Makers at Bakers

Arcitecta in the Archives

All history, all stories, begin with data. Crystallised moments, images, artefacts, or experiences. As data experts we acknowledge the importance of archiving and ensuring the data from which all history is borne remains secure, accessible, and pure.

Acknowledging historiography as a practice combining the creative efforts of generating meaning, and the analytical faculties of research, highlights the ongoing dialogue between the malleable and the concrete, the artistic and the scientific.

The following is a presentation of an ongoing enquiry into the history of our Northcote office, and we invite you to remain inquisitive, for it is as much a piece of artifice as any scholarly history, and as such, is open to revision upon the discovery of new sources and new narratives.

Hodges, Halsey, and Hauser

William D. Hodges’ purchase of an allotment from John McMahon signified the beginnings of Little Bakers Lane. By building a bakery and a residence, Hodges set this once undeveloped allotment on a path of industry, on a path of attempts, failures, and successes. For over a century Little Bakers Lane has been home to some of the most ambitious business endeavours in the history of Australian production.

In 1898, Seventh Day Adventist Edward Halsey used the then-called St George’s Park Bakery to produce health foods. Notably a plant-based replacement for meat and butter, ‘nut butter’, which became the peanut butter we know today. Melbourne was not yet ready for these American products, which led to Halsey relocating to Cooranbong, NSW. Though Halsey’s tenure was short, it marked an important moment in the history of processed foods in Australia, being the very first bakery for the Sanitarium Health Food Agency.

Breaking Traditions:
Hauser’s Automatic Bread Factory

Initially operating under his own name, Hauser’s bakery was then run by Taylor McMillan Pty Ltd from 1933 and was later known as the Northcote Vienna Bakery from 1945. After years of operation, the work eventually downscaled, and the property was sold off in 1954.

Bread produced under these various names was supplied to the Kew Mental Hospital, the Children’s Welfare Depot at Royal Park, and the Teacher’s College, Carlton, among others.

Hauser’s bakery was one of the first to champion the advantages of automation, allowing him to produce bread cheaper and faster than his peers, much to their chagrin.