Recent arrivals are now crusted-on Birdsville residents

A crash course in bread making from the local paramedic was all the introduction needed for adventurous couple Tom and Brock Moloney before taking the reins of the Birdsville Bakery.

Part of the Victorian migration, Tom and Brock Moloney left the Garden State to run the bakery in the outback Queensland town of Birdsville. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

A crash course in bread-making from the local paramedic was all the introduction needed for adventurous couple Tom and Brock Moloney before taking over the Birdsville Bakery.

Within days, they were serving thousands of customers pouring in across the desert for the Big Red Bash music festival at the foot of the sand dune it is named after. Famed for its camel pies, the bakery is the only place for hundreds of kilometres to buy fresh bread.

The couple moved to Birdsville from Warrnambool, in Victoria, on a whim last July, becoming part of a national trend reflecting an influx of interstate migration to Queensland.

The couple knew little about Birdsville before they first set foot in the town, 1600km west of Brisbane or 1200km north of Adelaide, but a desire to live “somewhere remote” landed them in one of the most isolated places of all.

“We really like quiet and remote places that are out of the way and where you can
just experience things you wouldn’t normally in other communities,” Mr Moloney said.

Is it what they expected?

“It’s what we hoped for,” Ms Moloney said.

“It was two years in the making because of Covid and a stop in Oodnadatta, but when we were driving in it was like, ‘What is this going to bring’?.

“It was even better than we expected.”

Before the move, Mr Moloney, a mechanic, and his wife, a barber, had never baked bread. But the national worker shortage that is hitting the bush, as well as the cities, means that improvisation is essential.

“We’d been here for about five days and the Bash was on and we got thrown in the deep end when the previous managers left,” Mr Moloney said.

“We were asked, ‘Do you want to manage it?’.

“We’d been absolutely flat out, but we were assured that it was normally much quieter.

“We went home and thought, ‘Let’s give it a crack’.”

Only the local ambo, who worked at the bakery for a stint, was on hand to teach them the ropes – but they learnt quickly.

The opening of the bakery in 2004 was celebrated as a first for the 120-year-old town, but when former longtime owner Dusty Miller died and a handful of new operators came and went, it appeared th residents would have to revert to defrosted bread.

The couple have proved a hit in the town, where an estimated 40 people remain over the summer, while many vacate the scorching desert for the coast.

As well, they have kept the bakery open on Saturday mornings to support the community.

The job comes with perks of a house and ute, and the early starts needed to turn the oven on are followed by an early knock-off at 2.30pm that gives the couple the afternoon free to explore the vast district.

“We love it,” Ms Moloney said.

As for the future, they have no plans to move on just yet.

“Where else could we find something as good as this?” Mr Moloney said.
 “We’ve got our own little thing happening over there. We’ve got full rein. We do everything – the ordering, the tour groups, the emails.”
 The move to the town has come with surreal moments, such as the odd shift behind the bar at the Birdsville Hotel and locking up the legendary establishment at night. What do their friends say about the move to the remotest part of the country?

“They think we’re crazy,” Ms Moloney said.

“Particularly us being in summer and when they realise how far out it is. It’s a couple of days out from anywhere.”