Sally Roxon and Christian Gattermayr’s Austro Bakery has been in the same South Melbourne shopfront on Cecil Street since 2018. But tomorrow, Tuesday March 26, will be the Austrian-inspired bakery’s last day in the south.

Roxton tells Broadsheet that the Austro team has been baking from a factory in North Melbourne for the last four months, producing goods for wholesale orders and for the South Melbourne store. They’ll open a retail section in the North Melbourne factory in the coming months, so fans of Austro’s pillowy focaccia and dreamy danishes won’t have to wait too long to get their fix.

“I love the fact that you can see where the product you’re buying is being made. I think it gives a lot of integrity to the product,” Roxton tells Broadsheet. “We’ve decided to have a bit of a shake up and go to the next chapter of Austro.”

We think you might like Access. For $12 a month, join our membership program to stay in the know.

SIGN UP

In part, the decision was also made to keep her team’s connection to the community it serves strong and keep work meaningful. “People don’t generally like working in factories where they don’t get to see the customer enjoy their product, and we felt that if we want to have good staff who will stay, they need to see that.”

Austro South Melbourne will have its last day on Tuesday March 25, 2024.