General News
22 May, 2026
End of an era for Higgins’ Parkview Bakery
Parkview Bakery owners Garry and Julie Higgins will soon retire after more than three decades in the trade.
Parkview Bakery owners Garry and Julie Higgins have hung up their aprons for the last time ahead of retirement.
Next week will be the couple’s last at the helm of Maryborough’s busiest bakery following more than three decades in the trade.
After a short stint in the late 1980s opposite Princes Park, they brought the business name and lessons learned to Tuaggra Street in 1994 where they’ve been ever since.
Mrs Higgins said, chuckling to herself, that their original plan was to retire after a decade.
“I’m proud of what we’ve done, and I’ve enjoyed it to a point, but it’s time,” she said.
Across the decades they’ve made well-over a million pies alongside coffees, sausage rolls, and pasties all measured in hundreds of thousands sold.
“People love a pie,” Mrs Higgins said, despite not liking them herself.
They’re numbers that can overshadow the difficult reality of small business — dating back to their first bakery in Leopold.
“I cried every day for three months because I had no idea,” Mrs Higgins said.
But they persevered, later renovating their current location in Maryborough and expanding to St Arnaud in 2001.
The challenges that followed inspired Mr Higgins to form a think tank with other independent bakers for shared support.
“We probably undervalue what we’ve done and what we’ve achieved because there’s nobody standing behind you to prop you up in small business,” Mr Higgins said.
But the couple’s legacy is more than pies, it’s advocacy, and an idea that people would come to Parkview Bakery because they feel safe.
Whether it’s advocating for marriage equality, or against domestic violence, or broader contributions to the community — their impact is far reaching.
“It’s been a home of activism in Maryborough,” Mr Higgins said.
It’s a philosophy that seems to have worked with people making the bakery a part of their daily routine or the place for special occasions both good and bad.
“You become part of people’s lives,” he said.
But a new chapter approaches for the couple, one of travelling and fewer responsibilities, which Mrs Higgins said will be unfamiliar.
“It’s hard to visualise,” she said.
What isn’t hard to visualise for the couple though is the support they’ve recieved over the years and the lifelong friends they have made along the way.
“We just want to thank our customers and our staff because it’s been a great ride,” she said.