By Jess Baker
Bread has long been a staple of diverse cultures throughout the world, but for regional Australian towns like Warwick, it is much more than that.
Former Warwick resident and self-described “bakery child” Judith Anderson grew up in the 1940s to early 1960s beside the Brown family bakery her grandfather and father ran in Albion Street.
With memories of that time so vivid and dear, and spurred by a search for an old FX Holden ute, Judith last year decided to explore the lives of Warwick’s baking families in the century after the town’s establishment in 1861.
What she discovered was a treasure trove of untold stories and an appreciation for the art form that is traditional baking.
“Just over a year ago, I got a phone call from a man who owned an old 1952 Holden Ute and he had traced its history back and had discovered that it had belonged to my father when he was in the baking industry in Warwick,” Judith said.
“He wanted to know things about how the Ute fit in with the baking business and the baking industry.
“I had grown up in that business, I had grown up beside the bakery and I knew the Ute … but I really discovered very quickly that I knew very little about how the baking trade worked in Warwick at the time when I was a kid.”
The out-of-the-blue phone call had come in the midst of a Covid-19 lockdown, and Judith was immediately enthralled by the opportunity to rediscover and reconnect with the magic of her childhood.
She began passionately researching the history of Warwick’s flour mills, and reached out to descendants of the baking families she remembered from her youth.
She sourced historic photographs, advertisements, maps and newspaper clippings, and read all she could about the tools of the baking trade and the impact of technological and societal changes on the industry.
“The more I dug, the more interesting it became and I thought ‘these stories of these people are really worth preserving’,” Judith said.
“There were so many stories of incredible perseverance, of hardship, (and) of migration.
“The story of Warwick baking trade became like a microcosm, a small picture, of the whole of the development of regional Australia.”
Judith has now compiled all of her research, photographs and stories of bakery families past, along with her own personal story, into her first book – ‘Earning a Crust’.
The book is both a record and a warm recount of the baking era that existed between the 1860s and the 1960s, which she said was characterised by hard work, collaboration, optimism, and family involvement.
Judith said she hopes readers come away with a deeper understanding of the contribution made by Warwick bakers to the town.
“It’s often the big people of history that get the accolades, but these were trades people and they produced one of the absolute basic requirements,” she said.
“… but nobody has ever really just told their stories until now, as a collection of stories.”
‘Earning a Crust’ will officially be launched by Southern Downs Mayor Vic Pennisi at the Warwick Art Gallery on Saturday 19 June.
Due to Covid-19 requirements, the launch is a ticketed event. Tickets are free from www.warwicktickets.com.au.
