For $1.2Million !!!!!
The Camel Pie recipe was included in the sale.
The
Birdsville Bakery, an iconic establishment in Queensland's most-remote town, is set to re-open under new ownership after it was sold for $1.2 million on March 2.
Former
bakery owner and co-founder Dusty Miller handed the keys over to
Townsville tour operator Martin Josselyn after 12 years of operation last week. The
bakery was the first for the town, which only has a regular
population of 120 people.
It's set to be back up-and-running by
Easter 2017, and Josselyn has confirmed to channel 9 that the curried camel pies that have made it famous will be on the menu when doors open on April 1 (in fact, the recipe was included in the sale).
Formerly based in
Townsville – around 1400km north-east of
Birdsville – Josselyn has moved his 4WD tour company Adventure Australia
Treks and Tours to
Birdsville, with plans to expand both businesses from his base at the
bakery.
"We have a tourism business, and we were looking for a tourism destination to base that business," Josselyn told 9, adding that
Birdsville ticked all the boxes.
The town attracts between 40,000 and 60,000 tourists on an annual basis, many of whom travel to the area for the infamous
Birdsville Races or
Simpson Desert Big Red Bash. Others trickle in over the course of the regular tourist season, between March and November.
When the
bakery re-opens in April, Josselyn says they'll continue to specialise in the meals that made the establishment famous – like their big breakfast or camel pies, of which he expects to sell around 15,000 over September's race weekend.
But he's also planning to open the
bakery's licenced Hard Road Café in the evenings for
camp oven and bistro-style dinners, with his long-time friend, French-born chef Sebastian Badey at the helm.
Despite that, he says the menu will be "nothing fancy", but it will be good.
Josselyn's wife and two youngest children are still based in
Townsville for their education, while his oldest daughter works as a nurse and oldest son attends university in
Brisbane. He says his wife will join him in
Birdsville once a month for now, where they – and the
bakery's staff – will make up around six percent of the town's entire
population.
If you're in town when the
bakery officially re-opens on April 1, you can join them for a "housewarming" pie party from 11am. Or, stop in to the Wirrarri
Visitors Centre to book a tour.
Nine News report