours better.

I left school at the age of 15 1/2 and went into a Pastrycook apprenticeship. 150 lbs (68 kgs) bags of flour, 112 lbs (51 kgs) bags of salt, 70 lbs (32 kgs) bags of sugar, 20 lbs (9 kgs) boxes of margarine . I was barely 5’ tall (152.4 cm), and weighed around 7 stone, (98 lbs). After 12 months, I was 5’4” tall (164.6 cm), and weighed around 9 stone (126 kgs). This was in the late 1960’s, and whilst we used machines to mix our dough, all the ingredients had to be carried by hand. Bags of salt were the worst to carry, as due to the moisture in the air, it became an almost solid mass, and was difficult to get a grip on the bag. After 4 years I had completed my apprenticeship, but not long after, and due to specific circumstances, I left the trade.

Whilst these days, modern large bakeries use bulk ingredients and a lot of automation, the small bakery/cake shop, still do a lot of things by hand.

Macca.

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Hi Macca, I think we may all be outclassed as weightlifters by this tale…………….

During my electrical apprenticeship I was attending to the breakdown of the bagged flour elevator at a major bread bakery. All the bakers had gone home when a laden truck arrived with the flour delivery. The small maintenance crew including myself were called upon to carry the 112 lb bags of flour up the stairs to the dough room. The truck driver, a real skinny bloke, repeatedly heaved a bag onto each shoulder and scaled the stairs at a pace. I was near exhaustion after a couple of 1 bag circuits.
I made sure that I completed the elevator repair before the next delivery.

As an aside and with EV transport in mind, in the 1950's this bakery used some electric delivery vehicles as well as horse-drawn carts. They were of English origin, used lead-acid batteries and originally used in London for milk delivery. Frequently some of these EV's could not make it home and needed to be rescued by a petrol powered truck. Maybe this is where my EV range anxiety comes from?

Yes Allan, we had a similar experience at the bakery when the road out the front of our delivery entrance was being repaired. Whilst we did not have any Flour deliveries, we did have a delivery of sugar. All of us apprentices were tasked with assisting to carry the 70 lbs bags of sugar from around the corner approx 100 meters. I managed two bags, one on each shoulder for a couple of trips, but reverted back to one bag after two trips. From memory, I think it was 40 bags each delivery, with three apprentices and the delivery driver, it didn’t take too long to get the truck unloaded. This was back in the late 60’s.

Macca.

As a teen I worked in a Frankston grain store. As you say wheat 3 bushels, other grains varied. I remember the dun peas that came in weren't weighed so we would weigh them and write the weight on the bag. They were up to about 195lb.
We had no fork lift so would unload the semi by hand and make 2 X 2 stacks 24 bags high. Go as high as you can then make step wit bags till we reached the height.
Cheers

Hi Kenell

Why is it the talk of the town in Marree?

Of all places, Marree should have known the opening times and has been clearly advertised on both Facebook and other Media outlets when it was open.

The 2026 season started on Saturday 23 May and the last day of trading was Sunday 19 July 2026, and remember every person working there were volunteers and not getting paid.

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Kenell, your expression that "Farina" was closed may confuse some people.
The Farina township and camping ground are open at all times. It is only the bakery that has limited opening hours. But Farina is much more than just the bakery.

Stephen,

I am not sure if you have been to Marree. It has a very small permanent population and at present the permanents are outnumbered by backpackers and travellers by about 20 to 1. So when I said it was the talk of the town I was referring to the part of the town I was in ie the pub and the caravan park - both of which were full when we arrived last Sunday. The CP emptied to only a handful on Monday. The people I was talking to asked about the bakery and we all planned to call in after our flights on Monday - given the road signs we had seen all said open 7 days. We hadn't googled the opening dates / times. I was vaguely aware of its existence thanks to Allan's post that I had read before we set off on our journey (to Darwin and beyond).

Allan,
I accept your correction - yes it is more than just the bakery but to the uninitiated the numerous road signs (about 8) suggesting fresh bakery products in such a remote location, it is the drawcard.

Incidentally - we (legally) travelled onto the Birdsville Track for about 40ks. It is currently closed but apart from a bit of churned up section near Marree it was in great condition. I understand it was to be reviewed about now.

Kenell

Over the decades, have been to Marree countless times