Queenstown Bakery Closes

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31908, 8 February 1969, Page 14

Queenstown Bakery Closes

"The Press" special service

DUNEDIN, Feb. 7.

The doling of the Queenstown bakery, owned by Mr R. C. Robins, marks the end of a business which has supplied the area with bread for more than 100 years.

Mr Robins is a well-known personality in Queenstown, having served for 18 years on the Queenstown Borough Council. He was acting mayor in 1932 and 1953, and mayor from 1956 until 1962. The first bakery business in the Queenstown area was established at Moke Creek by Francoise St Omar, a Frenchman who came to New Zealand from Australia. However, this business failed, and he set up a new bakery on the present site at Queenstown. Mr St Omar later became mayor of Queenstown and held the post for 15 years. At the age of nine Mr Robins began work as a message boy for the St Omar brothers, Francois, jun., and Alfred.

In 1927, when the bakery was sold to the late Mr D. R. Hamilton, a baker from Motherwell in Scotland, Mr Robins began his apprenticeship, and he took over the business in February, 1939. In July and August of that year Queenstown had one of its heaviest snowfalls and

access to Queenstown was blocked on both the Cromwell and Lumsden roads. Having no supplies of yeast for bread-making, Mr Robins had to keep his customers supplied with scones until yeast deliveries could be made.

In September, 1939, the outbreak of war brought many problems to the bakery, including staff and supply shortages, but the scheelite boom at Glenorcby resulted in a big increase in customers, and bread was sent regularly by the steamer Earnslaw. After the war there was a marked increase in tourism, which was the beginning of a build-up that Queenstown has known ever since. In 1964 Mr Robins found it necessary to extend both his shop and bakery. “These were busy times, especially in the school holidays and the skiing season, and often I worked as long as 22 hours a day,” Mr Robins said.

Many visitors to Queenstown have praised the local bread and queues outside the shop were not uncommon. Being close to the lake, the bakery has been flooded on at least two occasions. In 1924 several inches of water flooded the bakery, forcing Mr Robins to work in gumboots for several days. Conditions became so bad that a temporary site was taken at the back of what is now the Oasis milkbar. In 1957 floodwaters again came into the bakery, and great quantities of flour had to be raised above the flood level.

"Coping with the holiday trade was only made possible by the assistance given to me, both in the shop and bakery, by my wife and family. Without their help I would not have been able to keep up supplies to the public, as I have always endeavoured to do," he said.