Basement to First Floor

The stairwell connecting the basement to the first floor of ABBCO Bakery in Leichhardt is blocked solid. Collapsed office chairs, timber boards, and building debris have wedged into the opening, and the concrete block walls surrounding it are covered from floor to ceiling in layered graffiti tags. Broken furniture spreads across the ground floor. A low concrete ceiling presses down over it all. When Brett Patman photographed the building in 2015, the factory had been abandoned for some time. The basement, by then, held old mattresses and discarded furniture, with water covering the floor whenever it rained. Upper levels had become a dumping ground for doors and other building materials. The company that built the operation here was Abbco Bread Co Pty Ltd, a continuation of the NSW State Bakery established at Stanmore in 1914 to regulate bread prices during wartime. Sold into private hands around 1925, it became ABBCO and moved into a far larger operation. By 1973, the Leichhardt factory ran two roll machines producing six thousand dozen rolls an hour, with bread travelling through a 65-foot oven before being conveyed around the ceiling on belts for a 50- to 60-minute cooling period. Around 100 bread varieties were distributed across Sydney through 22 retail shops and wholesale channels. The Baking Trade Employees' Union secretary, Reg Boys, described it that year as the biggest independent bakery in Australia. In September 1974, bakers here produced what was claimed to be the longest loaf of bread in the world, baked on a 140-foot tray for the Freedom from Hunger Campaign and carried through the city streets by apprentices to Martin Place. By 2015 the oven was cold and the belts were gone. The building was demolished not long after this photograph was made.