The famous underground bakery in Farina is back open for 8 weeks only, from Saturday 27th of May until Sunday 23rd July, with a range of delicious treats from cream buns, to pies to fresh bread and more.
Every year between May and July, Volunteers of the Farina Restoration Group run a works program to continue the preservation and exhibition of the old Farina Town.
They work to preserve its history, and the bakery plays a large role in that. The underground location was originally a meat safe before the population grew and it got turned into a bakehouse in the 1880s to produce fresh bread for the town.
Now, volunteers bake delicious goods down below using that same oven and bring them up to serve in the local Farina cafe which also only opens for 8 weeks of the year.
“We have thousands of visitors come through every year, particularly as we coincide with school holidays and also with events like The Big Red Bash, Marree Camel Cup and the Finke Desert Race,” volunteer Steve Harding says.
“We also get a lot of school groups coming for the day exposing them to the history of Farina with walking trails, visiting the war memorial, and of course learning how to make bread.”
Farina is located within the Lake Eyre Basin, on the old alignment of the Great Northern Railway later known as the Ghan Railway, 26Kms North of Lyndhurst and 55Kms South of Marree, near the junctions of the Birdsville, Innaminka and Oodnadatta Tracks in South Australia. It’s roughly a 6-hour trip from Adelaide’s CBD (with upgraded from gravel to bitumen roads) and the perfect distance for a road trip.
The walking trails, information boards and camping grounds are open 365 days of the year, but the bakery, cafe and museum come alive for just 59 days.
During that time the normal stone work, railway redevelopment, trail maintenance, educational signage, and building works continue.
“For the volunteers It’s a great time to be social and give back to the community. There’s a lot of professional retirees who like to donate their time for this period and want to keep Farina’s history alive,” Steve says.
This year there’s also the addition of a newly arrived NSU Diesel locomotive from Peterborough, with the hopes of developing a railway precinct with other locomotives to make an exhibit.
For 8 weeks of every year, Farina is a great destination for a small trip to warm up and get some fresh air, with winter days beautiful and in their low 20’s and open fires often scattered around every night around “happy hour.”
Farina pop-up
When: From Saturday May 27th – Sunday 23rd July 2023
More info: Click here
More News
