Inarrabri

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Feature
Barry Britten - Pilliga
“My intention after I left school was to
join the police force. My father being a
policeman, I was going into the cadets.
He said to me “No, get a trade, you must
have a trade. If things go wrong after
you join the force you’ve always have
a trade to fall back on.” The only trade
that was offering at the time was a bak-
ery. A chap by the name of Bob Sloco-
mbe, Philip Street in West Tamworth. I
started as an apprentice with Slocombe.”
“After my baking was completed and
I was a fully qualified master baker I
headed off to Sydney to put my hand
up to join the police force. When I got
down there at the recruiting centre, the
first thing they did was put me on the
scales and run a tape down from my
head and I was less than half an inch
short of the five feet nine required to
join the force. It was a no go, I was out.”
“It was knocked on the head as far as the
police force was concerned so I came
home a bit disgruntled. I went back to
work for another couple of years in the
bakery and the bakery at Pilliga came
up for sale so I thought, I’ll head to
Pilliga. I was twenty three when I went
into the bakery at Pilliga and thirty odd
years later I decided I’d had enough.”
“During that time I reared a couple of
boys, I lost a daughter, had a lot of fun
fishing, shooting, you name it. I learned
to fly an aircraft so I I could go for a
quick holiday and get back in time to
put the bread through.
I was very proud of it, actually, I put
out a really good loaf of bread and pies.
Still known as the Pilliga pie. Sausage
rolls, cakes, the works. Wood fired brick
ovens and I cut all my own wood. Used
about a ton and a half a week. That was
good times.”
“Several years after I’d got out of the
bakery I was walking up the street at
Kempsey late one afternoon or early
into the night. There was a bakery just
off the bridge in Kempsey and they had
just started rolling some doughs up. So
I went over to help and started scaling
the dough off for them. I got too far in
front so a starting to roll them. My arms
started to ache and ache and I thought,
‘My goodness!” These fellows wanted
me back but I told them I couldn’t feel
my arms and they weren’t getting me
back”
photo: John Burgess
Words & Photography by Namoi based
professional photographer, John Burgess.
To contact John, phone 0423 690 586 or via Humans of the Namoi
16 | iNarrabri Magazine | November 2016