Rear Mezzanine

The rear mezzanine of the ABBCO Bakery in Leichhardt is coated in dust, exposed steel beams crossing overhead and a metal handrail tracing the mezzanine edge, paint peeling away from the walls in layers that record decades of use. Light comes through grimy windows and goes nowhere in particular. The floor is undisturbed. The factory at Darley Road in Leichhardt was operated by Abbco Bread Co Pty Ltd, a company whose origins trace to the NSW State Bakery established at Stanmore in 1914 to regulate bread supply and prevent wartime profiteering. When the government sold the Stanmore bakery around 1925, it passed into private hands and continued as the Automatic Bread Baking Company, ABBCO. By at least 1941, the company was operating the Leichhardt facility, and by August 1973, the secretary of the Baking Trade Employees' Union of NSW described it as the biggest independent bakery in Australia. At its peak the factory ran two roll machines producing six thousand dozen rolls per hour, moved bread through a 65-foot oven, and cooled loaves on ceiling-mounted conveyer belts over a 50 to 60 minute cycle before slicing and wrapping for distribution. Around 100 types of bread left the building for 22 retail shops and wholesale customers across Sydney. In September 1974, ABBCO bakers produced what was claimed to be the longest loaf of bread in the world for the Freedom from Hunger Campaign, baked on a 140-foot tray, twisted into a U-shape to fit through city streets, and displayed at Martin Place. By the time Brett Patman photographed the building on 8 November 2015, it was abandoned. The upper levels had become a dumping ground. The mezzanine, the oven runs, the conveyer systems: all quiet. The factory has since been demolished.