Morrall’s bakery surviving lockdown

Sharon Donn offers service with a smile at Morrall’s Bakery. PHOTO TWH

The support of locals has helped one of Bourke’s iconic businesses survive the COVID-19 lockdown.

Morrall’s Bakery not only saw out the downturn, but owner John Milgate also managed to launch a new bread product and he has retained the same staff members he had before the crisis hit in March.

It has been a story of overcoming the odds and luckily, Bourke can still boast one of the oldest bakeries still operating in the state.

John said it had been Bourke’s loyal customers that had enabled the bakery to survive.

“It has not been as bad as I thought it would be. We lost our trade in lunches and sit-down breakfasts of course but the locals have been fantastic in supporting the business,” he said.

“We’re still selling plenty of coffee and pies and luckily this has all coincided with the pie season. We’re down about 40 per cent on what we were trading last year, which would probably cover the tourists that are not coming through.

Read more in the printed edition of the Western Herald.