The Farina Bakery, located in the rural South Australian town of Farina, opens for a limited period of time each year—just eight weeks. The bakery has been operated in this way since 2013, manned by a team of volunteers who form part of the Farina Restoration Group.

This year, Farina Bakery has been open since May 27 and will close on July 23. Chair of the Farina Restoration Group, Bill Brock, estimates that the bakery will see up to 12,000 visitors during this time.

Typically, Farina Bakery is frequented by travellers who are passing through on their way to popular regional festivals like the Big Red Bash, the Marree Camel Cup, and the Finke Desert Race.

Down greatly in population since its mid-1900s hey-day, Farina, which used to lie on the Ghan railway line, is a skeleton of what it once was. This necessitates the presence of volunteers to run not only the bakery, but also various other restoration projects and attractions that take place there.

“[The bakery is] run by volunteers and is one of our major fundraising activities. We have around 40 volunteers a week, and the come from everywhere,” Bill told Glam Adelaide.

All of the bread, pies, pastries, and other treats that Farina Bakery produces during its eight-week run every year used to be made in the Underground Oven, now they are made in the recently rebuilt wood-fired oven that is headed by burning Mulga Wood sourced from Farina’s old fence posts.

This doesn’t mean that the Underground Oven will be out of commission, as the volunteers will be down there this year to ensure the site remains active.