It may have built the reputation of being perhaps the ultimate dry, dusty and isolated Outback town, but make no mistake Birdsville – with a population of 120 people – is booming.
Fuelled by the steady stream of grey nomads and other adventurous travellers, as well as blockbuster events like the Birdsville Races and the Big Red Bash, the iconic Queensland community is showing just how much of an incredible difference tourism can make to rural economies.
The town’s iconic bakery, The Birdsville Bakery, has just sold for a whopping $1.2 million, marking what some say will be a new era of investment and development in this remote town.
The North West Star newspaper reports that, after 12 years of handling the heat in Outback Queensland’s most famous kitchen, Dusty Miller has handed over the keys and recipes for the bakery’s famous curried camel pies.
The new owner is Martin Josselyn, who will now move his 4WD tour company, Adventure Australia Treks and Tours (AATT) and its staff to Birdsville.
“Buying a bakery wasn’t always my dream, but when Dusty put the property on the market last year, I knew it was the perfect investment,” Mr Josselyn told the North West Star. “Birdsville has the potential to become a tourist destination in the same way the Red Centre has in the Northern Territory … it just needed the right investment, so we invested.”
The purchase of the Birdsville Bakery is the single biggest private tourism investment in Birdsville for more than a decade, and it coincides with a number of other public upgrades to the area, including the airport.
Over the past three years, Outback Queensland has seen a growth of 13.4% in domestic visitors, compared to 5.3% experienced by Queensland’s capital Brisbane.
Despite being perched on the edge of the Simpson Desert and one of the most remote towns in Australia, Birdsville attracts between 40,000 and 60,000 visitors a year, a fair proportion of them during the Birdsville Races and the Big Red Bash.
And, with its closest competition some 600 kilometres away, the Birdsville Bakery does a roaring trade with the likes of its kangaroo and claret, rabbit, and curried camel pies selling like hotcakes. The new Birdsville baker will apparently spend most of the eight months the bakery is open each year, stockpiling the 15,000 pies that sell over race weekend in September.
The bakery menu will reportedly remain largely unchanged under the new ownership but there are plans to open the bakery’s Hard Road Cafe at night for bistro dinners and offer camp-oven dinner packages during peak tourist season.
· Have you had a pie from the Birdsville Bakery? How was it? Comment below.
Yes the best would go again for one
When your so far from home anything taste good however the camel pies are a step up in taste yum yum
Don’t think I could get anything vegetarian there, that’s why I didn’t try anything.
Bloody awesome pies… all flavours
Great crew! Fantastic atmosphere and great tucker.
Met the new owner Martin, honest down to earth bloke.
It’s like the resturant at the end of the universe!!!