Bakeries 1947-1983 Posted on January 1, 1983 by Batman 1 BROKEN HILL BAKING INDUSTRY POST : 47 – 1983 - As told by lou forner - I can only speak about the Broken Hill Baking Industry from 1947 when Forner Bros Bakery came into existence. Lou Forner’s two brothers, John and Angy worked for a baker in Beryl Street called Testini’s ‘Fancy Rolls Bakery. John as a bread carter and Angy as an apprentice baker in 1937. When War was declared with Japan 1939 both brothers were called up, and served in Darwin, Bougainville and Borneo. On their discharge from the Army in 1946 the opportunity arose to buy the Testina Bakery. With brother Lou, Forner Bros Bakery began. This bakery was a very small 20’x30’ brick building with a stable in the back yard. At this time (in 1947)there were 18 bakers supplying bread and other lines to the populace of Broken Hill and station Properties. There was also a bakery at Tibooburra, Menindee (a chinaman) and Wilcannia (Hayes). Most of these bakeries were known in the trade as 1 ton or under, meaning they produced around 1500 loaves of bread plus pies, pasties etc, per week. They were normally managed by the owner (the qualified baker)with up to 3 employees. The baker with an apprentice would make the dough in a wooden trough by hand or in some bakeries a crude mechanical dough mixer. In those years electrical power was often disrupted and consequently the dough and goods were handmade. The dough was basically made from flour, yeast salt and other ingredients-each bakery had their own special mix formula which was jealousy guarded. As the dough had to be finished at a certain temperature, ice or hot water, depending on the weather, had to be used. The dough then was well covered and kept in a warm-humid environment for from 3-10 hours to ferment. This again depending on the Bakery formula. When the dough was ‘ripe’ (the bakers term) it would be knocked down and allowed to rest before the baker and assistant would remove it from the trough and then cut it up to the right weight for bread and rolls. The dough weight would always be 4 to 6 ozs heavier than the final baked loaf. The pieces of dough would then be molded by hand and placed into different shaped oiled tins. The whole ‘batch’ of tinned dough would then be allowed to prove again for up to an hour in the warm environment. When it was (the whole batch) ready it would go to the oven. Most of the early ovens of that era were the ‘Scotch brick oven type. These ovens varied in size from a floor area of 30sq ft up to 120 sq ft, able to bake 300 loaves of bread. These ovens were wood fired and some later were converted to fuel oil fired. Forners had a ‘Scotch’ type which was “back” fired and used coke from the Broken Hill Gas Works. One of these ‘Scotch’ ovens can be still be seen at McCloud’s Bakery corner Chapple and Zebina Streets. The baker would ‘peel’ in the tinned dough into the oven with the peel, a flat wooden spade attached to a 12′ long handle, depending on the size of the oven. The bakers were quite proficient in loading and stripping these ovens-up to 300 loaves of bread, in summer a very hot, sweaty occupation. There were other types of ovens called ‘Steam Pipe’ where heat from the fire box was transferred by these pipes into the sealed baking area. The baking time was from 30 to 60 minutes depending of what type of bread was in the oven. The competition between bakeries was keen to say the least, and every year at the annual Silver City Show this came to the forefront as most bakeries submitted their bread for judging by a panel of outside bakers, the champion loaf plus 1stb 2nd, 3rd ribbon and certificates were proudly displayed until the following year. The delivery of bread in the early years was carried out by horse and cart of different shapes and sizes. One type was the larger spoked wheel cart where the baker had to step up each time-an arduous task for the amount of time he would have to do it on his round. Another type that was very common was the ‘chariot’ type, where the baker stood up on a step at the back of the cart. The latest version was the four wheel snail back, and of rectangular shape. These had a walk through that was accessed from either side. The horse was a medium built animal-very intelligent and knew where to stop at every customers resident. Depending on the size of the bakery the horses were well cared for by a stable hand/blacksmith and as well as maintain the carts. Up to the 70′s bread as well as beer was price controlled in Broken Hill by the B.I.C. and many bakeries were taken over or closed up, because the return for working long hours and dealing with a perishable product, often with baking waste broke many bakers spirit. The mines in the 50′s/60′s were paying high wages and with no more sleepless nights the bakers went to better pastures. The bakeries that survived into the late 60′s were the ones which increased production with high priced mechanised plants and probably more ptecision. One of the largest bakeries to close in the early 50′s was the Co – Op Bakery, as also the Co – Op Store, which was opposite Sully’s. In the 60′s the Broken Hill Holding’s was formed and as well as owning the Drive – In Theatre, Freemason Hotel, the Broken Hill Laundry (near the Hospital) and other interests, they bought out Dyer and James (McBeth Brothers) Bakery. This in turn gave them ‘The Broken Hill Bakery’, the major bread producer in Broken Hill. Forner at the time were still upgrading their bakery with modern ovens, dough mixers, make up plant etc and a new building. We resisted the temptation to sell out also to The Broken Hill Holding’s Group. It was a very competitive era and we were able to overcome most of the pressure that was put on us by the major Broken Hill Bakery, by long hours and better bread product. The tight control that the B.I.C. had on the bread price was a factor in my opinion that saw the demise of the smaller bakeries in Broken Hill. Broken Hill Holdings started negotiating early in the 1970 with Forners Bros. for the wilingness to withdraw out of the bread industry. The takeover of Broken Hill Bakery occurred in April 1973. It was after this occasion that negotiation started with the B.I.C. on bread control. The outcome was that the bread price in the County of Yancowinna ceased to be controlled by the B.I.C. by the middle 70′s. Most states in Australia had Bread Price Control going back to the 2nd World War. This was governed in each state by a Price Commissioner. When Bakeries submitted all cost associated with their industry to the Commission it would scrutinise these costs and grant any increases to justify that cost. So in Broken Hill’s case it was subject to the South Australian Country Bakers pricing schedule, which if it was implemented sooner, would have kept some past bakeries viable in Broken Hill. Forners of course at this time were given a hard time by the T.E.U. as boycotts were implemented with the threat of importing S.A/ bread, but with our employees as well as the buying public support we overcame these trying times. The house to house horse and cart also was coming to an end and was being replaced by motor vans. Reliable horses were hard to obtain and most horses available were the lighter trotter type. With the rising cost of shoeing, feed and younger men not being able to handle this type of horse they were phased out in the mid 70′s. The end of house to house delivery gradually ceased when supermarkets started discount bread to capture greater clientele in the late 70′s. This was a common factor throughout Australia in that decade. The majority of bakeries in Australia that survived in the 70′s were those that increased their production by buying out the smaller ones and making their own bakeries very highly efficient mechanised plants to turn out consistent quality breads. The major flour mills were consolidating also to protect their sales and so were the main owners of major bakeries. This was the case with Forners Bakery which was taken over by the Austral Group of Victoria which in turn was Home Pride (Buttercup). This was in the early 80′s. At that time Forners was the major bakery with 3 other small producers in Broken Hill. As these large bakeries mass produce the popular sliced bread there was an opening for the small Hot Bread Shop which produced the crusty type bread with sales over the counter. With little overhead and bread produced from packaged pre-mixers they seem able to compete with the larger bakeries. By Mr Lou Forner BAKERIES OPERATING IN BROKEN HILL PRIOR 1937/1985. 1-Frank Testini ‘Fancy Rolls Bakery’-Beryl Street. 2-Geo Chistro-South end Crystal Street. 3-Watts Bros-South end Argent Street 4-Newtons-Argent Street 5-Manglesdorf-Argent Street 6-Dorians-Argent Street 7-Wrights-Beryl Street (Ice and Produce) 8-Co-Op-Galena Street (opposite Power Station) 9-Dyer & James-Cornish Street 10-Thorns-Newton Lane (opposite Burke Ward School) 11-Rod Wilson-William Street (started in the 1950′s) 12-Spragg-Chapple Lane north Iodide Street 13-McCleods Bros-Chapple Street 14 Thomas (later Bates)-Cnr Chloride & William Streets 15-Nelsons-Cummins Street north Iodide Street 16-Whites Bakery (Dick Veal)-Beryl Lane later Brazil Street 17-Websters-Boughtman Street 18-Egans-Patton Street 19-Mortimers-Wilson Street 20-Williams-Beryl Lane 21-Romains-Wolfram Street (Chloride-Sulphide Streets) 22-McFeeters-Railwaytown? 23-Brentons-Chapple Street (Pinders-Chloride-Oxide) 24-Deeble-Thomson-Buck Street (Patton Street) 1975 25-Wallaces-Beryl Street 1984 26-O’Halloran (Mals)-Argent Street (near life line) 1976 27-Woolworths-in house 1980.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 04:36:02 +0000
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