Jimmy Long’s Bakery

Bakeries have long been an important institution in small towns, and in the Mallee it was no different. They were often the first business to be set up and would sometimes allow settlers to bake their own bread. They even had travelling carts to sell their wares.

Early Mallee bakers had their own challenges. They dealt with unpredictable water supply, weather, and flour quality.

This didn’t stop the pioneering spirit of the Long family, who ran their Swan Hill bakery from 1874 until the early 1900s. Thomas Long started the store, but died just two years later. Amazingly, his wife Elspeth kept the bakery going at the same time as raising the couple’s children — two-year-old Jimmy and baby Susan. When Jimmy was old enough he took over the bakery until the family moved to Melbourne around 1913.

Jimmy Long’s at The Pioneer Settlement was set up as a tribute to this stoic Mallee family and was once a working bakery too.

In the bakery, you can also spot our 19th-century aerated water machine and a traditional wood-fired oven.